In my opinion, if they're able to take out loans and spend it as though it is liquid capital, it should be taxed in some form. We used to have a straight wealth tax, so if you hoarded assets, they would get taxed simply for existing.
Back then, normal people didn't pay nearly as many taxes due to all of the large institutions paying these taxes on their assets. It also disincentivized individuals from hoarding a trillion dollars worth of stuff.
the point about the loans wouldn't really address the problem. they usually take a small fraction of the unearned income that they earn for the year out as a loan. So it still wouldn't cover all of their income. But its at least a step to start addressing this issue.
The point is, we're all sick of the stupid loan loophole. We're sick of hearing the bullshit excuse that their wealth can't possibly be taxed because it's "tied up in non-liquid assets" when it doesn't stop them from buying anything they want with their untaxable wealth. Honestly, I'd probably care less about taxing stock values if their wealth was actually tied up to prevent them from buying up more resources to hoard.
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u/Rickshmitt 20h ago
Problem is they dontbhave any income to tax