[zozbot234]

Wealth is not income; one is a stock, the other is a flow. This is not even Econ 101, it's grade-school level knowledge. You can't have a policy of draining "wealth" to fund an income subsidy without very severe side effects.

[andyana]

You don't need to ridicule. Can you explain why such a policy doesn't work? I must have skipped that day at school.

[zozbot234]

There was no intent to ridicule. The answer is that the policy is (1) unsustainable, not unlike a Ponzi scheme, and also (2) even prior to its inevitable collapse, such a policy distorts investment choices and thus makes society as a whole increasingly poorer. Note that there are similar policies that can be more sensible. For example, you can tax wealth and use the proceeds to gradually pay off some of the national debt. (Note that even these policies are typically only resorted to during emergencies, such as war.)

[andyana]

Its not like a Ponzi scheme, though. Nobody is getting rich from such a policy.