re: People still don't understand net worth/wealth vs income

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Hell, people don't realize that taxes on corporations are taxes on everyone.

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Economists are fairly split on this to be honest. It's not as clear cut as being made out because it's a tax on profits, not revenues.

Not every company has the same profit margins -> increasing corporation tax is a tax on profits -> not every company has the same room to maintain profit margins without losing market share. So not every company can remain as profitable by increasing prices to match the pre-corporation-tax profit margin. Certain goods are more elastic than others and that affects the level of room they have to adjust prices to maintain profit margins.

I think increasing corporation tax is nonsense though. It's one of the policies I don't particularly like as a Biden voter. Corporation taxes should be fairly low because it's a really bad tax - it's a really inefficient tax and doesn't raise the money it should.

Wealth does earn dividends though in many cases, which you could argue is a form of income. You can also borrow on portfolios through asset-backed financing, which acts as a form of income. I have an account with a private bank with a significant amount and they let me borrow money off my investments, which is theoretically income that isn't taxed.

Jeff Bezos can borrow a significant level of his wealth through asset-backed financing, which would be an income. It's a very clever way of getting money without needing to pay capital gains tax. If anyone has over $2-3M in stocks, I highly recommend you go to a private bank of a bulge bracket like JP Morgan and get asset-backed loans/financing. It's really convenient to make money without needing to sell stocks and interest rates are so low. Jeff Bezos uses asset-backed financing so his wealth does act as an income to an extent.

However, yeah, it's annoying when people don't get the difference between realized income and stock value. There are clever ways to avoid paying Capital Gains Tax though, which is the tax on wealth.