Excerpt: America’s top 1% enjoy a fifth of the economy’s income and pay nearly a third of its federal taxes. Many politicians think they should cough up much more. Zohran Mamdani, New York’s mayor, wants a new 2% city levy on incomes over $1m. Virginia, Rhode Island and Washington state are weighing up similar measures; Californians are likely this year to vote on a “one time” 5% levy on billionaires’ wealth. In Europe, too, there is a similar clamour to target the wealthy. France has seen a popular campaign for a wealth tax. And with Sir Keir Starmer weakened or doomed as prime minister, the left wing of Britain’s Labour Party may implement one of its own. The “Robin Hood” state, which takes from the rich to give to the poor, has obvious appeal. Governments across the developed world are strapped for cash. Budgets are burdened by legacy debts, ageing populations and the need to spend more on defence. But few politicians will countenance raising broad-based taxes at a time when voters, scarred by the high inflation of the early 2020s, are worried about affordability. Booming stockmarkets, meanwhile, have reinforced the idea that inequality is too high. And it always sounds good to say someone else will foot the bill.
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If you inherited your house from your parents, you could be penniless and have a net worth over $1 million.
$1 million is an arbitrary number and is not what it used to be, even 5 years ago. Even if you count everyone with $5 million net worth on one side and everyone over that on the other, the over $5 million side still owns most of the global economy.
The guy doing well in the next neighborhood over has essentially nothing to do with the wealth gap and resulting economic stagflation. The people with “too much” money have so much of it that it evades human comprehension.
So… sell the house and you have $1 million to buy a more modest place to live and you will still have hundreds of thousands of dollars left over.
Everyone who says a net worth of $1 million isn’t enough should look at their own net worth before sucking off people who have more.
You need to travel more and see the world. I mean this with no offense intended, but you comment smacks of naivety. Context matters.
“A more modest place”. I bought one of the smallest, shittiest oldest places in the unfashionable sectors of my city and it hit a mil 15 years ago. There is nothing shittier. To get cheaper I have to leave the city altogether where my profession doesn’t exist. Your war is not against “homeowners”. We should aspire to raise everyone up and out of precarity, not shoot everyone who is not poor.