Not that it makes it any better, but the billions they have are mostly imaginary. It’s not cash or even concrete numbers on a bank account. It’s just a speculative valuation of what they own and most of the value comes from stocks on a company. Stocks that only have value as long as they are desirable for someone else and there is no surplus of them on the market. They could never cash out that value and even trying to cash out a significant portion would crash the stock price and their wealth.
But as long as they possess this assumed wealth, they are granted almost unlimited credit to cover any purchase.
“ they are granted almost unlimited credit to cover any purchase.”
This is where I feel tax policy should step in, if it hasn’t already. I get that unrealized or non liquid wealth is theoretical based on valuation. But as soon as it’s used as collateral there’s an income aspect that should be taxed. Basically, once you start using that wealth to secure loans, it’s not really “unrealized” anymore and should be taxed.
Might not be a bad idea, anything beyond a single HELOC gets taxed 25% off the top, or something else that someone smarter about economics than I would certainly be able to come up with.
Not that it makes it any better, but the billions they have are mostly imaginary. It’s not cash or even concrete numbers on a bank account. It’s just a speculative valuation of what they own and most of the value comes from stocks on a company. Stocks that only have value as long as they are desirable for someone else and there is no surplus of them on the market. They could never cash out that value and even trying to cash out a significant portion would crash the stock price and their wealth. But as long as they possess this assumed wealth, they are granted almost unlimited credit to cover any purchase.
This is where I feel tax policy should step in, if it hasn’t already. I get that unrealized or non liquid wealth is theoretical based on valuation. But as soon as it’s used as collateral there’s an income aspect that should be taxed. Basically, once you start using that wealth to secure loans, it’s not really “unrealized” anymore and should be taxed.
Might not be a bad idea, anything beyond a single HELOC gets taxed 25% off the top, or something else that someone smarter about economics than I would certainly be able to come up with.