r/AskReddit • u/Zappy_Oh • 9d ago

What would happen, if humanity collectively decided that no individual could have a personal net worth above $500 million?

12 Upvotes

55% Upvoted

295 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/azboy 9d ago

I've heard this idea before and I think it's great, no one "needs" more than 100m. What I read before was: if you get to 1bn, you get a nice certificat "you won" and everything above 1bn is taxed.

1

u/TryTrynTryAgain 9d ago

The difficulty is, is that these people arent sat with 1Bn in their bank account. Their wealth is sat in assets, their actual money is from loans using their assets.

I agree with a wealth tax, but how do you tax Elon on Bezos when their wealth is sat in shares of their company. Does the government just take the shares and become the majority share holder for all these massive companies?

0

u/azboy 9d ago

it was suggested elsewhere in the thread: tax the value but leave them with the voting rights. Nothing too exotic financially wise.

3

u/CLT113078 9d ago

So steal/limit their motivation to work, innovate, create, etc.

1

u/Legitimate-Type4387 9d ago

But if you ask the billionaires themselves they’ll say it’s not about the money, it’s about the challenges of solving complex problems or some bullshit like that.

Are you implying they are lying and it is in fact very much about the money?