# Progressive proposal for wealth taxes--why not just do this? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 4, 2021, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/progressive-proposal-for-wealth-taxes-why-not-just-do-this/953812 "2021-11-04T20:29:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 27
**Author:** ![Hellestal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ab097/32.png) [@Hellestal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hellestal)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/progressive-proposal-for-wealth-taxes-why-not-just-do-this/953812/27 "2021-11-05T17:30:21Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Real estate provides “income” in the form of imputed rent, but lots of other untaxed wealth also provides a flow of services, but is untaxed. I specified paper wealth. > [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > If you own fine art, you get the benefit of looking at it whenever you like, something that poorer museum-goers pay lots of money to do. But we don’t tax art. > > If you own a yacht, you can go sail whenever you want. Poorer people have to rent boats. But we don’t tax boats. We could. And it wouldn’t be nearly as bad an idea as taxing paper wealth. > [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Property was taxed because _that’s where the money was_ . No. Property was taxed because _that’s where the resources were_. This is a completely different thing. This is not “argument”. This is not theory but factual observation. The yardstick that we use to measure a thing is not the same as what is being measured. It is absolutely necessary to distinguish between money as the yardstick (unit of account) compared to money, or financial securities, as paper wealth (store of value), compared to the actual flow of services that exist. I’ve already linked [to a somewhat longer version](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socialism-or-at-least-a-version-thereof-vs-capitalism/927389/12) of this explanation. I can continue to flesh this out, but none of this is “argument”. It is pure observation. And it is absolutely necessary to have this foundation of observation before discussing taxation. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/progressive-proposal-for-wealth-taxes-why-not-just-do-this/953812)._