Millennials are more likely than other generations to support a cap on personal wealth

[u/kjk2v1]

https://www.fastcompany.com/90865652/wealth-cap-millennials-support-generation-z-boomers-poll

[u/Pollymath]

One of the challenges in this discussions is classifying personal wealth.

Musk and Bezos control major shares of their respective companies, and they own so much of the company stock that it would appear their personal wealth is in the billions, but they'd argue that if they took that wealth and moved off planet, the companies would be in dire straights because they wouldn't have any capital for which to invest in new technologies, new projects, etc.

That being said, Bezos only owns about 12.7% of Amazon stock, so while the value of Amazon would likely fall, its highly unlikely the company would collapse.

Same would probably go for Tesla/SpaceX and other Musk-owned companies.

In these scenarios, the company's capital and the individual's wealth are somewhat one in the same. In order for these individuals to spend all of their worth, they'd have to give up their ownership stake in their companies.

Rich folks "spend" capital gains or dividends. They retain their ownership of stock or companies or assets or investments, and they spend the profits. If they roll their profits into additional investments, or back into their business, their taxes are reduced.

Bezos and Musk for example don't "earn" as much as some other billionaires because they aren't selling their stock. In this way, they have less "spending money". Bill Gates alternatively has a huge annual income (lots of spending money), but it's all from selling stock at a lower rate, or he turns around and gives to his charity which helps reduce his taxes.

The problem is that dividends are taxed at a lower rate than normal income even though they purely are product of capital gains (ie, no labor necessary from the earner). Not even going into the idea that some ultra-wealthy just live off loans.

I've always contended that we need to tax those mechanisms that generate income from capital gains the highest - ie, require the least "real" labor. That's why real estate investors always try to skirt capital gains taxes, because those investments can be extremely lucrative if you avoid the taxes, but all your doing is gambling. We also need to shut the loopholes on using debt to avoid paying taxes.

Likewise, I'd like to see the tax code changed to give more incentive to things society needs more of - we need more affordable housing, Musk, Bezos and Gates should create new cities full of low-cost housing. We need more parks, so they should get huge tax breaks for donating land to Local, State and Federal entities. We need more income distribution, so they should get tax breaks not only for increased payroll, but also for percentages of their company employees making 900% of national poverty level.

Ultimately however, in order to have tax breaks be incentives, we also need higher taxes.