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> The reason we income instead of wealth, is that wealth can go up and down without the owner seeing any benefit.

I don't think a wealth tax is the right solution, a person that holds wealth definitely does derive a benefit from that wealth -> in the form of control (of a company), collateral (borrowing money at sub-inflation rates), and influence.

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Yeah, Totally I agree that wealth comes with benefits, even if it cant be spent. I am curious how the collateral works without with owner of wealth ever having to realize income. I suppose the way it could work is moving from loan to loan, using the newer ones to pay off the older ones. I wonder if there is some way to fix the tax codes to address this.

Check out Islam's Zakat, which has been proven to work. It's not a wealth tax per se as proposed by some foolish and unrealistic policies, but cash sitting in the bank is taxed at 2.5% (if it is above a certain threshold), and its proceedings go to the needy and poor, among others.

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