Should there be a wealth tax of 100% for net worth over $1 billion?

[mileslunn]

Horrible idea.  It would just cause billionaires to move elsewhere thus making government poorer.  Yes billionaires should be taxed more than middle class, I don't agree with Warren Buffet's case where he pays a lower rate than his secretary, but not at 100%.  Another problem with this is determining net wealth is not as easy as some think so no doubt many would use various accounting tricks or perhaps split wealth amongst family to avoid this.  Also billionaires don't actually have a billion dollars on hand, that is their net worth.  Many are large shareholders of big companies and so something like this would cause those stocks to tank and would hurt many middle class.  Many many class people fund their retirement through investments in stock market and most workplace pensions invest heavily in stock market so it wouldn't just hurt billionaires, but ruin retirement savings for many middle class people.

Wealth taxes don't really work.  If concerned, perhaps raise inheritance tax or you could raise top marginal rate too.  That being said with top marginal rate real problem is not rate, but more number of deductions.  If you get rid of a lot of the deductions that primarily favor the wealthy, you could actually lower the top marginal rate and still receive more revenue.  In 1986 tax reform when top rate was dropped from 50% to 28%, no revenue was lost for simple reason most wealthy were only paying around 28% anyways and all that happened is many deductions they could use before were eliminated in exchange for lower rate. 

[mileslunn]

No, absolutely not. This would destroy morale for any up-and-coming entrepreneur/business leaders, causing them not to reach their full potential and not work as hard. Even though the American Dream has it's flaws, it inspires the populace to work their hardest, as this would evaporate. As a result, our society wouldn't be as successful as we could be.

How many entrepreneurs are there who would pass up the chance to earn $999 million because they could not stack another few hundred million on top of it? Since when has "being a literal billionaire" been synonymous with the American dream?

More it would stop companies from growing too large or those at $999 million would sell shares thus losing influence and control of company to stay under that.  If company is worth $10 billion and you have 9% of shares, that will be a strong incentive to other reduce shareholding or not grow it further to avoid getting hit by tax.