This point needs to be made over and again:
The main purpose of wealth taxes should not be to raise revenue. That's a small and secondary benefit. The main purpose should be to *reduce the fortunes of the ultrarich*. Why? Because those fortunes present a massive threat to democracy and public life.
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social Small? How small is 1% of 1 trillion then.
So when governments say "but the ultrarich might leave the country", we should respond, "mission accomplished then." Get them and their ill-gotten gains out of our politics and out of our hair.
And hopefully, with global measures, out of everyone's.
Yesssss!
I'm looking for a 25% wealth tax/year on families worth more than $200m, dropping to 5% when they're down to $78m.
California is pondering a 1-time 5% tax on families worth us$1.1b. 60% of NY residents (not just NYC) favour free, universal childcare until pre-K, with an explicit tax on the rich to fund it.
So, I want wayyy more, to end the 1%.
#cdnpoli #canada #elbowsup #bcpoli #vancouver #burnaby #canlab #bcgreens #bcndp #ecosocialism
@Maxfieldripken @georgemonbiot.bsky.social
So, I want wayyy more, to end the 1%.
Not sure about the numbers in the USA, but in the UK being in the top 1% requires a net worth of £3.6M. That's an amount that's plausible to make if you were lucky buying a house that increased in value a lot and also worked a well-paid job.
The jump from there to the top 0.1% is £10M.
There are around 150 billionaires who own, collectively, over 15% of the total wealth in the country. They comprise the top 0.0002%.
And this is why I hate 'the 1%' as a slogan. Over 99% of 'the 1%' have less than a thousandth as much wealth as the people who are hoarding most of the wealth.
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social I see no reason why a rich person should be able to extract 100% of their wealth when they decide to leave the country they've been living in — especially if they leave for purely selfish motivations.
They were sheltered by and protected by the legal frameworks of that country, which allowed them to make their money. A large part of their wealth — I'd say the vast majority — should be taken in tax when they go.
@bodhipaksa @georgemonbiot.bsky.social
The USA has an exit tax for precisely this reason. If you are a US citizen, you pay tax irrespective of where you are (though you can deduct tax paid in your country of residence, so often that's just paperwork and not actual money). If you give up your citizenship, you pay capital gains tax as if you'd sold all of your assets.
There's no reason a wealth tax couldn't come with an exit tax: pay an annual amount if you stay, pay the equivalent of that for 20 years at the time that you leave. Calculate the exit tax based on the relative wealth taxes at the place you're moving to: if it has a higher or equal one, you don't pay anything.
