With a backdrop of the Empire State building the Tholos Foundation and Americans for tax Reform gathered free-market activists together to share ideas on releasing the next wave of economic growth in America.
Headlining the event were Steve Forbes and Dr. Rainer Zitelmann who discussed America’s entrepreneurial spirit and new attacks from the left on wealth.
“Wealth is not things,” Forbes explained, challenging what he described as a common misconception about the nature of wealth. “The left has this myth …. where it’s just piles of cash, gold, jewelry – things. The left thinks you can just go in and scoop it up. They don’t realize most wealth comes from value of an asset, and if you have a hostile environment, the asset goes down in value. Wealth disappears.”
Dr. Zitelmann highlighted the importance of public attitudes toward wealth and entrepreneurship. Drawing on his international research, he explained: “I commissioned a poll to compare how envious people are in 13 countries. The least envious people were in Poland, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan. I think economists underestimate the psychological component.”
He emphasized that the debate over wealth is not merely economic, but also psychological: “There is a huge difference between a society in which people admire entrepreneurs, rich people are role models, and societies that focus only on redistribution…. We have the facts on our side but in the end, people act according to emotions. We need to appeal more to that.”
Philip Thompson, policy analyst at Tholos, shared results from the latest Tholos report- a Macroeconomic impact analysis of the 2 percent Global Wealth Tax proposed by Gabrielle Zucman at the request of the G20 in 2024.
Zucman claimed the impact on the tax “on global economic growth is unlikely to be large,” because it directly impacted only 3,000 people at the time. However, that wealth amounts to nearly $19 trillion, the entire economic output of the EU in 2024. That wealth is factories, equipment, inventory, research, patents, infrastructure. Tholos contracted with accounting firm EY to do a macroeconomic impact of the tax, in every scenario it’s an economic loser. A global billionaire tax is a tax on whole economy in the first 10 years it costs $800 billion in GDP, 20 million jobs, $100 billion in labor income, then it gets worse.
ATR President Grover Norquist shared how states are leading economic growth, not through theft, but by cutting taxes.
New Hampshire eliminated tax on interest and dividends making it the latest state with an income tax of zero, following Tennessee. Meanwhile Mississippi, Oklahoma West Virginia, Kentucky are on a path to phase out their income tax when revenue triggers are met. More states have passed flat taxes, one rate for all income groups, Ohio is the most recent state at 2.75% for nonbusiness income. Iowa, Luisiana implemented flat taxes last year of 3.8% and 3%, following Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, and Idaho. Kansas is also on legislated path to a flat tax when rainy day triggers are met.
Grover highlighted tax reform on capital gains as one thing the president can do right now that would unleash billions in capital. It is fully within the president’s authority to eliminate inflationary gains from the calculation of capital gains tax liability. Norquist added Congress should compel the calculation through law as well.
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