Economists for the Sanders campaign estimate that had the wealth tax been enacted in 1982, the total wealth of the Forbes 400 richest Americans would be 40% of what it currently is, and they would have a net worth of $3 billion on average, instead of the average $7.2 billion they held last year.
“The share of wealth owned by the Forbes 400 would not have exploded and would only be slightly higher than it was in the early 1980s,” say economists Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez who analyzed the proposal for the campaign. “The current top 15 wealthiest Americans would own $196 billion (instead of the $943 billion they own in 2018).”
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a Sanders rival, has also proposed a wealth tax. It would impose a 2% levy on assets above $50 million and of 3% above $1 billion. Warren’s campaign estimates the tax would raise $2.75 trillion over a decade.
This article provided by Bloomberg News.