Lots of people scream that we should tax the wealthy but I do not follow how you tax someone whose wealth comes from large ownership of a big company...?
Whether or not that is a good idea, I don’t know.
Fine, he pays some of that to the government, and maybe sells slightly more. I don't see the problem.
If, in fact, your wealth only comes from ownership in a company and you have no other source of wealth, then yes you would be encourages to sell your shares to pay the wealth tax.
I don't see why this is a problem. That's kinda the point of a wealth tax, that yes you do get taxed on your wealth.
[0]: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-bezos/bezos-is-sell...
Yes, I would expect that if I had 100k shares of amzn (300 million dollars of net worth), and we implemented a wealth tax, the IRS would tell me "You have to pay us $300k or so" each year on that wealth. If that means I sell some stock, then sure. That means, btw, if I live 60 more years and gain zero more dollars of wealth, I still have 280 million dollars left of my original 300 mil. I still have plenty of shares left.
You clearly don't understand the point of a wealth tax or how the rate rises progressively with wealth it is if you don't understand why we'd be taxing ownership of wealth, and why this wouldn't negatively impact most people.
> If that is the case no one would ever buy any shares of any company...
I currently don't have over 50M of net worth. A wealth tax would not impact me, so I'd still buy stock just as I do now, with no difference. If my stocks did so well that I had millions of dollars, I'd now be able to pay a wealth tax, and have on problem with that. I'd also keep buying stocks if they got me from a net worth of almost nothing to $50M, and all I had to do was pay a small percentage each year along the way.
And if I have my shares, I don't want to sell them. I currently own X number of shares of dozens of companies, I don't have IRS breathing down my neck to sell them, why should Bezos have them breathing down his?! I pay taxes when I sell my shares, not just due to the fact that I own them...
