{"id":1143797,"date":"2019-10-14T11:57:56","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T16:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyreckoning.com\/?p=108136"},"modified":"2019-10-14T11:57:56","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T16:57:56","slug":"lets-steal-my-neighbors-yacht","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1143797","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Steal My Neighbor\u2019s Yacht"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post Let\u2019s Steal My Neighbor\u2019s Yacht<\/a> appeared first on Daily Reckoning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I still remember the day my college girlfriend told me her dad\u2019s stock portfolio was worth $110,000.<\/p>\n

I was floored. Between that, a good job, and a nice house on Long Island\u2014 the guy was rich!<\/p>\n

Twenty years later, it would take a little bit more to get my attention.<\/p>\n

I tell you, as modestly as possible, that my current home is worth eleven times as much as that $110,000 stock portfolio. My investments, cash accounts, and other assets are worth many times that amount as well.<\/p>\n

So yeah, life has been pretty good<\/em><\/strong> to this kid who grew up in a Pennsylvania coal mining town.<\/p>\n

Yet I\u2019m also aware that even my current wealth is merely a drop in the bucket to loads of other people.<\/p>\n

Heck, I\u2019ve hung out with men and women worth tens of millions \u2026 some worth hundreds of millions \u2026 maybe even a billionaire or two. Everyone from third-generation trust funders to self-made Internet entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m relaying all this to explain why I\u2019m troubled by Bernie Sanders\u2019 recent proposal to tax billionaires, a group of people he says \u201cshouldn\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bye Bye Billionaires<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In a nutshell, Sanders says we should implement a \u201cwealth tax\u201d \u2013 as high as 8% — on the richest people in America.<\/p>\n

About 180,000 households would pay some form of the tax.<\/p>\n

It would start applying to individuals with a net worth of $16 million or married couples with $32 million. They\u2019d pay 1% a year.<\/p>\n

The top group \u2013 married couples worth at least $10 billion \u2013 would pay 8% a year.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019ll admit. There\u2019s a small part of me that wants<\/u> to agree<\/em> with this idea of taking a couple percent from our country\u2019s billionaires.<\/p>\n

Do they seriously need that extra several million?<\/p>\n

Of course not.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Would it be awesome to just take some of that money and create a universal income plan \u2026 raise Social Security benefits for millions of Baby Boomers \u2026 or give everyone free healthcare?<\/p>\n

Absolutely.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just one problem \u2026<\/p>\n

It would also be theft.<\/p>\n

Consider the following.<\/p>\n

Here I am in my million-dollar shack \u2013 and it really is just a simple home \u2013 albeit with a great view, staring out at the Pacific.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, right on the bluff above the ocean, are a row of houses worth many times as much as mine.<\/p>\n

I know a few of the people who live in those houses, including a guy who has a lobster yacht docked down at the marina. His boat<\/strong> is also worth more than my house<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t really need<\/em> that boat. I\u2019m pretty sure he could just go out and buy another one if it disappeared. Heck, he might not even miss it all that much on a day-to-day basis!<\/p>\n

Does that mean I can go down there and take it out to the Channel Islands whenever I feel like it?<\/p>\n

Or that someone getting evicted from their apartment can go down and live on it for a while?<\/p>\n

Or that he should be forced to sell it and donate the money to charity?<\/p>\n

Well, Bernie\u2019s plan is basically this very thing writ large.<\/p>\n

Bernie\u2019s Burglary <\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s an asset seizure based on people\u2019s relative wealth … just like me going down to the harbor and taking my friend\u2019s lobster yacht simply because he has a lot more money.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Bernie\u2019s plan uses definitions of \u201ctoo much wealth\u201d that are arbitrary \u2013 and subject to change \u2013 just as my own have been over time.<\/p>\n

And it feeds upon our own greed, self-righteousness, and jealousy to justify taking someone else\u2019s stuff.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t taking some of what they\u2019re earning, like our current income tax.<\/p>\n

Nor is it taking some of their stuff once they die, like our current estate tax.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a third layer of taxation that takes existing stuff from people every living year as long as they continue to have \u201ctoo much wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, it\u2019s easy to look the other way and dismiss the actual proposal because it only applies to the Zuckerbergs of the world.<\/p>\n

Indeed, you\u2019ll hear a lot of people say they don\u2019t understand why more low-income Americans \u2013 particularly poor, rural Republican voters \u2013 can\u2019t support this kind of policy.<\/p>\n

Well, it isn\u2019t because they\u2019re all stupid.<\/p>\n

Nor is just because they\u2019re aspirational.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s because they know that no matter how much anyone else has, it\u2019s simply wrong to steal from them.<\/p>\n

And just so you don\u2019t think I\u2019m only picking on Bernie, other presidential candidates have proposed similar plans that are just as morally flawed.<\/p>\n

So as appealing as it may seem to drain a little bit of wealth from the people who \u201cwon\u2019t notice it\u201d at the top of the ladder, at the end of the day, you have to face the facts. No matter what you want to call it, it\u2019s theft, and stealing from people is not a great<\/em> way of writing government policy, no matter who you are.<\/p>\n

To a richer life,<\/p>\n

\"Nilus<\/p>\n

Nilus Mattive<\/p>\n

The post Let\u2019s Steal My Neighbor\u2019s Yacht<\/a> appeared first on Daily Reckoning<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post Let’s Steal My Neighbor’s Yacht<\/a> appeared first on Daily Reckoning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This week, I’m looking at the political plans of another Democratic candidate and how those plans would impact your retirement. <\/p>\n

The post Let’s Steal My Neighbor’s Yacht<\/a> appeared first on Daily Reckoning<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3415,3416,366,3417,771,923,3418,3419],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143797"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1143797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1143798,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143797\/revisions\/1143798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1143797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1143797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1143797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}