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Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by ianmobbs on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @05:34PM (#24204620)
It is silly. Your example isn't even about a wealth tax, it's about an inheritance tax. Sweden has a 30% Capital Gains tax (likely the vehicle for any form of future wealth tax) and seems to be doing much better than the US.
Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by settrans on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @06:42PM (#24205210)
Is that right?

Sweden -- along with virtually all European countries other than Switzerland, Norway and Luxembourg -- have much poorer middle classes than most US states.

https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/if-sweden-left-the-eu-and-joi...

https://mises.org/wire/if-sweden-and-germany-became-us-state...

Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by D_Alex on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @11:10PM (#24206787)
Not sure what you mean by much poorer... in any case here is a list of European countries which have a higher median wealth per adult than the US, roughly in order of wealth per adult:

Switzerland, Iceland, Luxmbourg, Belgium, Ireland, France, UK, Spain, Austria, Italy, Malta, Norway.

If you go by mean wealth on the other hand, only Switzerland is higher than the US. But that is not a measure of middle class wealth.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_pe...

Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by jandrewrogers on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @11:53PM (#24206992)
A relevant factor is that the US has both a much higher income and a vastly lower savings rate than in Europe. Also, much of the wealth in Europe comes from hereditary property, which is not really a thing in the US. As a baseline, median Americans have much higher discretionary income than in Europe, so it is only savings habits that prevent many of them from accumulating wealth.

Americans with savings rates that are comparable to Europeans end up accumulating tremendous wealth over their careers, even in the middle class. This is offset by the majority that spend every penny. That Americans don’t save their prodigious income is an unfortunate artifact of having multiple generations of nearly unbroken prosperity.

Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by defnotashton2 on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @05:40PM (#24204674)
Not in terms of class mobility. Yes the floor is higher but try accumulating wealth in Sweden.
Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by amiga_500 on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @06:05PM (#24204898)
Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by kybernetikos on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @06:10PM (#24204943)
Normally class mobility is not thought of as equivalent to accumulating wealth. In some ways they're almost opposites.

Sweden typically ranks much higher on class mobility measures than the USA.

Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by twblalock on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @07:07PM (#24205407)
> Normally class mobility is not thought of as equivalent to accumulating wealth. In some ways they're almost opposites.

Accumulating wealth is the only way poor people can stop being poor. Of course it's related to class mobility.

Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by kybernetikos on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @05:59PM (#24217218)
Sure, they're related, but they are not equivalent and even oppose each other in some ways.

A society that emphasises wealth accumulation above all else will have the privileged accumulate so much wealth it'll be nearly impossible for the poor to catch up, no matter how talented or hardworking.

One way of measuring class mobility is looking at your liklihood of finishing your life in a higher 'class' (variously definied) than you started it, or than your parents had. With that kind of measure, Sweden does extremely well. Certainly much better than countries like the USA, which arguably do emphasise making the accumulation of wealth (when you already have a lot of it) easier.