When a government goes bust in a democracy (and most Western governments cannot possibly meet their unfunded liabilities) the majority of people who have no assets or just a few assets will always find it appealing to collect money from the evil “fat cats” (in the case of the US, the 1% who own 42.7% of financial wealth). It should be obvious that if 80% of the population owns just 7% of financial wealth, they will be tempted to transfer at some point in future, part of the wealth of the 5% or 10% richest Americans to the masses that have no savings.
The problems we face today are there because the people who work hard for a living are now vastly outnumbered by those who vote for a living.
Normally, we analyze various asset markets and individual investment opportunities according to their merits. But now, we also need to think which asset classes are the least and which ones are the most vulnerable to wealth taxes.
