What people don't understand about taxing the rich

"It's just about punishing wealthy people for being wealthy. It has nothing to do with, with even raising tax revenue," argues Peter Suderman

---
Subscribe to the Reason Roundtable:

[SailAway]

The politicians think of money and taxes just like freedom and restrictive laws. The less you have of it the less they need to worry about you.

[mjss]

I moved from one state to another over $10K annual cost of living. To think people with much more wouldn't is just stupid.

[coin__]

Wealth taxes are a real band-aid solution to the stitches problem of government spending…

[rolyars]

Government greed = corporate greed. Since 2008 the private asset market floats on massive liquidity from the state and especially central banks (due to QE).

[RobDeHaven]

I’ve been noticing and thinking a lot lately about how the views of the general US population believes or has been led to believe that the rich are the enemy and that creating a wealth tax will in someway even the playing field. The real issue as I see it isn’t the wealthy people but the fact that we live in a country that has a multitiered system which the rich benefit from the most. For example, the ability for large corporations to have such influence on public policy which not only directly benefits them but also keeps the politicians in office they rely on to provide these benefits is the real problem. A few possible solutions come to mind. Term limits for congressional seats, limit campaign contributions by placing a cap on them, and prohibit super pacs just to name a few. The American people need to study history and realize in the late 1800’s government corruption was just as bad as now but some of it was removed by smart Presidents.

[jtwilliams]

Agreeing to tax the rich relentlessly is the first step to taxing everyone, relentlessly. All that dedicated statists have is to blame the greed of the private sector. $35 trillion in debt, and printing away the value of saver’s money, is as greedy as it gets. I think public sector pensions should be reduced before social security is reduced, but that’s just me

[ludwigvonsowell]

We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.

Tax revenues have never exceeded 20% of GDP in the US. No matter how we’ve tried to slice it.

[AFunnyUsername]

I work in affordable housing - all the taxes/fees/affordable requirements just get passed to middle-class renters as higher rents. Investors either hit their return or just don't invest.

They pretend they're taxing the rich, while young middle class are getting fleeced

[mattrex]

I teach at a state University. Why should I be expected to work for 30+ years and never get a raise?

[pjbth]

This is a masterclass on Strawman Arguments

[homewall]

Government taxes should never be higher than 10% -- a tithe -- or you know it's greedy and a thief.

[swolebro]

Well, however much money Bezos saved, Uncle Sam is still gonna take 40% of it when he dies. How can politicians say there isn't a wealth tax when the government takes almost half of wealthy estates? It's not even something I have to worry about (the cutoff is something crazy, around $13M), but just hearing about the government taking all that money (to fund them killing randos in countries we don't belong in) makes me queasy.

[wcooman]

All unions, both public & private, exist to ensure their continued existence. Period. No different than the dnc & gop.

[MathiasYmagnus]

I thought public sector unions were banned by federal law because of national security? I.E. airport employees going on strike and world wide transit could stop for a certain region /etc

[theartist]

lol - first ridiculous thing was “public sector unions” - you people are nuts - unions benefit workers - and taxpayers bail out the rich all the time

[orangeofmars]

This is a very unprofessional group. I am married to a Teacher and we can't afford the boat and have never heard anyone discussing we need the IVF embryos to be taxpayers so we can afford the boat. These 4 take the Reason out of ReasonTV. This group spent over 5 minutes of 8.28 minutes bashing Teachers and Unions rather than getting to the point of Wealth Tax. Yesterday I subscribed to ReasonTV thinking it was a good channel. I just now unsubscribed.

[Knardsh]

Plz discuss the examples of when the wealth tax didn’t work in other countries

[Notrocketscience]

If you had 6 million dollars in front of you in denominations that would make that stack 1 foot high, Bezo’s 200 billion stack would reach the altitude of the airplanes you can barely see that make the contrails. Clearly all these billionaires get a windfall amount of money by being first into a very uncompetitive environment.

[stefanschwalenberg]

If not by taxes, then how do we limit the ability of the insanely wealthy to keep the politicians in their back pockets, making policies that benefit mainly them, whilst screwing over just about everyone else?

[TheManInRoomFive]

Really? Teachers and Police are the greedy ones? Have you looked at government spending on defense, healthcare etc.?
Kind regards from Denmark.