General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: We should tax wealth apart from income...and put a backstop to prevent capital flight [View all]OutNow
(864 posts)Wow, this discussion brings out the same sort of sentiment that you see from Republicans who, while not rich, seem to think they will be rich some day. Listen - you are not going to be a multimillionaire - you are not going to own paintings worth millions of dollars - you will benefit from a tax on wealth.
It is not nearly as complicated as many believe. Florida already has a wealth tax. Most European countries have a wealth tax. There are smart tax folks who can figure out how to write the legislation. I don't feel sorry for the top 5% of the people who will have to hire an accountant to define how wealthy they are. 99% of the people on DU can calculate their wealth in less than minutes.
Socialists believe in the redistribution of wealth. This is a basic tenet. Of course there have been a variety of ways to implement redistribution. One extreme on the socialist spectrum is wealth confiscation with no compensation (like the Russians and Cubans have done). A wealth tax is a mild measure that can be done via legislation just like progressive income tax.
I'm in favor of it. We can decide the tax rate and cutoff points later.