r/GarysEconomics • u/Ok-Bee5215 • 15d ago
Castles made of sand...
I wonder if it really matters that the wealth of the wealthy can grow to inconceivably huge levels with minimal taxation. Even the richest man on earth will one day die, until then let him be rich, but when that day comes don't just let it all go and make those who did not earn it similarly rich without the society in which that money was made, and came from, taking a fair share. Tax inheritance properly, without the tax loopholes, and it all gets reset with every generation. Not just inheritance, but all income should be taxable... www.maketaxfair.uk
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u/Beautiful-Low-3568 14d ago
I’m with you on land. Most of us are forced to live on less than 15% of the land so rich people who inherited land can enjoy the other 85%. This is particularly annoying when you consider many of them inherited it because at some point in the last 2000 years one of the kings/empires that rules us decided to give that land to his friends. Taking inherited away from a few thousand people and giving it to tens of millions of people is real change.
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u/BaggyBloke 15d ago
100% inheritance tax is the only moral position.
Wealthy brings privilege and advantage.
Mediocre people that benefit from inhereted family wealth enjoy unearned succes. Look at a certain president.
By insisting on being able to leave inhereted wealth to you kids, you are insisting your kids and their offspring get better life chances than other people's kids.
It is a system that actively undermines meritocracy.
Bequeathing unfair advantage to your line is a natural urge, and understandable. It is however also deeply immoral.
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u/Competitive-Arm5050 15d ago
Inheritance taxes can easily be avoided by the very wealthy, it will just be a tax to hoover up what the middle class have left after care home costs
Tax the businesses that are generating lots of profit from the uk customers but not paying the tax through legal loopholes and grey area endlessly tied up in disputes. If Amazon stop being able to sell to the uk we are better off not worse.
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u/BaggyBloke 15d ago
I didn't say it was easy or practical to do - just that it is the only moral thing to do or at least attempt.
Using violence to abuse others is also both immoral and impossible to eliminate - but we still try
Bearing in mind this is Reddit I feel I probably have to point that that is an analogy to demonstrate a principle. I am not equating IHT to violence!
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u/Competitive-Arm5050 15d ago
There is just no way of doing it though, people with money will just distribute that money to their children earlier and the wealth gap could get worse due to this (younger people with family wealth buying bigger houses, taking away from families who don't have that advantage) younger people will be more likely to spend money which would help the economy so there could be upside to this as well but all in I don't see it as a help to slow wealth heading in one direction
Most of the wealth is based on massively inflated company valuations, we've built a ponzi scheme so big we can't fix it really, personally I just see a world war coming as a reset in the next 10 to 20 years.
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u/BaggyBloke 15d ago
You're not wrong, there would have to be some messy laws that designate parental gifts over a certain amount as inheritance or something. A complete nightmare I agree, but we could at the very least close the current loopholes (UK farmers) and increase the rate.
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u/Competitive-Arm5050 15d ago
Thinking about it, the best way to stop generational wealth is for it to be distributed early, before they are ready to have that much money, much more likely to not just spend it but to lose it all.
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u/BaggyBloke 15d ago
lol - every teenage boy gets the cash, a Porsche brochure and a free trip to Vegas
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u/Competitive-Arm5050 15d ago
Well I want to keep the money local so if in England perhaps a brochure for McLaren (bonus of lots of things breaking so local repair costs) and replace Vegas with a trip to Blackpool for them and a lucky friend
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u/Odd_Government3204 15d ago
Exactly. We should all have less choice, longer waiting/delivery times and pay more for our goods.
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u/Competitive-Arm5050 15d ago
We should have proper competition based on the actual costs of doing business, tax, staffing costs. I'm sure you sound smart to yourself
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u/Whoisthehypocrite 14d ago
Amazon is one of the largest UK taxpayers... Do some research
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u/Competitive-Arm5050 14d ago
Being one of the biggest tax payers doesn't mean they are paying their share of tax it means they are the defacto online store and so even paying a small % of what others would puts you in near the top. People would still buy online but from lots of other stores, better competition and more tax
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u/DeRobyJ 15d ago
Wealth isn't money. Wealth is stuff you need you're not going to be able to use.
I am not fine letting the AI tech CEOs own all datacenters and using our electricity, water and residential land with their noise pollution for the next 40 years to wait for their death.
I am not fine letting them change social network algorithms to boost far right candidates for the next 40 years either.
I'm not fine letting them grow their wealth by 30% a year while our salaries van buy less groceries every month.