I think sales and VAT taxes are bad ideas, what you seemed to describe sinij was a sales tax since you said spend.

Though I still obviously disagree with you on the causes and ramifications of wealth.

One of my biggest problems with your scenario regarding eliminating any and all ultra rich is what means do you use to do so. If you start raising income taxes extremely high, what about corporate taxes? Its pretty easy to use corporate tax structure to just keep your money in the company, and have company cars, planes, houses, etc. This is common in parts of the world with high personal tax rates but more reasonable corporate tax rates.

Though in some respects you could argue that as a good thing. In countries and cultures and periods of US history where personal wealth was tied up in the company - it kept the principle owners very engaged, and the management very motivated. Unlike todays world of looting the shareholders and escaping via golden parachute. In the past if you lost your company you could lose everything. You still can if you are small business, but the people at the heart of this discussion find ways to make millions no matter what happens.

But nonetheless, it still does not address the "problem" ( I will assume it is a problem for the sake of this discussion ) of concentration of wealth. All extreme personal progressive taxation does in that regard is alter the way the well off use legal structures.

If you start making corp tax rates extremely high and start messing around with corporate legal structures... then you really start to directly impact competitiveness. Even the more "socialist" countries have far lower corporate tax rates than the US. And before you start talking about the loopholes, using foreign countries is a big part of many of those. Other stem from various sorts of political corruption. Plus the legal/accountant manpower required to pull it off is not cheap either. Even Google , which is a partisan leftist company uses foreign tax havens and says they are necessary in the current environment.

Perhaps an argument could be made that personal tax rates on wealthier individuals should go up while corporate rates should go down? Of course certain loopholes being closed would have to coincide with a lessening of the tax burden.


I think there are issues with that argument as well,I think the only answer is lessening federal expenditure. The reality is, that even if the left was correct regarding vastly increased social spending is that social spending will never see efficient increases... it will either be industry-sponsored big govt pork like Obamacare , but even more likely is future revenues will just continue to feed the police state.

For who could be free when every other man's humour might domineer over him? - John Locke (2nd Treatise, sect 57)