[JonFish85]

It may be an interesting exercise to think of how this can be turned "against" you. If you wanted to play armchair politics, you could spin this:

- Highly paid engineer walked away from a 6 figure salary

- Takes a job at a small company where he gets equity that could potentially be worth millions.

- Complains that he may have to pay taxes on a significant portion of his compensation.

Put those together, and you have someone probably still making more than double the national median wage complaining that his favorite tax loophole is being closed. Meanwhile the local plumber / school teacher / single mom is struggling to make ends meet; why shouldn't you pay your fair share so that they can get a tax break?

FWIW, this is just an exercise, I'm not saying this is true. Just something to keep in mind though, that many (most?) of the people on HN are being paid significantly higher than most Americans, and complaining that their stock is being taxed differently isn't going to garner much support.

[kelnos]

I think the "easy" rebuttal to your third point/counterargument is that's not what's actually happening: you're being forced to pay taxes on vapor. No one is objecting to paying tax when stock is sold; that's normal and reasonable. It's just crazy to expect people to pay taxes on something that cannot be sold.

[bnjmn]

Thanks for the thoughtful feedback!