Did I Forget To Mention Whoops!?

Newsalert: Millionaires Vanish: The Data: LRC Blog from the Wall Street Journal.

Maybe now it's dawning on you why Obama's trying to fool you into believing that he's going to get an extra $0.8T to $1T from taxing the rich each year to close the budget gap -- instead of getting an extra $100B per year for 10 years which is actually what he's talking about. Which is -- if we're lucky -- only 5-10% of just what we would need to close the deficits we are likely to run! It's only 5-6% of this year's deficit!

To bring in $1T a year -- which still would only be 2/3 of this year's deficit! -- you would need to confiscate ALL OF THE INCOME of those making over $1M per year. And for that to work you have to put them in chains so they don't flee the country and then you need to dictate how they manage their investments in terms of taking capital gains -- so there's still income to tax.

Look at that table again. The income of the "rich" is highly volatile and prone to disappearing in bad times. As are the "rich" themselves.

Even dictating how they take capital gains may not work -- what if they're sitting on a bunch of capital losses like everyone else? Maybe we will need to tax losses too? And the $30T of non-residential fixed assets (productive capital -- of which it takes $200K worth to support one job) of the country will somehow be maintained? By voodoo magic?

Who do you think has any savings to support the replenishment of the country's capital stock? Our spendthrift and brainwashed middle class? What's left of it?

So getting that $1T per year will require dropping the threshold for confiscatory taxation down to $200K or below and maybe ONLY taking 50-75% of their incomes.

Did I forget to mention this is a spending problem?

If you can't figure that out by now, please return to the asylum you escaped from.