“Every generation gets the Bond it deserves,” goes the saying.

The serious 60s got Connery. The frivolous 70s got one Lazenby and a heap of Sir Roger. The uptight late 80s got Dalton. The clean, carefree 90s got Pierce. The post-9/11 generation got Daniel Craig over a decade and a half, like butter spread over too much bread. Spectre was an intellectual insult. No Time To Die was merely unnecessary.

It’s not for me to ever claim that a country deserves the politicians who run it. But a country votes for the politicians who run it. That’s all you need to know about America and its current flirtation with Kamala Harris.

America may not deserve the melancholy stagnation (if it’s lucky) it’ll get with her, but it will have voted for it. As a newsletter writer, I’ll be of two minds about it, “like Larry Wildman driving off a cliff in my new Maserati,” as the immortal Gordon Gekko quipped in Wall Street.

I would get four years of unlimited writing fodder in exchange for watching the country of my birth circle the drain that much faster.

For as we know, you can vote your way into socialism, but you’ve got to shoot your way out of it.

Oh, I’m overreacting, you think?

I’ll retort that you haven’t read Kamala’s ideas on tax. Her ideas aren’t simply stupid; they’re dangerous.

The only way an American politician can come up with ideas like this is if she has a Marxist father. Oh, check.

Kamala Harris's tax proposals for capital gains, unrealized gains, and corporate profits reflect a progressive stance gone mad. It punishes wealthy individuals and large corporations in a haymaking attempt to address income inequality and generate revenue to fund Harris’ social handouts. However, the potential consequences of these proposals could lead to a significant reduction in investment, job creation, and economic growth, ultimately harming the very people these policies are intended to help.

Let’s review what we know about them to see how horrible they are.

Capital Gains Tax

Harris supports aligning the tax rate on capital gains with that of ordinary income. This could significantly raise the maximum capital gains tax rate to as high as 44.6% for top earners, especially those making over $1 million annually. This alignment is not only a punitive measure against successful investors, but it also discourages risk-taking and investment, which are crucial for economic growth.

For some reason, Harris continues to follow her muddleheaded old boss’s muddleheaded ideas.

First, capital gains tax is immoral because it’s a tax on already taxed money. That’s right; you were taxed on your income. Then, you took some of your after-tax income and invested it. You invested so wisely that you made a whopping return. And now, that return is about to be taxed not at a separate rate, but at a rate equal to that you paid on the original income (which turned into the capital you used to make the investment).

The whole notion disgusts me.

But what’s worse is that Harris is putting your income and gains in the same bucket to be taxed at the same rate.

They aren’t the same things. Your income, which shouldn’t be taxed at all, gets taxed at source, so there’s not much you can do about that until America gets a collective lobotomy. Your capital gain came only after you risked your investment, borne of your after-tax income. It shouldn’t be taxed at all.

Unrealized Gains

Harris backs introducing a tax on unrealized capital gains for ultra-wealthy individuals, another hare-brained proposal Joke Biden initially proposed. This tax would apply to individuals with a net worth exceeding $100 million, capturing gains on assets that have appreciated but have yet to be sold.

This ill-considered measure is part of a broader push to ensure that the wealthiest Americans contribute “a fair share” to federal revenues, as unrealized gains currently represent a significant portion of untaxed wealth.

First, I don’t know how you can objectively measure “net worth.” Oh, I know what it is. But I also know I’d use every loophole, foundation, company scheme, and trust to move my assets around to make my official net worth appear smaller than $100 million. It's a practical nightmare.

But that’s not the point. Taxing unrealized gains is not just lunacy, it's a proposal that's hard to believe was even suggested. It’s the dumbest idea out there… and there are a lot of dumb ideas out there.

Let’s run through it.

First, let’s define what they want to tax. Let’s say you buy a stock for $10. Over a few months, the stock price grows to $18. You now have an $8 capital gain, but it’s not realized. You haven’t sold the stock yet to realize the gain. Therefore, you have an $8 paper gain, also known as an unrealized or uncrystalized gain.

Under the current tax system, you pay no tax on this unrealized $8 gain.

Let’s say your stock later rises to $20. You’re thrilled as your stock has doubled. Now, you want to sell at $20. Since you bought the stock at $10 and sold it at $20, you realized a $10 capital gain. The IRS will kindly ask you to pay capital gains tax (CGT) on the $10 gain.

If you’ve held the stock for less than a year, it’ll be taxed as ordinary income.

If you’ve held the stock for over a year, it’ll be taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20%. For the sake of this example, let’s say you’re in the upper tax bracket of 20%. That means you’ll pay $2 to the IRS because they said so.

While I don’t like CGT any more than I like any other taxes, I can acknowledge that in the current system, at least you have the cash to pay the tax when you sell your shares. This system, flawed as it may be, at least allows for some level of financial planning and control.

Commie Kamala wants to tax you on gains before you sell the shares. This is not just asinine, it's fundamentally unfair.

Let me show you.

Going back to our example, let’s say on December 31, 2024, the stock price stood at $18 after you had bought it earlier in the year at $10.

The IRS would want $1.60 from you (20% of the $8 gain). Since you didn’t sell the shares, I hope you have some spare cash around!

If we did this to every investor, they’d be forced to sell their shares sooner or later to cover their tax liability. It’s lunacy.

Corporate Tax Rate

Harris supports increasing the corporate tax rate from its current 21% to 28%, which seeks to reverse some of the cuts made under the Trump administration. She has even previously advocated for a rate as high as 35%, though her current stance aligns more closely with Biden's 28% proposal. This increase is intended to raise revenue while still being lower than pre-2017 levels.

Aren’t people who think that companies pay corporate tax the cutest little things? I just want to pat them on the head and send them back to the sandbox.

Shareholders, customers, and employees suffer (the correct verb) corporate tax. “Companies” don’t pay anything. Ultimately, a real, live person suffers tax.

Also, let it be known: no legislation that targets “the rich” ever hits the rich. Because the rich are rich for a reason. And I’ll spell it out right now: Legal tax avoidance is integral to getting and staying rich.

Notice I didn’t write “evading tax.” 

It’s important to note that no rule says, “Pay the maximum amount of tax you can.”

It’s antithetical to freedom. The more power The State has, the less power private entities have.

“But Sean, Zuck, Elon, and Bezos don’t pay nearly the tax they should!”

To which I’d reply, “How much more would you like to pay for your Amazon goods? How much do you pay to show off for your friends on Facebook now? How much does it cost per tweet?”

I’d also say, “Socialists often use the word ‘should.’ With ideas are this bad, they need to be enforced at gunpoint.”

Wrap Up

A presidential candidate seriously considering these taxation ideas in 21st-century America is a scathing indictment of everything from our education system to our culture.

From taxing unrealized gains – God help us – to raising the corporate tax rate thinking people won’t realize they’re being fleeced, none of these ideas are smart.

America must reject this communist tomfoolery in November, lest it further lose its identity as the capital of freedom on earth.