What that means is inheritance, investments, sudden windfalls of $1 million will now only get you about $600,00. It's a small increase from what it was but it's now enough to ensure that you will NEVER retire from a lump sum amount of $1 million ($1 million goes very fast). You will need $2 million for a middle age adult to retire. $5 million for the same adult to retire comfortably. About $7 million for someone in their 20s to do the same. Meanwhile, those who earn that much or more regularly will continue to use the same tax loopholes to avoid paying taxes. It leaves them alone and squeezes middle class and prevents you from climbing the income ladder. And the stock market dropped because of this. I wonder why? It's because the smart upper class investors are shuffling assets to avoid it and the middle class... well, they don't have the money to buy in the dip. Bitcoin lost like, what, $8000 overnight? AND PEOPLE ARE PRAISING THIS. If they wanted real change, the tax laws need to be completely revamped. But that's not what it's about. But keep dreaming of that free housing, free college, free whatever, yo. All you're doing when you support this kind of crap is destroy yourself.
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Completely false. This might in fact be one of the "loopholes" you're decrying that the "rich use".
https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/capital-gains-tax-14717438
If you're married filing jointly, you get $78k long-term capital gains + standard deduction $25k, so a little more than $100k per year tax free. If you're not getting that now, you should talk to your accountant or just fill out the standard 1040 and schedule D correctly.
As for the rest of the numbers, you seem to be conflating marginal vs effective tax rate in your calculations. If somebody builds a nest egg of $2 million, they can easily retire and have a higher standard of living than the average American today (and pay less taxes than that working family too). Now receiving $2million in a year is a different story and closer to what you're saying because they will get taxed on the whole amount there. Hence one of the principles of investing is to defer income and taxes. I don't have sympathy for people receiving these huge windfalls though. How out of touch is it to whine about receiving $2 million in a year? Poor you.
I don't care about lottery winners since there are, for practical purposes, zeros of them and their "plight" has zero bearing on how we should organize society; we should create incentives for people to work and grow wealth responsibly, not make hopeless and wild gambles.
That's quite an assumption about my attitude. Trust fund kids have no natural right to that money. We as society have made laws that allow them to receive it, but that doesn't make it inherently just or a good idea. It would be much wiser to make laws to incentivize people to work, create value, and improve things. Feudalism doesn't do that.