那为什么不干脆提高所得税税率？ 因为你真正的意图，并不仅仅是“提供医疗保障”。 你是在掩饰这样一个事实：你提出的，是在这个拥有 250 年历史的美国共和国中，第一次建立一个有组织的、由政府主导的、针对公民私人财产的强制没收机制。 你把它称作“财富税”“亿万富翁税”“百万富翁税”，或者任何当天民调表现好听的名字。但说到底，这就是政府对公民私人财产的没收。 这些公民：通过合法劳动赚取了收入，已经为这些收入缴纳了应缴的税款（如果他们住在加州，税负高达 53%） 现在却被告知：因为政府未能用已经征收的税收兑现其承诺的公共服务，他们必须再交出税后资产 而政府则把自身的失败，重新包装成一种“社会经济不平等”，声称这必须被“正义地纠正”……这是一条从未通向好结果的滑坡（看看苏联、古巴、委内瑞拉、法国、挪威的财富税及其经济后果）。 美国的建国者正是为了逃离欧洲的暴政而来。这个伟大的国家由来自世界各地的移民建立（包括我自己，也包括你的父母），他们不仅仅是在寻找“更好的生活”，而是在寻找一个可以免于暴政政府、免于被政府随意掠夺私人财产的地方。 这是一个建立在产权、法治和天赋自由之上的国家—— 自由去信仰、去言说、去行动。正是这些原则，带来了人类历史上最伟大的创新浪潮、最广泛的成功，以及前所未有的全民繁荣提升。 推动这一切进步的，是公民、个人，而不是机构。 是那些： * 发明创造的人 * 辛勤劳作的人 * 流血牺牲的人 * 承担风险并坚持到底的人 * 领导并改变世界的人 他们不是骗子、窃贼或寡头。 他们让我们所有人变得更好。 繁荣是美国成功的衡量标准，而不是失败的证据。 真正令人愤慨的，是你的原则本身。正如公众对你轻率地试探人类最黑暗幻想之一——社会主义——所表现出的普遍反感所证明的那样。 你和其他新社会主义者，迫使我们许多人重新反思美国的历史，以及它正在变成什么。而这，又让越来越多的人开始不必要地考虑离开自己的家园，去一个所有人都会站出来大声反对你所主张的原则的地方。 因为如果你的这些想法，如今都被视为“温和立场”，那就很明显，这艘泰坦尼克号正在下沉。 你所谓的“简单税收方案”——没收那些通过辛勤劳动、艰难奋斗获得、依法纳税并被妥善保存的资产，来解决一个显而易见的政府管理失当和公然欺诈问题—— 这清楚地告诉我们，你真正的动机并不在于为人们提供医疗保障，而在于打击成功、摧毁一个为所有人提供繁荣与机会的制度。 我不在乎，也没有任何人应该在乎，一个私人公民的私人资产在市场上的总价值是多少。 那与我无关，也不该与你有关。 因为再一次——一旦你打开了这个潘多拉魔盒，我们就不妨直接去研读《蝇王》吧…… 届时，根本没有任何东西能阻止 51% 的公民，要求他们的政府去没收另外 49% 公民的全部私人财产。 想给有需要的人提供医疗保障？那就做好你的本职工作，修复医疗体系，让它变得可负担。 想偷懒？那就用“偷懒的方式”履职——提高所得税。 但如果你想要从那些已经依法纳税、合法获得并拥有财产的私人公民手中夺走私人财产，那就请你诚实地承认：你真正想解决的不是“不平等”，而是嫉妒。 why not just raise income tax rates? because your real intent is not to just “provide healthcare”. you’re masking that you are proposing the creation of, for the first time in the 250 years of this American republic, an organized government seizure of private property from citizens. you’re calling it a “wealth tax” or a “billionaires tax” or “millionaires tax” or whatever nom du jour polls well. but at the end of the day, it’s the seizure of private property from citizens by the government. citizens that earned money, paid their fair taxes on those earnings (53% if they live in California) and are now being told they need to hand over after-tax assets because the government has failed to provide promised services with the revenue it’s collected, and are now re-casting their own failure to be a socio-economic inequity that must be justly resolved... a slippery slope that has never gone anywhere good (see economic effects in USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, France and Norway wealth tax etc.) the American founders fled tyranny in Europe and this amazing nation was populated by immigrants (myself and your parents) from around the world not just looking for a “better life” but for a place where they could have freedom from tyrannical governments that can take what they want from private citizens. a great nation borne of property rights, the rule of law, and endowed freedoms to believe, speak, or act. these principles led to the greatest run of innovations, successes, and widespread increase in prosperity, for all citizens, ever seen. the citizens, the individuals, not the institutions, delivered this progress. those who invented, who toiled, who bled, who sacrificed, who took risk and persevered, who led, and who changed the world, are not charlatans, kleptocrats, or oligarchs. they’re what made us all better off. prosperity is a measure of america’s success, not its failure. it is your principle that is so offensive, as evidenced by the broad disdain for your flippant flirtation with the darkest of human fantasy - socialism. you and other neo-socialists have led so many of us to reflect on America’s history and what it is becoming. that now leads so many to consider, so unnecessarily, leaving their homes for a place where everyone stands up to shout down the principle you suggest. because if your ideas are now considered moderate, it’s clear this titanic is sinking. that a “simple tax” of taking assets that have been earned, through toil and tribulation, rightly taxed, and preserved, should now be unjustly seized, is your solution to a problem of obvious government mismanagement and outright fraud, tells us that your true motivation lies not in giving people healthcare but in cutting down success and deleting the system of prosperity and opportunity for all. i don’t care, and neither should anyone else, what the sum total market value of a private citizens private assets might be. it is none of my business and should be none of yours. because, again, once you open that pandora’s box, we might as well study Lord of the Flies … there is literally nothing stopping 51% of citizens demanding that their government go out and seize 100% of the private property of the 49%. want to give healthcare to people in need? do your job and fix healthcare. make it affordable. want to be lazy about it? then do your job lazily and raise income taxes. want to take private property from private citizens who have paid their fair share of taxes and legally earned their property, then honestly declare that it is envy, not inequity, that you strive to resolve…