| > From what I remember Bill Gates is on track to spend almost all of it. Is he? He's wealthier than he has ever been. > I've always found the idea that billionaire wealth isnt "real" because liquidating it all simultaneously is impractical to be unconvincing in the extreme, verging on dishonest. Of course it's real. My point is that it isn't really as much wealth as people make it out to me. Much of it is simply a consequence of the mega-rich already having everything they want. Therefore, it requires a lot of goods and services to "buy" the wealth of the mega-rich. > Politicians are not actually restrained by taxation as decades of persistent deficits prove. Of course they're restrained. They're just choosing to stretch these restraints as much as they can. If they raise more in taxes, they can delay the eventual problems that arise from our deficit. > I think it's clear that inflationary pressures in housing and asset markets is off the scale. I'd agree that we can use a land value tax and higher capital gains tax, but that's not what the Democrats seem to want. Instead, they'd rather punish the productive upper-middle class with higher income taxes (admittedly, this where I am). Meanwhile Prop 18 is going strong in California, and NYC's most expensive apartments have the lowest property taxes as well. |