Hi Tim, thanks for the engagement!

You’re right that this debate of ideas deserves its own space. I didn’t mean to dive deep into the intricacies of taxation in this article but simply wanted to call out a specific type of framing that all too often dominates the dialogue.

That said, I do think our views on taxes are worth exploring. To your first point, the threshold right now for the federal estate tax is assets above $11.7M, which applies to much less than 1% of Americans. I would like to see that threshold lowered, but certainly not eliminated, and I would like to see the rates increased. Yes, the government’s ability to enforce this tax has been severely lacking, but the fortunes of rich deceased people still strike me as a large untapped source of potential revenue. After someone (and their spouse) pass away, is it beyond the IRS’ scope to appraise the assets and tax the transfer? I know the richest folks have clever ways of gifting money tax-free, but it seems to me that the government could start levying real taxes on such vehicles like trusts/insurance policies.

On corporate taxes, my instinct position was that the rate should return to at least pre-2017 levels. I linked to a piece from the Tax Policy Center that shows how corporations pay a historically low share of the federal tax burden. However, I am very open to your idea about raising taxes on top income/capital gains if it raises more overall revenue by reducing tax dodging (via loopholes, offshore profit-shifting, etc). Your idea makes a lot of sense, and I agree that it is better than the Biden administration’s global minimum corporate tax, which seems extremely hard if not impossible to enforce.