[jandrewrogers]

You do not owe future taxes on wages based on inflation, capital does. This difference is separately meaningful in both economics and policy. If you do not understand the distinction then you will always be confused by capital tax policy globally, not just in the US.

Whether or not your wages increase with inflation is an unrelated discussion.

[hookahboy]

And how exactly does capital owe "future" taxes on gains or dividends based on inflation?

[Jensson]

That capital gains is not adjusted for inflation, so if you buy something and it keeps its inflation adjusted value and then you sell it, you have to pay capital gains tax as if that inflation was your profits.

As for risk, if you buy something, then you go bankrupt so you lose it all, the state doesn't pay you the negative capital gains tax from your losses. That is the risk part that workers never have to deal with, there is no such thing as negative salary but negative capital gains happens all the time. You can't cancel out those losses if you didn't make profits elsewhere.

[hookahboy]

yeah but wages are also taxed on nominal terms, not real terms.