Kevin Carson, installing a wealth tax is a simple “Robin Hood” action with plenty popular appeal. Great, but will it deliver what you want? which is much better distribution of wealth, yes? A danger is that a wealth tax will come with unintended and unwanted costs and consequences for everyone — including the people you are trying to help. Summers expressed downsides of a wealth tax that cannot be completely ignored. Also, the assessment of wealth to be taxed would be a fraught undertaking—an expensive and time consuming fight, with the very people most able to fight back. A careful look at countries that have (or dropped) such a policy would also be prudent, before proceeding with such an idea.

I suggest, a more straightforward approach, to diminishing the disparity of wealth, is to take on the inequities in the current tax system — that will be difficult enough. (this may even include Andrew Wang’s base income for every adult). Reining in tax credits and subsidies, where they are misplaced in the economy as a whole, is certainly essential. That, together with stripping away the “moats” around companies and industries, which can be achieved by reinforcing (and simply using existing) the antitrust laws to dismantle barriers to competition. Hence, creating a real obstacle to the makers of monopolies and oligopolies.

Microsoft should never have been permitted to have the market share of computing software it had. Unfortunately, customers fell into a contentment of the situation (as they have done today with Amazon and others) and blind to “what else could have been” with competition existing— other less costly and better systems (That environment may also have been better for Microsoft).

The patent laws need general updating to address abuses that are currently taking place.

Thanks for your article.