re: #98 danarchy

Very few countries have a wealth tax. 3 with a net wealth tax and 2 with wealth tax on certain asset classes out of the 36 OECD countries. Almost a dozen European countries have tried a wealth tax and subsequently repealed it. Not the most stellar record.

we have wealth taxes in the US, just at the state level, and we call them “property taxes”. We don’t have them at the federal level because they’re considered direct taxes* and as such are required to be apportioned among the states by population. That makes it incredibly complicated to do.

*yes, I know that the most recent advocates for direct taxes have argued that wealth/property taxes are not direct taxes but they’re full of shit. Property taxes have always been understood to be direct taxes. And the question the advocates have never been able to answer is “if wealth/property taxes are not direct taxes, then what is a direct tax?”