So I read Bernie’s proposed pandemic wealth tax draft. Wow. He went from advocating a 5% annual tax on wealth over $1B during his campaign, to just flat out demanding 60% of all an individual’s wealth above $1B all at once. A thread:

In case you’re curious, here’s his previous “extreme wealth tax” plan. Set aside that any wealth tax is unconstitutional as a double tax and a direct tax, this plan “would cut the wealth of billionaires in half over 15 years”. Sounds nuts, but now, he wants 60% in ONE YEAR?!

But wait, I thought it was only for the amount of net wealth change since March? Nope. It’s all amounts over $1B, period. Surely it lets the individual deduct this tax from their income taxes so they don’t have to pay cap gains plus this tax? Nope again.

Ok but it’s just a one time tax, right? There must be a provision or iron clad contract such that no future authority can ever do this again? Nope. Wholly absent. They could do this daily if they wanted, under this draft language.

So then, here we have a plan that would force billionaires to pay huge taxes. In the case of Elon, $27B even without any gains. Except oops, he doesn’t have it, so he’d have to liquidate Tesla or SpaceX to pay it, pay 20% cap gains, then a 60% tax, while losing majority control.

So what should this plan be called? The billionaire destroyer tax. That’s all this is. It instantly in one fell swoop wipes out billionaires. Even somebody with $100B could end up with $20B after this. Most of their entire fortune, gone.

We as a country don’t have the right to steal 80% (after 60% and 20% cap gains tax) of someone’s money. The constitution says so. People who created businesses and had their net worth increase along with shareholders should ...

... not be taxed until those shares are sold. That’s the system. If it’s broken, let’s fix it with higher income taxes, lower spending on junk inefficiencies, a UBI, higher min wage and Corp taxes and universal health care, but let’s not destroy American wealth along with

our entire financial system in the process. The purest measure of one’s integrity and ethical backbone: what decisions do you make on behalf of other people when it doesn’t affect you or doesn’t obviously affect you, how do you act?

“Oh, it’s ok, it doesn’t affect me, just steal their money to fix my problems”, is not ok. It should be a prime example of moral bankruptcy, not the proud slogan of a grinning, bitter, impatient politician who thinks he has found a golden goose!

The craziest part? Most billionaires’ wealth is in unsold stock, and those unrealized gains are already earmarked for future cap gain or estate taxes to the government. The govt will get their money eventually. It’s not enough though, just like the golden goose. /end