The second order effect is the value, especially for a much bigger wealth tax.

If we pulled a few hundred billion out of Larry Ellison, Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos’s pocketbooks, we could buy the Air Force twelve or thirteen screws.

But more importantly, we’ve cut the mikes from their stack of financial amplifiers. They can’t command the attention of government far beyond their position as individual horrible men anymore. Their particular vision for a futuristic hellscape has to compete in the market of ideas. They can’t afford national big-brand media or to surround themselves with phalanxes of lawyers.

This social benefit doesn’t show up on a flat spreadsheet, and it’s willfully ignored by analysis that stops with “the money dries up.”