No thanks. Not today, not any day.
I've heard this story before. You see that small group of people over there? They're responsible for your lot in life. If we just confiscate their wealth, force them to break up and sell off their businesses, demonize them in the popular press and with propaganda, and if you support me I'll make sure you get what you deserve and they'll pay for it. I'm just fighting for you. [puke]
And that ill-conceived wealth tax to fund it all. So the minute it would pass Congress and she signs it the value of the US equity markets and much of the real estate that the tax would be applied to would go down by, the consensus is, about 25%, I think a lot more. The wealthy would probably stop buying assets in the target markets, so the valuations come in lower. Remember, there are much less than 1,000 billionaires in the US to tax, so conspiracies are practical. That means the revenues from the wealth tax would go down, but the cost of the promised programs wouldn't, so then there'd be a massive deficit which would have to funded, or massive inflation. Assuming Warren doesn't want inflation to reduce her own wealth, the tax base would have to be broadened, probably to include every old geezer with more than a million dollars in assets, which might mean you, because after the top 0.01% old geezers hold most of the country's wealth. And with good reason, they've had a lifetime to save for retirement. Remember, there are trillions in 401K and IRA accounts to tax, and most Americans don't have a million dollars. I can hear the arguments already.
Then there's the valuation problem with the wealth tax. The wealthy would hire massive numbers of highly-paid brilliant people to find workarounds to the new tax or lower valuations, while the government would be arguing back with the more typical GS-14s and GS-15s they are allowed to hire. It would be like bringing butter knives to a gun fight. How many here have been successful arguing against real estate valuations for property taxes and won? It is not difficult, and real estate valuation is simple by comparison to wealth in total.
And all of that health care you think you're getting for free? Well, get in line. A lot of doctors are likely to ignore the system, like they do now with Medicare, and go into concierge medicine. Meaning, they don't take insurance, because they want more for their services than Medicare pays, and Medicare rates are built into the assumptions of the Medicare For All plan. Or are we going to make independence illegal? And those hospitals you need to get treated by, some large fraction, certainly more than 25%, go out of business, and the ones that die are mostly in rural areas. And all of those new drugs you like? The Medicare For All bill includes provisions for the government to dictate prices and, if the drug companies refuse, the patents can be confiscated, licensed to competitors, the renumeration to the inventing company is determined by a government-appointed court, and the inventor has to provide research materials about the drugs to the licensees. So why would pharmaceutical industry investment stay high? I think it'll fall precipitously. I wouldn't invest.
The richest family in the country, probably the world, is the Walton family, poster children for unearned wealth. Their total net worth is about $200 billion. Confiscate it all and you still have only, what, $30 trillion or so to go? And that's just for Medicare for All.
