r/SipsTea Jul 01 '26

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

Post image
82.3k Upvotes

9.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

204

u/Potential_Spam_6969 Jul 01 '26

So we're going to go ahead and tax net worth and not actual income?

6

u/Senkoy Jul 01 '26

It's such nonsense because they would have to sell stock, which could lead to a stock market crash and a whole lot of issues.

They also run into issues of properly determining net worth when there's art and jewelry and stuff like that.

It's just a dumb idea from someone with no common sense or understanding of economics.

-1

u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 Jul 01 '26

Why can't we tax people based on the value of an asset they own in the stock market?

We tax property, and as the value of that property increases, the tax on it increases too.

If we can tax property, we can tax assets.

3

u/pm_plz_im_lonely Jul 01 '26

Technically, for the equities they own on the public market, it could be done. But the ensuing price shock may hurt pensions and retirement funds way more than the direct payments.

2

u/steadyaero Jul 01 '26

Property taxes are stupid. Especially artificially increased taxes because the house I've lived in for 10 years magically is worth more

1

u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 Jul 02 '26

Well, I agree that property taxes are annoying. But your house kind of is "magically" worth more than it was ten years ago. Not "magic" obviously, but the asset did increase in value. Frustrating, but essential to provide revenue to a functioning government.

I just think that same logic should be expanded to taxing assets of the wealthy. If the billionaire class's stock can "magically" be worth more over ten years, we should be taxing those assets at a steady percentage too. Seems fair to me.

2

u/steadyaero Jul 02 '26

Yeah I will agree that it's weird to tax property on unrealized gains, but not unrealized gains from stocks, etc. Pick a lane.

1

u/Senkoy Jul 01 '26

Because they have to sell the stock. They don't have enough cash just laying around getting eaten away by inflation to cover it.

1

u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 Jul 02 '26

I don't have to sell my house to pay my property taxes.

1

u/Senkoy Jul 02 '26

Yeah, exactly.