Would a Wealth Tax Curb Income Inequality?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Massachusetts Senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren features a 'wealth tax' on the country's highest earners as one of her campaign promises. The idea of a wealth tax has been the subject of debate and discussion for years in every corner of the political world.
Recently, two billionaires — Eli Broad and Ken Fisher — wrote op-eds explaining their stance on the proposed tax. Broad is in favor of it, saying a higher tax rate on the rich will lead to equity trickling down to the masses. Fisher countered Broad's column with a proposal; that the country's wealthiest entrepreneurs begin creating "high-paying" jobs within their own companies and hiring people to fill them. In 2015, the Washington D.C.-based think tank The Brookings Institute published a study of income tax and income inequality, which found that taxing the top earners in the U.S. would have "modest" effects on the wealth gap.
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From the Center
Would a significant increase in the top income tax rate substantially alter income inequality?
The high level of income inequality in the United States is at the forefront of policy attention. This paper focuses on one potential policy response: an increase in the top personal income tax rate. We conduct a simulation analysis using the Tax Policy Center (TPC) microsimulation model to determine how much of a reduction in income inequality would be achieved from increasing the top individual tax rate to as much as 50 percent. We calculate the resulting change in income inequality assuming an explicit redistribution of all new revenue to...
From the Left
I'm a billionaire with a better idea than a wealth tax. We can use our money to create jobs
Legendary multi-billionaire businessman Eli Broad wrote a heartfelt New York Times opinion column this month urging a broad wealth tax to improve income inequality. Worthy goal. The column's subhead says, “Wealthy people like me should commit to reducing the ravages of economic inequality.” Most wealth lists say I’m only worth about half what Broad is, but I have an idea for him that is twice as good, faster and more direct than any wealth tax.
We all want people to do better — or should. Helping is surely good; but...
From the Left
Opinion | I’m in the 1 Percent. Please, Raise My Taxes.
There’s a story we like to tell about American capitalism. Ours is a country that prizes merit, rewards risk and stands apart in its commitment to the collective success of open markets and the free flow of capital. We are a nation of strivers who can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps with the right combination of grit and determination.
That’s the tale we love to tell and hear. But take it from a person who has found himself on the fortunate side of that narrative: This story is incomplete....
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