Re:Super-rich have at least $21 trillion hidden in tax havens
by lvh on Sunday July 22, 2012 @01:48PM
(#4277941)
It's a terrible way to compare the two things, since you're fundamentally measuring something completely different.
If you really want to compare it to something, why not compare it to the public debt the US holds, which the suggested number would do more than fill (current public debt is somewhere a bit north of 15T); especially since the argument is made by the people who instigated the study that taxing this figure could balance the books (it probably couldn't; since only a fraction of that is actually subject to US taxes, and most of it would probably only end up being due for capital gains taxes anyway -- not that it wouldn't go a long way).
If you really want to compare it to something, why not compare it to the public debt the US holds, which the suggested number would do more than fill (current public debt is somewhere a bit north of 15T); especially since the argument is made by the people who instigated the study that taxing this figure could balance the books (it probably couldn't; since only a fraction of that is actually subject to US taxes, and most of it would probably only end up being due for capital gains taxes anyway -- not that it wouldn't go a long way).