Abolish Billionaires

You may have heard the popular slogan "abolish billionaires" repeated from time to time. But what does that actually mean from a policy perspective? Different people mean different things when they say it, but few people have clearly laid out a specific definition. This document exists to offer one specific definition in the form of a tax policy proposal that if implemented will effectively abolish billionaires.

A progressive annual wealth tax can be used to effectively abolish billionaires. One straightforward approach would be to levy escalating tax brackets starting at 0.1% for wealth over $1 million which increase by another 0.1% for each additional $1 million in net worth up to 100% for amounts above $1 billion.

If this tax proposal is adopted, here are some example annual wealth taxes that would be levied at various net worths:

• $0 tax on $1 million of net worth: the first $1 million is exempt.
• $1,000 tax on $2 million of net worth: the second $1 million is taxed at 0.1%.
• $10,000 tax on $5 million of net worth:
  • The second $1 million is taxed at 0.1% ($1,000).
  • The third $1 million is taxed at 0.2% ($2,000).
  • The fourth $1 million is taxed at 0.3% ($3,000).
  • The fifth $1 million is taxed at 0.4% ($4,000).
• etc.

This tax system would result in much steeper taxes for net worths approaching or exceeding $1 billion:

• $31,125,000 tax on $250 million of net worth.
• $124,750,000 tax on $500 million of net worth.
• $499,500,000 tax on $1 billion of net worth.
• $1,499,500,000 tax on $2 billion of net worth.
• etc.

While it wouldn't be completely impossible to be a billionaire under a tax system like this, it would be much more difficult, so billionaires would be considerably more rare. As such, wealth inequality will be reduced dramatically if this proposal is adopted.

But what about—?

Enforceability questions, capital flight questions, constitutionality questions, etc. The political questions surrounding implementing a wealth tax have been debated ad nauseum, and there are answers to these questions. The IRS can be funded better to enforce this, laws can be passed to prevent capital flight, the Constitution can be amended if absolutely necessary, etc. These are solvable problems if the electorate wants this badly enough.

How to make this happen

We need to move the Overton window on this proposal from unthinkably radical to mainstream and popular. For now that means sharing this document with as many people as possible and persuading them that it is sensible and necessary. The more people we get to take this idea seriously, the more likely it will be that we can get elected officials to take it seriously.