alt Hacker Newsyou confused liquidity and wealth.
illiquid wealth != unreal wealth.
as I said, if it were unreal you wouldn't mind losing it.
if it is illiquid, you clearly do.
economic illiteracy is not the best foundation for arguing against taxing the wealthy. by pretending the wealth "doesnt really exist" and "isnt there" to tax it highlights the underlying greed motivating the argument.
if you dont agree, perhaps elucidate on a more legitimate reason you might have had for confusing unreal with illiquid?
The lack of reality is mostly from how much net wealth is a guessestimate. The actual realizable wealth is largely unknowable. There isn't enough price information to give a certain answer.
But sure, how do you propose to pay taxes with assets that can't be liquidated and may not even be possible to valuate?
Even if you somehow pay taxes in assets that can't be liquidated, now the government has the same problem instead. What is the government gonna do, pay its employees in unlisted stocks, yachts and famous paintings? How will it even know how much taxes it's gathered?
If the tax isn't isn't just satisfying some sense of petty envy, and the tax is intended to cover some budget deficit, I don't see how this would help.