[rayiner]

I think wealth is a very natural thing to tax. The state creates and guarantees to protect a property right in land/personal effects/corporate equity/etc. In return, it taxes you 1-2% of the value of that property right each year.

[charlesdm]

With the exception of the US, who taxes its citizens globally, I would assume this would push many people to move abroad to a country without a wealth tax. France is great and all, but I wouldn't want to be a tax resident there. If you're worth €50m, it's just too expensive.

Given you already paid capital gains tax (or income tax) when you generated that wealth, there's also the double taxation component. Wealth taxes (at least to me) seem like a great way to punish people who are doing well.

At the end of the day, we're living in a globalised world, where borders matter less and less (at least in the west).

[SilasX]

Doesn't seem natural to me, in that most wealth is indivisible, non-fungible, etc. It's the "oh, just give me half the baby" problem writ large.

That said, land value tax and seigniorage seem like the best taxes on many metrics.

[wyager]

This is a literal protection racket. Usually people at least make the effort to use euphemisms so it's not so obvious.