How about we eliminate billionaires while we're at it? To auto-adjust this for inflation, it can be defined as the current cost of 10,000 kg of gold. That's 10 metric tons which is a very generous amount for any individual.
Billionaires exist only because of exploitation of the environment and of other people. I would never be in that position because I would never be exploitative.
No. I don't leave any money in the bank account beyond what I need to pay the bills. This is because money is often stolen from users of bank accounts, and the bank generally refuses to make them whole.
If you invest money in other people's labor expecting a return (stock market, pension, but not crypto or a house), then you are exploitative. You just don't do it yourself, you delegated it.
You're trying to equate capitalism with exploitation, but they're not the same. There is such a thing as fair market compensation. Exploitation exists when people are made to work over 40 hours a week, or they get stifled with bad health insurance, or lack a safe work environment, or otherwise taken advantage of such as with a visa issue. Not every stock investment is exploitative.
Closing the loopholes is like writing a bug-free program. I.e. practically impossible. You can criminalize any exploits though (just like with software and security exploits).
>The Huangs were taking advantage of a precedent set nearly two decades earlier, in 1995, when the I.R.S. blessed a transaction [...]
Regardless of your position on the current tax code, I think most would agree it's a dick move for the government to prosecute someone for something that they previously said was legal.
Maybe, but the American tax system seems unreasonable complicated and trickable with its 'charitable foundations' and 'Donor-advised funds'. I think it's rather defeatist to think it's impossible to make a better and less exploitable system.
Of course, we are now entering the time of open oligarchy, so it probably won't happen soon.
I suspect the US tax system has far more smart people working on generally finding and exploiting its features and other holes and optimizations than your favorite OS or bloated web browser.
