Piketty’s solution to widening inequality is a global wealth tax, a solution he characterizes as utopian, for getting the world’s nations to eradicate tax havens is close to impossible.
I would go further and say it is impossible within the U.S., never mind the world, as the top .1% own the political machinery. Why would anyone who owns the political process agree to tax themselves?
As a result, any wealth tax will fall not on the super-wealthy with billions of dollars of unearned rentier income but on the upper-middle class who worked, saved and invested to build a nestegg.
In other words, a wealth tax will fall on the same tax donkeys who are already paying the majority of income taxes.
If I have contributed anything to the wealth inequality issue, it is the proposition that we live in a neofeudal, neocolonial economy (the New Feudalism), ruled by a New Nobility.
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The fiendishly Orwellian brilliance of neofedualism is this: present-day serfs opt into serfdom, just as free citizens opted into the protection of feudal lords’ estates as the Roman Empire crumbled around them. It was a false choice; remain free and face ruinous taxes, or choose serfdom on a lord’s estate. The present economy offers an equivalent false choice for all but the most dedicated, disciplined few who reject debt by rejecting consumerism, “growth” and the endless spew of neofeudal propaganda.
Want a college education? You freely choose the servitude of debt.
Want a house? You freely choose the servitude of debt.
Want a new vehicle? You freely choose the servitude of debt.
