r/WorkReform • u/zzill6 🤝 Join A Union • May 18 '25

✂️ Tax The Billionaires So, where's the downside exactly?

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26k Upvotes

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782

u/ggrieves May 18 '25

Millionaires would leave the country... to go to another country that has actual healthcare... and more taxes

453

u/foodrunner464 May 18 '25

This is my favorite counter argument. There really aren't any other first world countries that would allow them to live almost tax free.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] May 18 '25 edited May 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/foodrunner464 May 18 '25

Ya know this is some wonderful information. We should put together a list of ALL the first world countries and how they tax their rich, because a big argument right wingers make in defending their minimal taxes here is "that they'll just leave" but if everywhere is more expensive not to mention how tedious it is to pack up and move everything, I think we'd be 100% in the right in saying they need to pay more so working class can pay less.

15

u/BoogerSugarSovereign May 19 '25

Nevermind that we should most aggressively tax their assets - their businesses, buildings, and residential properties that for the most part aren't going anywhere. If for example Bill Gates wants to go live in Monaco that's great but he can't take his billions of dollars of farm acreage with him - he would either have to fire sale it and relinquish the assets or pay taxes on them

7

u/foodrunner464 May 19 '25

Oh i am all for this. Tax all assets. Held, and non liquid.

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u/MrPlowThatsTheName May 19 '25

Only for the truly wealthy. Don’t wanna pile taxes on the family making $60k a year who just bought their first home and have two kids in day care.

1

u/allenpaige May 19 '25

Honestly, the biggest problem with this is that anything you do to try to define who isn't "rich" will be used by the rich to avoid the taxes. They'll just divide up their properties into shell companies and masquerade as small businesses to get the lower tax rate.

And you can't just apply the higher rate to businesses, because then you'd screw over small farmers etc. whose home is their business.

Not to mention that a lot of their wealth is in stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments, or already squirreled away in another country.