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points by GlibMonkeyDeath 1 day ago | 0 comments
Define "rich" and "tiny". I don't find this visualization particularly useful (especially with the average numbers, which are heavily skewed by the tails).

A better way to look at this data is the sum of wealth for each percentile (https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distr...) The top 10% (90-99%, ~$67T, >= ~$2M in net worth) owns more than the top 1% (99%+, ~$60T, >= ~$15M in net worth). The top 0.1% own ~$27T.

Any yearly tax that exceeds the "4% rule" will essentially be confiscatory, so let's say that a tax of 1% won't bring out the pitchforks (is that tiny?) On the top 0.1%, that generates about $0.27 T compared to 2026 Federal collection of about $5.2T (on a deficit of about ~$2T) https://www.us-debt-clock.com/data/deficit-by-year

As I pointed out in a comment about solar power in another thread, if that money was spent on installing solar+battery, in about 5-10 years we could have more or less converted the US grid with a 1% wealth tax on the 0.1%. Of course, we could also reverse the recent (2016 and beyond) tax cuts as well, which would help fix the giant gaping hole in the US budget. The stock market would probably take a hit, reducing the wealth of the top whatever by far more than a small tax would.

Many will say that the purpose of this tax isn't just to raise revenue for the US government, but to reduce power of the most wealthy. I personally think that taxing wealth is not going to be effective for doing this, without passing laws that limit the effect of wealth in US politics.

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