Stop Spewing Disingenuous 'Tax the Rich' Rhetoric and Start Implementing the Economic Solutions Already at Your Disposal

I recently published an article highlighting the absurdity in running on a platform to raise corporate taxes when the additional tax revenue campaigned for would amount to nothing more than a few extra days of federal spending.

Since that piece was published, candidate Kamala Harris has officially committed to a 28% corporate tax rate - a 7% increase from where it is today. Based on last year’s figures, this would amount to an additional $29.4 billion in tax revenue, presently .08% of the national debt.

Now, I’m sure that $29.4 billion would certainly benefit the FOGs (“Friends of Government”) like those who received millions of taxpayer dollars to study cow burps. However, if this figure were to be divvied up among the populace, each American would receive just $88 - barely enough to pay for one week’s worth of groceries.

To put this number into a more relatable context, adding $29.4 billion to a nation that is $35 trillion in debt is the equivalent of someone with a personal debt load of $25,000 getting a $20 annual raise.

That $20 would barely cover a meal at a fast-food restaurant, let alone one monthly loan payment.

Comparatively, given the government’s $16.8 billion daily spending habit, every single penny of that additional $29.4 billion would be depleted in a matter of mere hours.

42 hours to be exact.

Hence, anyone with basic math sense can see that raising the corporate tax rate to 28% will do nothing to help the millions of Americans who, at this very minute, are struggling to decide whether to put gas in their cars or feed their kids.

This is very simple arithmetic. There is no way that anyone running for high office doesn’t know how trivial a 7% corporate tax increase would be to the everyday American.

It makes one wonder whether this corporate tax hike is an earnest economic plan or just another campaign tactic, hoping that a few more “tax the rich” soundbites will resonate with mathematically incognizant and financially illiterate voters.

I think that the answer lies in the latest proposal to tax the unrealized capital gains of the uber wealthy. For, the only thing more absurd than taking money from job creators in exchange for no economic benefit to the populace is to tax money that doesn’t even exist at all.

Taxing unrealized capital gains is as nonsensical as taxing lottery tickets simply because they might be worth millions of dollars in an upcoming drawing.

It is a good thing that Elizabeth Warren is currently too busy desperately fighting to hang on to her senate seat. Otherwise, I’m sure she’d be insidiously drafting legislation to tax Powerball purchasers in the 1 in 292,200,000 chance that their numbers come in.

But I digress.

Taxing unrealized capital gains is not just ludicrous, it is downright chilling. Handing government the power to tax unsold assets sets a very dangerous precedent - even if it is just initially aimed at the 10,660 U.S. citizens who fall into the centimillionaire category (those with a net worth of $100 million or more).

According to the Department of Treasury, “the proposal would impose a minimum tax of 25% on total income, generally inclusive of unrealized capital gains, for all taxpayers with wealth (that is, the difference obtained by subtracting liabilities from assets) greater than $100 million.”

If you think that baseball card and wine collections would be excluded the asset count, you’d be wrong. Not only are collectibles included in the asset count, but the proposal also grants the Secretary of the Treasury and/or delegates the authority “for determining the basis of assets in cases where complete records are unavailable.”

So, how much taxpayer money will the U.S. receive for this gross infringement?

Well, according to the Treasury it is estimated that the unrealized capital gains tax on America’s centimillionaires would generate, on average, about $50.3 billion per year.

That amounts to just 71.8 extra hours of annual federal spending. That’s the big financial score to the U.S. treasury (insert eyeroll).

Aside from the FOGs, the other groups who would benefit the most from this harebrained idea would be accountants and, especially, lawyers as this plan will undoubtedly invite a plethora of litigation focused on asset valuation disputes.

With all due respect, this tax proposal is not an economic solution, it is a complete farce - and a very perilous one. Once empowered and precedents are set, there will be no stopping the government from taxing the unrealized capital gains across all brackets. This would unquestionably trigger annual market crashes as individuals are forced to liquidate assets, each year, just to pay their tax bill.

It doesn’t make sense that anyone, sincere about fixing the economy and helping the middle class, would risk pulverizing retirement portfolios in exchange for just a few extra days of spending each year.

Once again, this has all the markings of a campaign strategy designed to lure disenfranchised voters with false claims that the wealthy are the cause of their financial woes.

Indeed “blaming the rich” is still foolishly believed by some to be an effective way to galvanize the electorate. However, these individuals will be sorely disappointed when they realize just how few voters are still falling for the dissipated “tax the rich” campaign slogan.

The vast majority of Americans, today, view the government - not the wealthy - as the cause of their financial demise. Only the people buying bridges in Brooklyn from shysters believe that corporate price gauging is what caused a 25% loss in their purchasing power over the last few years.

Americans are suffering. They don’t want scapegoats. Nor do they want disingenuous tax proposals. They just want real economic solutions so that they can once again afford essential living expenses.

Inflation has opened people's eyes and made them see that America doesn’t have a tax problem; it has a spending problem. And it is one which is exacerbated by regulatory constraints that restrict local businesses and innovators from accessing the necessary capital that could actually fix the economy.

We have reached a critical economic juncture where America can't simply tax its way out of this economic mess.

America’s only chance of survival is to innovate and “entrepreneur-iate” its way out. And it can do so by returning to the very formula that enabled this nation to emerge as the world’s greatest economic superpower in the first place: granting all Americans the freedom to finance and capitalize from the innovation and ingenuity of its fellow citizens.

Amending some of today’s unjust securities rules (such as the SEC’s accredited investor rule) that prevent everyday Americans from investing in local privately held businesses is a quick and easy fix that could easily be implemented right now.

This would provide homegrown businesses with the essential (and far more cost-effective) capital to produce more goods and to hire more personnel. The injection of supply into the economy will help conquer inflation while the production will create actual jobs - not the phantom ones contained in fake government labor reports.

Candidates, who are proposing futile taxation policies instead of employing the proven remedies already at their disposal, are not serious about repairing the economy. And the more they spew divisive and illogical “tax the rich” rhetoric, the more they prove it.

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