Tendentious statistics are constantly put forth by various neo-Marxists trying to prove that American society is unjust and that confiscatory taxes should therefore be imposed on the wealthy. The advocates of a wealth tax don’t seem to be aware that we already have a 40% wealth tax imposed upon death -- the estate tax. The neo-Marxists often contrast the maximum 37% tax on earned income with the maximum 24% (technically 23.8%) tax on long-term capital gains. But capital gains taxes are often a tax on inflation. For example, something that cost $1000 in 1999 would cost $1540 today, due to inflation. If you bought a stock for $1000 in 1999 and sold it for $2000 yesterday, you have a profit on paper of $1000 and would pay a $240 capital gains tax. But the true increase in value is $2000-1540 or $460 and the tax of 240 is a 52% tax rate on the real increase. If one is going to tax capital gains the tax should be indexed by inflation to be fair, but it isn’t. The tax...(Read Full Article)