[robertlagrant]

> Of course, the idea there is no way to actually tax the rich is absurd, we can do it, we have just had decades of government with no will to do so.

Which way is that, other than the ways we already do it?

[Latty]

How extreme do you want to go?

- Tax capital gains and dividends that are classically the rates actually paid by the megarich rather than income tax.

- Tax wealth directly rather than just income.

- Tax much more heavily generally and commit to a significant basic income to ensure everyone has a solid baseline.

This is just off the top of my head, we have an entire government of people and a huge field of existing research and ideas, not to mention other countries and historic data on taxing more than the UK right now to look at.

[robertlagrant]

I don't want to go extreme at all; centralising economies has the worst track record of starvation and killing in all of history. I'm just wondering what the plan was :)

[Latty]

I'm talking about relatively minor levels of taxation. It's absurd to compare that to communism.

[robertlagrant]

Taxing wealth is not relatively minor. It is the way to transfer ownership of companies to the government.

Take most rich people; their wealth is generally in assets like land, or in investments. If you gradually move their company ownership and land ownership to the government, what do you get?

[Latty]

An incentive for the wealthy to split their companies up and sell them off, rather than creating giant megacorps with outsize impact on consumers and society?

Oh no, sounds terrible. /s