I’ve shared several columns (here, here, here, here, and here) reviewing scholarly research on the harmful economic impact of wealth taxation.

From now on, however, I think I’ll simply share this clever video from the folks at Reason.

The video uses humor to make very important points about how a wealth tax would diminish incentives to save and invest.

And it correctly explains that this would rebound negatively on workers because of the strong link between capital formation and wages.

The only shortcoming in the video (and it’s merely a sin of omission) is that it doesn’t drive home the point that the wealth tax would be another example of double taxation.

Here’s what can happen under our current tax code:

• You earn income, you pay taxes on that money.
• If you invest some of the remaining after-tax income in a company, the business will pay tax on the resulting profits.
• Those same profits will then be taxed again when given to you as dividends.
• If you then sell your investment, you will be subject to a capital gains tax.
• And if you die with too much money, the final insult to injury is a death tax.

A wealth tax would add to this gauntlet.

Heck, I don’t even know how to add a wealth tax to my double-taxation flowchart since the tax would be levied every single year.

What can be shown with a chart, however, is how a wealth tax easily could lead to 100 percent-plus tax rates on income that is saved and invested.

Here’s a 2019 chart from the Wall Street Journal.

I modified the chart by showing that wealth taxation would be akin to confiscatory tax rates, depending on rates of return.

You don’t have to be a wild-eyed advocate of supply-side economics to conclude that might not be a good idea. Assuming, of course, that you want more saving and investment (which even Marxists and socialists agree is necessary for long-run growth and higher wages).

Sadly, the wealth tax is now a real threat.

Back in March, I shared a very plausible scenario showing how the country could be burdened by a wealth tax as early as 2029.

That would be very good news for tax lawyers and tax accountants, but very bad news for America.

P.S. A wealth tax will be especially good news for emigration specialists.

P.P.S. My pessimistic scenario may be reversed if California voters are dumb enough to enact a wealth tax and it is a huge disaster (as it surely would be).