Shapiro: Punishing Achievement Is Punishing Everyone
Ben Shapiro
October 26, 2021
This week, Democrats settled on an area of apparent commonality: the desire to eat the rich.
According to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, “Senator Wyden and the Senate Finance Committee … would impose a tax on unrealized gains on liquid assets held by extremely wealthy individuals, billionaires.” While Yellen refused to call this a “wealth tax,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had no such qualms: “We probably will have a wealth tax,” she said.
This has long been a talking point for the most Marxist-leaning Democrats, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who famously proposed a 2% wealth tax on all assets of a family above $50 million and 6% on all assets above $1 billion. Elated Warren supporter Adam Jentleson told The Washington Post, “Biden’s agenda was about to fall apart, but Warren had a plan for that.”
So, what do wealth taxes do? They destroy value by taxing unrealized value. Say, for example, that you are a business owner who created a company now valuated at $1 billion. And say that you have built that business over the course of the last five years, paying yourself a post-tax, post-expenditure salary of $5 million per year. You would be liquid to the tune of $25 million. Under Warren’s proposal, $950 million of those unrealized assets would be taxed at 2%, meaning that you would be on the hook for an annual tax of $19 million. You would have no choice but to liquidate your stock, undermining its price and endangering the growth of your company.
https://heartlanddailynews.com/2021/10/shapiro-punishing-achievement-is-punishing-everyone/
