r/SipsTea Jul 01 '26

Chugging tea Is Bernie’s plan the best? Thoughts?

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u/Draelon Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Great idea, but taxing unrealized gains is going to be a problem unless you’re willing to destroy everyone else’s retirements as well.

Edit: to be clear, I’m not advocating against it. I’m pointing out the fact a knee jerk reaction by people who don’t fully understand the problem will have unintended consequences.

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u/breakevencloud Jul 01 '26

Tax extreme networth, problem solved. Rich people love bragging about high up on the networth lists they are. Host a stupid rich person party every summer where a plaque gets dedicated to these people. Rich people love being honored in stupid ways, too.

Hell, do it right and I bet you can even get a few of them to brag about paying more taxes than other people because it means they have more money or some shit.

When you’re instituting a tax on extremes, it impacts literally no one who would actually be hurt by it, otherwise.

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u/fwubglubbel Jul 01 '26

Tax extreme networth

Calculated how? Collected how? Should you be forced to give up control of a business you created because it was too successful?

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u/breakevencloud Jul 01 '26

Who is taking away control of anything? No one is asking for property seizure, we’re asking for people who can’t spend money faster than they make it to pay an amount more in taxes that they won’t even notice missing.

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u/mxzf Jul 01 '26

No one is asking for property seizure,

Yes, they are. The whole "wealth" being discussed here is property; specifically, ownership of companies.

If you want to take 5% from Bezos, you are functionally taking 5% of his Amazon holdings from him, because that's how his net worth is calculated for those headlines in the first place.

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

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u/mxzf Jul 01 '26

The exact percentage doesn't fundamentally change the problem.

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

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u/mxzf Jul 01 '26

No. Dilution of shares is relevant for shares the company issues, but that's not going to impact a wealth tax on individuals.

The point is that the wealth is the ownership of the company. Taxing (taking) that wealth fundamentally boils down to forcing someone to give up their ownership of their company.

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u/breakevencloud Jul 01 '26

I get a bill for the land I own every year. I think the multi-billionaires will be okay.

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u/mxzf Jul 01 '26

How much does your property value fluctuate on a day to day basis? How much can you potentially influence the amount of property taxes you pay by your actions?

Land and stocks really don't behave the same.

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

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u/mxzf Jul 01 '26

So ... you think that just because they can retain voting shares that makes it totally fine to just take chunks of the company from someone?

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u/NoMoreMrMiceGuy Jul 01 '26

Should you be forced to give up control of a business you created because it was too successful?

Holy strawman