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Wealth Inequality in America drawn to scale

What HN thinks

A chart about money turns into a 200-comment seminar on whether stocks are assets, with Cambodia making a surprise appearance.

Tax the ultra-wealthy, curb power
Many argue a wealth tax is justified less for revenue than to break up concentrated power; forcing billionaires to sell shares is seen as a feature, not a bug.
Wealth taxes are impractical or harmful
Skeptics say wealth is mostly illiquid equity, taxing unrealized gains hurts startups and productivity, countries that tried it rolled it back, and the rich flee or avoid it.
Fix the tax base instead
A middle camp prefers closing loopholes like borrow-spend-die, taxing inheritances and asset compensation as income, or a minimum tax like Zucman's, with high thresholds indexed to inflation.

Consensus: There is no consensus on wealth taxes, though many agree any such tax should start at a high, inflation-indexed threshold so it doesn't hit the middle class.

Recommended in the comments

Distributional Financial Accounts ↗ (service): Suggested as a clearer way to see total wealth held by each percentile than the averaged visualization.

Summarised by Claude from the comment thread 1 day ago.

Points: 189
Comments: 384
Best rank: #1
Posted: 2026-10-28 by haraball
Category: Culture society

wealth-inequality data-visualization united-states economics household-net-worth minimum-wage

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