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Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by zozbot234 on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @12:20PM (#24200595)
A mildly-punitive tax on high levels of personal consumption (including imputed consumption. such as business owners using business assets for private use, etc.) would seem to be a lot less distortionary and more socially-beneficial than a punitive tax on wealth, and just as politically sensible. What it doesn't have, unfortunately, is the raw appeal of soundbites like "soak the rich!" and "you didn't build that!".
Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by codekansas on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @03:06PM (#24202878)
There's a cool related video of Greg Mankiw [0]. He talked about two "redistribution" schemes:

1. $1000 per month to those with zero income, phased out at 20c / dollar extra income, financed by 20% tax on all income above $60k 2. Transfer of $1000 per month to everyone, financed by 20% flat tax on income

Apparently a group of Harvard students he asked were strongly in favor of the former, without realizing that the two plans are equivalent. It's all about framing.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cL8kM0fXQc