From Germany, a bold political push for a billionaire-free future | Hacker News Reader

From Germany, a bold political push for a billionaire-free future

inequality.org

11 pointsgeox10 comments

Germany collected a wealth tax until 1995 when the highest court pointed out that the valuation of real estate property needs overhauling. The then CDU/CSU-FDP government decided to nothing about it and the wealth tax hence couldn't be collected but the law is still in place. All it takes is some small repair.

All this talk of poverty, but will no one think of the poor captains of industry whose wealth is being unjustly stripped from them? Whose runaway wealth accumulation, no doubt a product of their superior intellect and genetics and grit, is being unfairly curtailed in order to feed worthless parasites? How can we expect anyone to be entrepreneurial when once they achieve a modicum of success, they receive a huge slap in the face penalizing their success? Oh, the horror. AfD represents a sane world where, with enough startup capital and can-do attitude, anyone can become the modern equivalent of a feudal lord, as Father Nature intended.

A wealth tax sounds like a great way to push all the wealthy out of the country or make them find ways to hide their wealth. Any global economist experts here have any ideas what unintended consequences may result from this?

Let's not even try then!

What happens if enough countries implement a progressive tax?

Billionaires make money off control of land, labor, and money. If they don't pay enough taxes back into the system that sustains their game, and if they don't colonize Mars (etc) quickly enough, the jig's up.

I and most (all?) other "poors" don't need power/resources/money concentrated under a small percentage of individuals. They need us, though, to support the pyramid.

Not sure if you confused progressive tax with something else:

> Most systems around the world contain progressive aspects. When taxable income falls within a particular tax bracket, the individual pays the listed percentage of tax on each dollar that falls within that monetary range.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_tax#Examples

The article though mentioned progressive tax: "In 1917, for instance, a bold group of American progressives proposed a tax rate of 100 percent on annual income over $100,000, the equivalent of nearly $2.5 million in today’s dollars. A generation later, in 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to place that same 100-percent tax rate on America’s most affluent."

I don't think a progressive wealth tax (100% over 999 million leaves every billioniare with plenty of month) would stand the courts, but a high 90% for income over say a million would stand and not unreasonable in times of high state debt. The net hourly rate of someone with that income (and workload?) would still be an absurd multiple of the minimum wage per hour.

We find people all the time who have committed crimes. We can’t find wealth? To own something, others must know and respect you own it. It is a shared delusion.

>We find people all the time who have committed crimes.

The murder clearance rate is only 50% in the US, and that's with relatively dumb people committing the murders. The rich on the other hand have Ivy League tax lawyers and accountants to optimize/obfuscate their wealth.

A perfect system does not exist, simply one that does and can continually improve is needed. Perfect is impossible, and hardly a reasonable target.

Most parts of Switzerland, France, Spain (though only 2023-2025 to counter inflation), Norway, India, Lichtenstein, Japan, Luxembourg (only legal entities), Greece all currently have a wealth tax (according to de.wikipedia.org). It's a broad enough mix to counter your claim that a wealth tax would push all wealthy out of the country.

To counter the wealth tax you have to invest with a potential higher return, thus forcing the wealthy to spend it on other thing than yet another car or boat that just sits idle.

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