Taxing billionaires would be a great way to fund the fight against coronavirus like AOC says — but only if the US government were drastically different
By: Taylor Nicole Rogers, Business Insider
The United States needs to find a way to cover the spiraling costs of coronavirus pandemic, but researchers say a wealth tax isn’t it.
Multimillionaires like Abigail Disney and Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez have called for a new tax on the fortunes of the country’s richest people to cover the spiraling costs of the coronavirus pandemic. However, economists tell Business Insider that such a tax faces such steep legal, logistical, and political challenges that it could never be implemented in time. . .
“A wealth tax on billionaires isn’t going to raise what you think it is and it is going to do a lot of economic harm so its the worst thing you can do in response to a pandemic,” economist Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow in business and economics at the Pacific Research Institute added. . .
