But there are enough other ways where it's really hard and unsolved. Imagine someone bought an $X irreplaceable ancient urn to hold the ashes of their parents.
How do you calculate the $Y "wealth" inside that non-fungible urn on their mantelpiece today? How can one determine which "I would buy that for X" statements are falsely low or falsely high?
> owners go out of their way to estimate the magnitude of their wealth for example to borrow money
I have no inherent problem linking one voluntary claim of wealth to another conclusion of wealth... But what happens when someone wealthy who doesn't actually need any loans applies for them while presenting themselves as a pauper?
Or cases where someone seeks a loan and their rationale is "I may have negative net worth but you'll be made whole because you're first in line", as opposed to "I have high net worth"?
> I have a hard time to find a good faith reason for capital gains to be taxed less than labor.
Consider a small company of AcmeCo with 1-10 workers all dedicated to the art of Acme'ing, each taking tiny wages (but accepting shares) because they believe in the mission and want to launch the company.
On a technical level, anything they (might) get would be capital gains, but clearly it's not the same as passive rents with no labor behind it. It's closer to deferred wages.
I heard that, at least in the US, you can avoid capital tax gain by just... never selling. Borrow against your wealth instead.
If you increase capital gains tax, the more risky ideas will no longer be viable investment vehicles even though some of them would have been successful. Across the entire economy, the net effect will be less innovation, stagnation, and loss of power relative to foreign countries.
Tax rates are carefully tuned to maximize tax revenue without unduly disincentivizing production. To change them purely based on vibes would be catastrophically stupid.
Please don't vote.
You seem to conflate and misunderstand a few things here. For one, capital gains are paid out from profits, so they leave the company's budget and are not part of investment.
Secondly, holding stock and stock trading has been immensely profitable, relatively low risk and require little if done reasonably and over long periods.
More and more studies are affirming that simply buying index funds and holding them over long periods is _less_ risky than buying bonds.
> Tax rates are carefully tuned to maximize tax revenue without unduly disincentivizing production.
They reflect power relations and tax competition more than anything.
> To change them purely based on vibes would be catastrophically stupid.
Not based on "vibes". The people who actually generate wealth are workers and consumers, not stock holders.
> Please don't vote.
We should mutually respect our rights to vote even if we disagree.
I don't really believe it. Investment is always incentivized by tax breaks and other political gifts. But once things turn bad it's the citizen's turn to pay for it. Fire all staff? We pay for unemployment. Pollute the soil? We pay for cleanup. Empty the water table? Guess who's gonna depend on the state for clean water...
> To change them purely based on vibes would be catastrophically stupid.
Please tell that to every neo liberal in my country. Reducing taxes on the rich seems to be their passtime, while every time some kind of capital gain is mentioned, everyone and their dogs become experts in economics and can tell you it's folly.
> Please don't vote.
Please don't look down on others.
In some ways taxing wealth is quite simple, because wealth is already meticulously recorded via contracts and owners go out of their way to estimate the magnitude of their wealth for example to borrow money or for other financial and economic obligations.
Another approach would be to tax capital gains at the same rate as income and introduce additional top brackets. I have a hard time to find a good faith reason for capital gains to be taxed less than labor.