Bill Gates: Taxing the rich is fine, but '........' politicians like AOC are missing the point by

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27. wow, he's actually agreeing with us, for the most part.

it's a valid point that a lot depends on what *counts* as "income".

our present system is fubar in no small part because we tax different income differently.

income from actual wages and salary, which for most people comes from actual work, is taxed at the potentially highest rates.

income derived from wealth, such as dividends and realized capital gains, are taxed at a much smaller rate.

income derived from wealth on paper, such as unrealized capital gain (your stock went up, but you haven't sold it yet) isn't taxed at all.


stupid right-wing arguments notwithstanding, there's no good reason to tax different types of income differently. all it does is encourage those who can (i.e., the wealthy) shift their earnings to be in the form that gets better tax treatment and screw the people who can't shift things around like that (i.e., the rest of us who work for a living).

dividends and capital gains should be taxed as ordinary income. stock and other investments with a liquid trading market should be market-to-market at the end of the year so people pay income tax as they go. no good reason to encourage people to refuse to sell a particular investment just because it's gone up in value.


the only problem is how to handle investments for which there isn't a liquid market. it has to be done in a way that doesn't encourage the wealthy to just hoard something like art and hide it.