Imagine that you are someone who is very concerned about high levels of income and consumption inequality. Furthermore suppose you believe that appropriate remedies to this, and also a matter of social justice, is to tax these people a lot more. How would your views change if all of these super-rich people were identical to you in every way?
How Would Your Views Change?
Sep 16th, 2011 by wintercow20
I think the president is onto something with his “Warren Buffett” tax.
One of the problems, however, is that the Constitution bars bills of attainder.
Maybe it would be a good strategy at this point to soak the really, really rich. Let’s find out what the average income of a Hollywood producer is and apply an 80 percent tax on income above that amount. And for Warren Buffett, a 90 percent marginal tax rate.
And for Walter Annenberg and dead people like him, add on a 100 percent Estate Tax for all estates over $50,000. That would focus everyone’s attention on spending, fast. A lot of old folks would quickly buy “physical gold.”
There are other taxes we could impose too. If you grow a crop, we could tax your wheat; if you take a walk, we could tax your feet. Call it the George Harrison tax.
All of these measures could raise as much as $100,000.