Can a Wealth Tax Really Help the Poor?
I don't think her intentions are dishonorable.
She simply wants to live in a world where there is less of a divide between the poor and the absurdly rich.
She wants to live in a world where every American has access to health care, quality education, and a safe place to live. Certainly, these are not bad things to want, nor are they impossible to achieve.
But Sen. Elizabeth Warren's recently revived economic plan to "even things out" for all Americans is, for lack of a better word, unsound.
The proposal?
A 2% tax on those with a net worth of more than $50 million and a 1% surcharge for net worths above $1 billion.
You pay a surcharge on cable bills or for cleaning fees after you foul up a hotel room. You don't pay a surcharge for being successful.
But that's exactly what Sen. Warren wants to do, and she has a lot of support from voters on both sides of the aisle.
Not that such a thing should be surprising. Especially these days with so many folks struggling just to keep roofs over their heads.
And I get that it's popular these days to hate the rich and blame capitalism for, well, pretty much everything, it seems.
But make no mistake - as with any superfluous tax, inevitably, it'll still be the little guy who gets screwed.
Hating Rich People Won't Make YOU Rich
Reason magazine contributor Dr. Veronique de Rugy recently made an excellent point regarding a wealth tax when she wrote:
What wealth taxes do best is... disrupt the accumulation of capital. Since most wealth is invested and provides capital for innovators and producers to draw upon - and for workers to work with - all Americans would suffer from a wealth tax.
While it's easy to point fingers at the rich when you barely have a pot to piss in, the reality is that without the necessary capital to innovate and invest, job creation disappears.
And honestly, it's really kind of shitty that some politicians would take advantage of those who don't understand this and are down on their luck to try to push through something that will inevitably only further harm their financial situations.
But I guess that's what politicians do, right?
Scare voters into believing that they will be saved by government. But only a fool believes that the government has their best interest in mind anyway. If this weren't the case, your income wouldn't be taxed, you wouldn't have to pay the government for the privilege of operating a business or driving a car, and personal sovereignty would never be criminalized.
All things, by the way, that siphon your wealth and freedom rather than protect it.
I've never actually understood why people who hate the rich are so quick to love the lawmakers who make it possible for the game to be rigged against them in the first place.
Would you love the carjacker who's about to steal your car?
Would you love the burglar who breaks into your home and steals your television and weed stash?
OK, perhaps I'm being a bit hyperbolic. But the bottom line is that those who struggle to create wealth and seek only to persecute the rich instead of figuring out a way to become rich themselves will simply run in circles until their legs - and their anger - give out.
Truth is, this is actually one of the reasons I got into the finance game to begin with.
I have no interest in vilifying rich people. I do, however, have an interest in helping those who don't already own yachts and private jets create enough wealth to have those options.
And that's exactly what I've been doing for more than two decades now, as have my colleagues.
Take Christian DeHaemer, for instance, who I've known since 1996.
Not only is he a great friend, but he's also helped me make a ton of money over the years.
In fact, it was Chris who first told me to buy Bitcoin back in 2016 - when it was going for about $450.
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If you bought some Bitcoin when Chris recommended it and still own it today, you've seen your investment grow in excess of 11,530%
To put that in perspective, a $10,000 investment in Bitcoin just five years ago would be worth more than $1 million today.
That, my friends, is how you get rich.
And make no mistake: Anyone who can pull in some scratch like that isn't hating the rich but instead focusing solely on getting even richer.
Now, I realize some folks will vilify me for writing these words, but the truth is if you seek to criticize the wealthy instead of working to create your own wealth, you deserve neither wealth nor all the wonderful things that come with being wealthy.
And yes, I know that money can't make you happy.
There is truth to that.
But I'll tell you this much...
I'm a lot happier today than I was 20 years ago - when I was making $35,000 a year and living paycheck to paycheck.
Of course, it all comes down to what you really want in life.
Do you want to be wealthy or do you just want to hate other people who are?
If you're reading these words right now, I suspect you want to be wealthy. So here's a list of three opportunities for you to build significant wealth right now...
The first is Christian DeHaemer's latest stock pick, which is already up 345% since he recommended it.
The second is one of my favorite solar technology plays, which has developed a new solar technology that's so advanced it can actually turn entire buildings into their own power plants. And the cost to install theses systems comes in at a fraction of what it costs to install traditional solar panels on your roof.
And the third is a biotech play that's developed what some now believe is a cure for everything from anxiety and depression to PTSD and addiction. I'm personally up more than 600% on this one already, and I believe this thing has plenty of steam to get me up over 1,000%. When that happens, by the way, that will be my fourth gain in excess of 1,000% over the past four years.
Yeah, that's right. Since 2017, I've been averaging at least one 1,000% gain per year.
Now, doesn't that sound far more appealing than being poor and criticizing rich people for being, well, rich?
You know the answer to that question.
To a new way of life and a new generation of wealth...
Jeff Siegel
@JeffSiegel on Twitter
Jeff is the founder and managing editor of Green Chip Stocks, a private investment community that capitalizes on opportunities in alternative energy, organic food markets, legal cannabis, and socially responsible investing. He has been a featured guest on Fox, CNBC, and Bloomberg Asia, and is the author of the best-selling book, Investing in Renewable Energy: Making Money on Green Chip Stocks. For more on Jeff, go to his editor's page.