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What’s a Wealth Tax Worth? Warren and Sanders’s plans to pilfer savings would hurt investment
Wall Street Journal ^ | October 13, 2019 | Andy Kessler

Posted on 10/14/2019 5:51:11 AM PDT by karpov

Why do liberals think rich people have money just lying around, like Scrooge McDuck swimming in a giant pool of gold coins? That’s the myth behind plans to tax Americans’ wealth, as Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders both propose.

Ms. Warren wants an annual asset tax of 2% on households worth more than $50 million, and 3% if you’re worth more than $1 billion. Mr. Sanders would tax “extreme wealth” starting at 1% on households worth $32 million and topping out at 8% on those worth $10 billion or more. Whereas the Soviets confiscated wealth virtually overnight, at least Bernie will take a dozen or so years to pilfer most of your savings.

University of California, Berkeley professors Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman estimate that Mr. Sanders’s tax would raise $4.35 trillion over 10 years, while Ms. Warren’s would raise $2.75 trillion. But something seems fishy—oh, Messrs. Saez and Zucman advise both campaigns on their wealth-tax plans. I doubt they account properly for how levies on wealth would shrink the tax base. Can we get some outside audits please?

Even setting comical revenue projections aside, the wealth-tax idea doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Never mind that it’s likely unconstitutional. Or that a wealth tax is triple taxation, heaped on top of a 21% corporate tax plus 20% capital-gains tax when someone sells shares to pay it. (I concede that it definitely would provide lifetime employment for tax lawyers.)

The most preposterous part of the wealth-tax plans is their supporters’ insistence that they would be good for the economy. Only in an upside-down world could anyone think “a wealth tax is pro-growth,” as a New York Times columnist has claimed.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: California; US: Delaware; US: Massachusetts; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: 2020election; andykessler; berniesanders; clowncar; delaware; election2020; elizabethwarren; fauxahontas; incometaxes; joebiden; joeclowncarbiden; massachusetts; sanders; slingingbull; taxcutsandjobsact; taxreform; tcja; vermont; warren; wealthtax
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1 posted on 10/14/2019 5:51:11 AM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

Warren taking on Facebook surely can’t go over well.

What will CEO do when Biden has to drop out and Warren is the nominee.


2 posted on 10/14/2019 5:53:15 AM PDT by RummyChick ("Pills, money .. this city is wicked. Your best friend will kill you here." Smoove about Baltimore)
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To: karpov

Take ALL of the assets of the top 100 people in America and you still won’t dent the national debt.


3 posted on 10/14/2019 5:55:06 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: karpov

And how long before the threshold tax rate would creep down “just a little” every year. Commy pink useless bastards and bastartetts.


4 posted on 10/14/2019 5:55:41 AM PDT by Meadow Muffin
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To: RummyChick

Maybe Zuckerschmuck would do with another Facebook insider did just before the stock IPO, change his nationality.


5 posted on 10/14/2019 5:55:54 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: karpov

Is it actually possible to read more at the WSJ w/o an account?


6 posted on 10/14/2019 5:58:27 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: karpov
Why do liberals think rich people have money just lying around, like Scrooge McDuck swimming in a giant pool of gold coins? That’s the myth behind plans to tax Americans’ wealth

Once the socialists get going, you will be AMAZED at who they decide for tax purposes is "RICH".

Americans have the lowest savings rate of the developed world and this plan would make that drop to zero.

7 posted on 10/14/2019 6:01:38 AM PDT by The Sons of Liberty (Takedown My Duly Elected President and You're Attacking The Constitution! IT WILL BE DEFENDED!)
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To: karpov

Savings are the basis of capital formation and investment. When the socialists seize and consume savings, they scuttle growth and investments that are motivated by the incentive of profit. The result is obsolescence and poverty. Poverty is the fate of any entity that embraces socialism.


