@infobeautiful

yeah this is why i get sad when i see "tax the rich" posts

the problem is when you have a lot of money, you can hire teams of accountants who spend their days inventing new ways to avoid paying taxes

i'm not saying we shouldn't tax the rich, nor am i saying to give up on trying to get them to contribute what they owe. what i am saying is that it is a harder more difficult problem. it's whack-a-mole. we need some sort of universal approach that catches *all* possible loopholes

@benroyce @infobeautiful

For simplicity, wouldn't a minimum tax based on wealth, with assets assessed at market value, be a start?

There are challenges to this - eg venture capital & startups, art & collectibles, wine collections - which might be difficult to value/audit - but those are, I think, harder to monetize via loans.

(I dream of a minimum tax based on expenditures but suspect it would be too easy to game)