Elizabeth Warren has a plan to pay for all her plans; take wealthy Americans’ money. The problem is, other countries have tried just that, and it didn’t work. The rich and ultra-rich can move anywhere in the world and hide their wealth there. That’s exactly what they have done in other countries that tried to pin them down and take their wealth.
Not to mention how difficult wealth taxes are for family farmers, whose wealth is tied up in their land. They are forced to sell parcels each year in order to fund the taxation. Pretty soon, there’s no farm left! And certainly no wealth.
At Mises.org, Germinal G. Van explains the problem with Elizabeth Warren’s wealth-tax plan, writing:
The second consequence will be a great decrease in productivity for the economy overall. Indeed, those who already own large amounts of assets often own those assets because they have managed to put them to good use expanding the economy and increasing employment. The wealth tax, meanwhile, is built on the premise that government agents can convert that wealth into cash payments, and that the government knows better how to distribute it.
Moreover, were Warren’s plan to be enacted, many of those subject to the tax may leave the country. This has already been shown to be the case in Europe, where, accoriding to NPR:
In 1990, twelve countries in Europe had a wealth tax. Today, there are only three: Norway, Spain, and Switzerland. According to reports by the OECD and others, there were some clear themes with the policy: it was expensive to administer, it was hard on people with lots of assets but little cash, it distorted saving and investment decisions, it pushed the rich and their money out of the taxing countries—and, perhaps worst of all, it didn’t raise much revenue.
In France alone, the “wealth tax contributed to the exodus of an estimated 42,000 millionaires between 2000 and 2012, among other problems.”
The Warren wealth tax plan may confiscate the material wealth of wealthy persons and families. But those same people can take their know-how and move elsewhere. The impact on American productivity would not be positive.
Read more here.
If Elizabeth Warren comes for Americans’ wealth, they’ll simply find new places to live, and new places to retire.
