[robertlagrant]

> It should not be possible for a single human to amass any amount over a billion maybe even less.

You are constantly told about "billionaires" as though they actually have billions. They don't. They have shareholdings, which if they all sold at today's share price would equate to billions. In reality that will never happen, because the price would instantly start dipping.

[FireBeyond]

To a degree. However, they're also able to take out loans for liquid funds at near zero or zero interest rates (because the banks want their business) secured against stock holdings.

Just because you don't have access to 100% of your net worth in liquid cash today doesn't mean it's not worth anything/as much.

[robertlagrant]

This is always the response, and it is true, but it is a vanishingly small point compared to the accusation. The conversation often goes:

We should tax billionaires to pay for everything

But they don't have billions - they have equity!

Well they can take out loans!

So... what're we going to tax?

[sschueller]

You can take away their value without taking their voting power. The billions stay in the company not with an individual which can then take out a loan based on that value.

[robertlagrant]

If they started selling a lot of them their value would dip massively anyway.