In either case, you're way over exaggerating. All of the top 14 wealthiest people have over $100B each. Jeff Bezos (#2 richest) has close to $200B alone.

https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It's even worse than I thought......... Holy fucking shit.

[–] cbarrick@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Right!?

These people have more wealth than the GDP of some nations.

Jeff Bezos has more wealth ($190B) than the GDP of Ukraine ($170B).

[+] SparrowRanjitScaur@lemmy.world -7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

In theory, but if he tried to liquidate all of his Amazon stock at once it's very unlikely he would get that much for it. The price of the stock would crash.

[–] sibachian@lemmy.ml 15 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

except in theory they can borrow from the bank with their stock as leverage and would never actually need to liquidate anything (and they do just that).

[–] cbarrick@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago

Yep. This fucking loophole in the American tax system.

You borrow against your existing wealth, then the cost basis of your investments resets upon inheritance. So your estate can sell the investment to pay off the debt, and no capital gains tax is ever paid.

Because of this, in America, capital gains tax only applies to the middle class. The rich have a clear and obvious loophole.