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Estate taxes. These were demonstrated effective at arresting, and even reversing the perpetual and compounding accumulation of wealth in a study that examined its concentration. |
Assuming that you would really have something even more powerful than that how big market distortion would you expect? Except of course aggressive tax planning (you know, these guys would have the best tax advisors)
Spending last few years of ones life on travelling around the world because anyway those money would be mostly taken by the gov sounds fair and reasonable, doesn't it?
Quote:
Furthermore, increasing taxes on capital gains and dividends for the rich would also help as this is their primary income source; there is no good reason for secondary market gains to be so heavily tax advantaged. Keeping them tax advantaged specifically for the middle class/poor continues to encourage investment among the lower socio-economic groups. Primary market capital gains should however be exempted from these increases in all cases; tax discounts on true venture capital investments are a good thing, and conducive to growth/constructive risk taking. I personally feel taxes here should be cut further. [...] I also agree that policies/registered accounts with inflation indexed annual limits, like the Canadian Tax Free Savings Account, that encourage saving and wealth accumulation are also great tools in this regard. An opt-in tax advantaged or free escrow system with likewise limits might even be better than the more fluid TFSA. Tax deductions for financial advice/consultation among the poor-middle class might also help diminish the huge advantage the rich have when it comes to wealth management, while simultaneously encouraging saving and investment. |
However, you told how you are going to hunt for treasures of the rich and not how are you going to make poor save. I'm curious what's the saving ration among US bottom 20%? (So I'm curious whether slightly improving returns would make a huge difference.
To be honest I have mixed feelings on the subject - I mean from one thing I don't like too much idea of distorting reasonable market incentives. (No, that's NOT a statement "all taxes are evil", there are cases when taxes create good incentives like taxing recreational substances or pollution). On the other hand I found odd that the US has higher Gini coefficient than the EU taken as whole, even when it contains both rich western Europe and post-communist countries.
I'm curious whether copying Scandinavian ideas would work in countries with lower human capital. My bet is that's not so well. (In the same way as highly developed Norway does not suffer from resources curse in contrast to let's say Russia, Venezuela or Saudi Arabia; yes, exaggerated comparison but I want to make clear what I mean)