The Econ 101 Case For France's Wealth Tax
As able TAS readers will know, I’m a pretty free market guy. Yet unlike most center-right French people I like France’s wealth tax. It just makes economic sense.
Yesterday I wrote on Business Insider why. I thought it might be of interest to this crowd.
Is the wealth tax easy to administer? How do you actually measure someone’s net worth when you are giving them in incentive to under-report it. (I am not saying this can’t be done, I’d just like to know how).
— Adrian Ratnapala · Apr 14, 11:54 AM · #
PEG:
A quick question: wouldn't somebody with $100MM of investable assets be unlikely to work harder or less hard to get different returns, but instead make different decisions about asset classes?
Unless Marie is an investment professional, and devoting herself full-time time to managing her own money, this would likely mean a family office, multi-family office or good private bank. Marie would give different instructions to her banker.
I suspect you’re not encouraging work, you’re encouraging a different asset allocation.
— Jim Manzi · Apr 14, 03:49 PM · #
Interesting. Is there a name for this tax that would show up in academic research journals? Has it been around long enough to generate detectable results?
BTW, one of the reasons I favor a graduated inheritance tax in this country is that the children of the rich don’t have to take risks and work hard for their money. So they use their inherited wealth and leisure to get involved in artsy organizations that lobby the government to oppress the people with higher taxes. It would be much better for the rich, while they are still alive, to put their energy into joining with other Americans in creating a low-tax environment in which not only their own children, but everyone’s children can have a shot at creating new wealth for themselves.
— The Reticulator · Apr 15, 02:31 AM · #
Forgot to mention: I second Adrian Ratnapala’s question.
— The Reticulator · Apr 15, 02:38 AM · #
Jim: Right. But from a macro perspective, the benefits are the same.
Also, what’s true about $100M is also true about $2M, where you wouldn’t have a family office there.
— PEG · Apr 15, 09:13 AM · #
PEG:
Fair enough – makes sense.
Jim
— Jim Manzi · Apr 15, 09:17 AM · #
Why would the return on hard work be related to a person’s wealth? If I have $2 million in the bank or $100 million in the bank, the salary I can command is the same. I can’t work harder to make 6% return on the $100 million because I simply don’t have the ability to do work worth $6 million.
— Andrew · Apr 19, 07:11 PM · #
Is it so different from other wealth tax? Almost in all European country the same system.
— art essay · Apr 20, 12:16 PM · #
Great minds think alike?
http://www.asymptosis.com/the-flat-tax-short-version.html
— Steve Roth · Apr 25, 04:38 PM · #