Simple really. A corporate wealth tax would way easier. And then! so many well-intentioned ppl (along with some other unattractively defensive greedy ppl) could stop wastefully (and perhaps endlessly) arguing (and/or complaining) about the complications surrounding taxing “unrealized gains” blah blah blah. Just get to the point already! As in: Where’s most of the wealth stored? Yep, stocks, also known as equity (well, and also land, but that’s a topic for another day).
So, if Apple Corp has 100,000,000 shares outstanding, just have the gov’t say, “Hey Apple (and every other large public company), we’re going to dilute your shareholders at a rate of 1% this year. In other words, we’re going to have you go ahead and create 1,000,000 new Apple shares and give them to us. We agree that we are then obligated to autosell these shares in small batches on the open market over the next 365 days. Oh, yeah, and we get to keep the revenue. Cheers!” Bonus points for anyone here who can confidently name a single American billionaire who doesn’t own any Apple stock.
Aside: Yes! The concept can be applied to private companies, but it’s slightly more complicated. Please don’t derail this thread by talking about how public companies will just go private blah blah blah. For everyone’s sake please focus on the simplified general premise before naysaying. If ya wanna naysay on this thread 2 days from now about public vs private companies, fine by me.
Also, ppl who say 1% is too little! Or 1% is too much! Not helping. Too soon to be arguing over minutiae. But ya’ll only have to hold off on your distracting commenting for 1 day.
The point here is the core premise. Is their some rate at which shareholders could be diluted as a way for the government to raise revenue? Surely, if Apple only had to create 1 new share per year, sell it, and give the proceeds to the gov’t, the financial system wouldn’t immediately implode overnight, no? Ok good, at least we know we can start somewhere. Now, moving on.
The core idea here is taxing companies according to their market capitalization, aka their “market cap”. Unlike with wealth taxes on individuals, the gov’t doesn’t need to guestimmate how much various assets are worth. With taxing market capitalization, no guestimating is needed! because the market cap is automatically given to us every day by…the market!
Also, if you encounter a commenter who feels the need to defend stock ownership by the “middle class,” perhaps politely remind them that median net worth in the US is around $120,000. Even if all of such a person’s net worth was invested in the stock market (and not also divided up between their home and car…which would be…unlikely), then 1% dilution would equal…drumroll…$1,200 per year. Or, you could just point out to them that the top 10% in the US own just shy of 90% of all stocks. At that point, you could then ask the commenter if their definition of “middle class” is implied to mean “the top 10%”.
If you have reservations about the government more easily being able to attain revenue by siphoning it from the private sector, given that some of the government’s spending in recent decades has been, well, uh…questionable10, then you are not alone! But if you care to criticize gov’t spending, at least be balanced and point out some questionable private sector spending, as well! Bonus points to the top rated comment in each category: 1) questionable gov’t spending and 2) questionable corporate spending
Extra bonus points though for commenters who draw attention to current gov’t and/or private sector spending that is currently beneficial.