Re:Wealth doesn't trickle down – it just floods offshore, re...
by JDiculous on Sunday April 10, 2016 @02:05PM
(#11467394)
(4) Tax land
Land is the largest source of unearned revenue (rent-seeking).
The more you tax of something, the less you get, usually to the detriment of society. The one thing this does not apply to is land.
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In theory I'm in support of taxing wealth and much prefer that to taxing income, but it's just too unrealistic. Wealth is so easy to hide (eg. offshore) and hard to value (since it's more than just counting money in the bank). The only plausible way I could see us taxing wealth effectively is if the world collectively got rid of physical cash and implemented negative interest rates on currency, but obviously that's not happening anytime soon.
If you think this is a bad idea, how else do suggest we redistribute the pool of capital to something more evenly distributed? Oversimplifying a bit but the choices are either, 1) Tax income 2) Tax wealth 3) Seize wealth.
Option #1 clearly isn't working as long term those with wealth (i.e. capital) grow their power, influence, and wealth further. Thus increasing the divide.
Option #3 doesn't work because there's an inherent "unfairness" to arbitrarily seizing the assets of others.
Option #2 has it's merits. Arguably a billionaire is getting a larger value from the security/tranquility of a peaceful existence than a pauper. Should the billionaire not pay more as a result? Think of it like negative interest rates but rather than doing it on just cash in the bank, it's on total assets. If I own a bunch of stores in a city, I arguably have more incentive to prevent riots and looting.