Wealth Tax

Most Democratic presidential candidates want to massively increase the income tax rate on the rich. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders want to start to start confiscating their assets. They euphemistically call it a wealth tax. Sanders made it clear that he wants nobody to be a billionaire.

Obviously, it’s hard to be sympathetic with the ultrarich. If these policies are put into effect, future Apples, Googles, Amazons and Facebooks won’t be American companies. The millions of jobs will be created elsewhere.

Warren and Sanders talk about the trillions of dollars that will be raised. They assume that those affected will quietly pay the money. They will find loopholes. A couple can get divorced and pay less taxes. Some may elect to move out of the country. This has been going on in Europe for decades.

This tax would be extraordinarily hard to administer. It’s easy to value publicly traded stocks and bonds. Coming up with a value for privately held businesses, real estate and collectibles is virtually impossible.
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Margaret Thatcher said “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money”. Once the wealth in a country is destroyed, you end up with places like Venezuela. Capitalism is certainly not perfect but socialism would put us on a road to ruin.