> If you assume Hashimotos net worth is one billion dollars, a $400k donation is equivalent to a $400 donation if your net worth is one million dollars.

1. Net worth is significantly less than that (taxes + heavy philanthropy)

2. $400K donation is orders (plural) of magnitude off our actual philanthropic giving in total. This is just one donation.

> I think this illustrates ... why a very small wealth tax can be used for a lot of good in society.

isn't the accrued billion dollars what remains after a much larger amount was taxed at roughly 50%?

(of course could be spread across multiple years, but the essence remains)

How would the "very small wealth tax" be calculated, that you propose?

I spent $120 on an alternator for someone and it made a very big difference in his life. So it can be meaningful.

The small wealth tax will be spent not on people but on growing the government’s bureaucracy. Take highly taxed states (eg CA) and no tax/low tax states (eg TX). You pay more for in state tuition for your children in the UC system as opposed to in state tuition in Texas.

There are some advantages to tax. But most of it is not spent on making lives of citizens easier.

People with that much wealth should keep their money and use it where they see fit. A "wealth tax" forces some people to sell stock since not everyone has liquid assets. The CA "wealth" tax was written in a way that they could instantly turn $1B -> $1M or $100K overnight without a vote.

So many reasons why it's not a good idea to have a wealth tax. But the biggest reason is that nearly all our tax money is going to fraud. This is why our economy would BOOM if we got rid of a lot of taxes and reduced our fed/state governments a LOT. I just want roads, military and police. There is no reason why we should allow our government to be weaponized or turned into a nanny state when SO much of they money they collect is wasted.

Corporations that provide money for causes is often looked at because it's an investment. The world can learn a lot of free market capitalism, but it keeps pretending that half the people won't just DIE in communism.

> why a very small wealth tax can be used for a lot of good in society

How? It'll just go to the gov. budget which will be mostly used to pay for bloated healthcare, military and interest.

That is a very privileged out of touch comment to make, no offense.

In many(most?) parts of the world, $400 is the equivalent of months of good salary.

>>If you assume Hashimotos net worth is one billion dollars, a $400k donation is equivalent to a $400 donation if your net worth is one million dollars.

It's not an equivalent. It's proportionally the same but it's completely different.

>>I think this illustrates just how much a billion dollars is and maybe why a very small wealth tax can be used for a lot of good in society.

If anything it illustrates taxes should be lower for people like Hashimoto. Giving even more money to the government instead of leaving it with people like Hashimoto will result in a huge net loss.

A few things to note. 1 billion isn't a thousand times a million. If you make a conservative 5% let's say out of your net worth, you still need to work with a million, whereas you don't with a billion. So, technically, $400 with a million is some amount of work hours, whereas $400k with a billion is just pocket change taken out of more than most people lifetime's of earnings that is just 1 year of your interest.

Also, a lot more people (more than 1000x) have $400 to give than $400k so in a sense if people with $400 to give were all being very generous, they could amount to a lot more than what billionnaires could give.