5 Reasons It's Just Absurd That America Doesn't Tax Wall St's Transactions

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36. Cant agree with you on the last part

Holding for a year is long enough to discourage day trading and the likes. And doubling the cap gain rate would discourage even MORE people from getting invested in the market, leaving the field even more open to only the rich.
I am not rich and I can tell you from experience that i've made decisions based on whether or not the tax would be 10% (which is gone now) or my regular rate. Doing that sometimes makes you make a wrong choice. In my case, I didnt make a trade in order to get the lower long-term rate and the govt had to wait to get a 6K tax payment. The higher tax discourages you from making the sale, and the govt gets nothing. We should set a rate that ENCOURAGES sales which in turn generates more total tax revenue to the govt. Its been shown to be true with regard to the stock market.
Compare it to a speeding ticket. If you only had to pay 10.00 if you got caught speeding, you wouldnt worry very much about it. But when the cops start charging 150.00 you pay a lot closer attention to how fast youre going.