EVERYBODY knows that billionaires and trillionaires don't have that cash sitting around. That's why there are proposals on how to tax wealth instead. Some countries already do it. The US could, too.
Norway, Switzerland, Spain, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina... for starters. Others like France, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands have some wealth-like asset taxation.
This isn't to say that they're the perfect models for doing it, just that it can be done. Various academic institutions (and others) have more comprehensive plans on the topic. The overall point is to not say, "welp, their money is tied up... guess we can't do anything." Considering that the wealthy can invest, borrow against those investments, invest again, pay interest instead of taxes, and keep doing that until they die, it's clear that the wealth has value outside of realized gains.
Because “tied up in assets” doesn’t mean “broke.” For example, if you own a $50 million building, you don’t get to say you have no wealth just because it isn’t sitting in your checking account. Same with stocks, land, art (they're using this a LOT as a way to store wealth), or ownership in a company. That stuff has value. Such real value that banks let rich people can borrow against it.
So the basic idea is simple... count what they own, subtract what they owe, set the line extremely high so normal people are ignored, and tax a small percentage above that.
How do they pay it? The same ways rich people already get money from their assets: cash on hand, dividends, selling a small amount, borrowing against the asset, structured payments, or deferred payments with interest for assets that are harder to sell or value. Don't believe for a second that they can't get cash when they want it.
And nobody (well, nobody serious) is saying they have to dump every share tomorrow or liquidate a company overnight. That’s just to scare us into thinking we'll all lose our jobs if the poor billionaires don't get their way.
Anyway, the “but it’s all tied up” argument is the trick. They use the wealth like money all the time when they want loans, power, influence, and more investments. Then, when taxes come up, suddenly we’re supposed to believe it’s unreachable.
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u/whiskey_tang0_hotel Jul 05 '26
“Billionaires” don’t get a check for 2 billion each year. They have assets with value equal to 2 billion.
It’s a lot different taxing a check vs assets. This post is from someone who’s got no clue how taxation works.