The problem is 1 of 2 things are going to happen:<p>1. Wealth concentration continues.<p>2. We find better ways to tax rich people.<p>Look at how private equity is bidding up housing prices. or Bill gates is buying up mega amounts of farm land.<p>I'd be curious if there's a tax that effects wealthy people that the author likes?<p>I think we need to manage the gap between rich and poor.
The billionaire tax would just restore things to normality.<p>Throughout human history people with money they have always hid themselves, lying low, slowly distribute their riches across a myriad of heirs and nominees in order to conceal their true net worth.<p>This makes sense both from a self-preservation point of view as well as a quality of life perspective. You don't want to second guess any social relationship that you have and think if people are just orbiting you because they want a piece of the pie.<p>In America none of that happens, you have 5 different billionaires having their own space program.<p>People inflate their number to get in the Forbes 400 , not the other way around, there is a sense of impunity about being rich and the notion is that you can buy your way out of any problem if only you can throw enough cash at it.<p>I am not saying that a billionaire tax on unrealized gains is good or bad, but looking at our history as a specie it would just be NORMAL.<p>What's abnormal and unprecedented is what is going on right now