should we be taxing earnings...or should we be taxing wealth?

[JHB]

122. And how do you calculate wealth? Inventory everyone's belongings?

When I was a teenager I collected comic books. Still have most of the collection, boxed up and in storage. There are some in there that could be sold for decent money, but I haven't really taken the time to go through it in recent years.

Would I have to assess every one of them for tax purposes? Pay someone else to do it? And then pay 10-15% of something that's basically been sitting around for two decades?

My brother has a nice little fancy table in his house. It was our grandmother's, and had all sorts of delicate designs carved into the wood. After she died it was kept, but sat in our parents' garage for over 10 years. Eventually he took it to his house and restored and revarnished it. Would his taxes go up thanks to his putting in the work to take Grandma's old table and turn it into an antique worth much more in dollar terms?

That seems more intrusive than taxing income.

And what about dodges? Would it work out for me taxwise to form a business -- say, and online comic book store -- and count my old collection as inventory? Will inventory be taxed the same way, at the same rates? And if not, won't there be a growth industry in exploiting the difference?

It's not as simple or easy as you seem to think.