> I'll give you an example: from what I understand, Larry Ellison doesn't actually sell his stock in order to buy islands. He uses it as collateral to secure a loan. Those loans (something like 10 billion dollars worth at this point) can be spent/invested/leveraged, but it's not directly taxable because it's a loan.

Right, but if he converts money into land, the land does get taxed. Additionally, he pays a sales tax when he purchases the land.

> That's the kind of thing that you can do when you have a few billion. You don't even have to spend your own money. The net increase in the value of his real estate holdings is more than enough to pay the interest.

False. He is spending his own money, because he still pays back the loan. He borrows money, buys some land, then pays the loan back.