[NikolaeVarius]

> The cool thing about democracies is that we could democratically decide to tax the ultra-wealthy at a much higher rate.

And yet it doesn't happen

> And glass-makers are happy when it hails, but that doesn't mean we should be going around breaking windows.

No one is going around breaking windows to give window makers jobs

[ceejayoz]

> And yet it doesn't happen

Sure it does. Quite a few European countries have a top tax bracket in the 50% range. Denmark's capital gains rate is 42%, more than double what Bezos pays here.

[fastball]

That's because capital gains in Denmark aren't really capital gains, they just tax it as income.

Short-term capital gains in the US are also taxed according to income tax rates, so 37% for the top bracket, which isn't far off 42%.

[yakshaving_jgt]

Have a guess why Jeff Bezos hasn't decided to move to Denmark.

[YEwSdObPQT]

Do you know how you don't pay capital gains tax? You leverage your assets and are given credit. That way you don't need to sell the assets to make use of them.

Guess who typically does this? The very wealthy. Guess who doesn't do it? Less wealthy people.

Many of these tax laws that are enacted end up affecting people who are upper middle class and don't affect the mega rich at all.

> No one is going around breaking windows to give window makers jobs.

Not literally no. But metaphorically it does happen all the time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window#O...

[refurb]

So kind of like using a HELOC to borrow against the equity of your home to invest in other things without paying tax on the sale?