8 posted on 10/14/2019 6:03:29 AM PDT by allendale (.)
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To: karpov
(from the article):" The most preposterous part of the wealth-tax plans is their supporters’ insistence
that they would be good for the economy.
Only in an upside-down world could anyone think “a wealth tax is pro-growth,” as a New York Times columnist has claimed."

This article source appears to be from the Wall Street Journal. Consider the source.
After looting investment monies, wealth and pensions, what is left for 'growth'. Nothing.
These people expect us to accept a new Venezuela-like debt with no future investment?
Expect to share the Socialist misery when the money runs out and infrastructure collapses.
It's their idea of a 'New Green Deal' based on debt.

9 posted on 10/14/2019 6:05:49 AM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt
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To: a fool in paradise

From each according to thier means to each according to thier needs


10 posted on 10/14/2019 6:11:08 AM PDT by gibsonguy
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To: a fool in paradise

Everyone w/ that kind of wealth will move to a country that will welcome them w/ open arms and not tax them to death.

Tax the rich
feed the poor
till there are
no rich no more

When these people move, they take their down demand for other services w/ them


11 posted on 10/14/2019 6:12:41 AM PDT by Jimmy The Snake
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To: RummyChick

I’m not going to shed one tear for Fakebook nor for any other corporation that has sidled up to Democrats.

They have made a conscious decision to play nice with the tiger, hoping it would eat them last. Last meal time is almost here.

Warren reflects what the base of that party actually wants, and soon they’ll be in a position to implement it.


12 posted on 10/14/2019 6:12:52 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
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To: karpov

I want to be licensed as an appraiser for the IRS.

I have to believe that the graft coming to those guys will be out of this world. It would be like being a “sin eater.”

Sign me up.


13 posted on 10/14/2019 6:20:14 AM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: a fool in paradise

Or move everything...and I mean everything, off shore.

Then move all your assets into someone untraceable, like gold. Move some into crypto assets and mail that to a depository off shore.

In the end, he will be as broke and you and me.


14 posted on 10/14/2019 6:21:37 AM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: gibsonguy

From each according to their ABILITY to each according to their needs.


15 posted on 10/14/2019 6:32:47 AM PDT by Kozak (DIVERSITY+PROXIMITY=CONFLICT)
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To: karpov

Do you really think millionaires and billionaires would stay in America if they were to be taxed at such a high rate? They will all leave and the rest of us would pick up the cost.


16 posted on 10/14/2019 6:53:09 AM PDT by Singermom
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To: a fool in paradise

They would get more money if they proposed to tax the bottom almost 50% of people who pay no taxes and take away IRS welfare checks, EITC.
I know it’s a pipe dream but I would really like more people to have the responsibility of paying taxes. Neither Dems or Repubs want to touch that.


17 posted on 10/14/2019 7:19:27 AM PDT by sheana
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To: karpov

When these idiots get in (likely in 2028), they are going to come for the 401k’s.


18 posted on 10/14/2019 7:34:28 AM PDT by mykroar (Congratulations President Trump)
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To: karpov

Unintended consequence: invested money will evaporate, causing skyrocketing interest rates for poor (among others). Borrowing money will be very expensive, as “the rich” dump their liquid cash into stable/appreciating assets outside measurable norms, instead of loaning it to others such that it’s recorded as “wealth”. Housing markets will shrink drastically, as mortgage rates rise so high people will (generally) only buy homes they can actually afford, vs bank their future on paying for.


19 posted on 10/14/2019 7:57:49 AM PDT by ctdonath2 (Specialization is for insects.)
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To: mykroar
When these idiots get in (likely in 2028), they are going to come for the 401k’s.

Yup. Theresa Ghilarducci's "most dangerous" plan from the New School. Achieves two objectives for them.

1) Gives them a huge slush fund with which to cover the shortfalls in all of the government and union pension plans out there.

2) Gives government HUGE indirect control over the business community by making them the de-facto largest stockholder.


20 posted on 10/14/2019 8:22:21 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
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