In The USA: the Next Revolution

[Dayuhan]

But why do you think that this is not an extraordinarily low tax rate?

Deferring tax payments should drive taxes rate up, for the government didn't get the money earlier and had to substitute for it by lending money on which it had to pay interest during the period.

Missing the point, I think. Deferring the sale of investment doesn't defer the tax payment, it defers the income. You can't tax hypothetical gain on an unsold investment, because it's unrealized and there's nothing to tax.

The point of taxing gain on investments held less than a year as "income" (higher rate) and those held longer as "capital gain" (lower rate) is to create an incentive to keep capital invested longer, taxing day traders and investment-flippers at a higher rate. I don't see how that's a legislated advantage for wealth over labor in any way.

Warren Buffet does well out of it because he buys and holds, which is what the incentive is meant to persuade him to do. A dollar invested does the country more good than a dollar turned over to the government, and keeping the dollar invested does a whole lot more than the extra $.20 or so that the government would get if it's held less than a year.