Either way - I think we fundamtally agree that there needs to be more tax on the rich, be it investments, wealth tax, inheritance, or that sort of thing.
I am not (here) worried about it being regressive: I am worried about it being yet another mechanism for the state to take a larger fraction of GDP (about 2½% in 1900; almost 20% at the height of the Second World War; about 17% now, according to Wikipedia).
> Either way - I think we fundamtally agree that there needs to be more tax on the rich, be it investments, wealth tax, inheritance, or that sort of thing.
I certainly don't! I agree that we need a government; I agree that we need taxes to fund the government (I disagree with those who think that we can fund the government on a voluntary basis); I agree that taxes need to be fair in some sense.
I suspect that fairer taxes would be higher for the middle classes, to be honest. Certainly the countries with effective welfare states seem to have more taxes on the middle than the U.S. does.
The very first U.S. income tax, imposed during the Civil War (the nation's bloodiest conflict), was 3% on income over $12,720, rising all the way to 5% on income over $159,000 (in 2020 dollars). This was unconstitutional at the time, and was eventually repealed.
The first income tax imposed after the ratification of the 16th Amendment was 1% on income over $78,510, with an additional 6% on income over $26,170,000 (2020 dollars).
The current U.S. income tax ranges from 10% to 37%, with a standard deduction of at least $12,200. There are also payroll taxes under FICA, which are even more.
I recount all this riveting history as evidence for my contention that there is absolutely no way that a wealth tax would remain at 1% for anything above $50 million. I guarantee that within a few years to decades most citizens would be required to pay wealth taxes, and that they would amount to a considerable amount even before taking into account their compounding nature.
> This means that there is a floor on how "poor" the government can make you via a wealth tax.
The only floor is zero: a government can, if it chooses, take everything from its subjects — or just from some of them.