The IEA’s Kristian Niemietz joins Callum Price to dissect the Patriotic Millionaires campaign and their push for wealth taxes. Survey evidence shows millionaires support higher taxes on themselves, but is this genuine commitment or virtue signalling? Niemietz examines the gap between stated preferences and revealed preferences, exploring why talk is cheap when there’s no real cost to supporting a tax that may never happen.
The conversation challenges the claim that millionaire support for wealth taxes proves they won’t have negative behavioural effects. Even if wealthy individuals approve of taxation in principle, Niemietz argues they still respond to tax incentives in practice, just as shoppers react to VAT without making philosophical statements. He dismantles Gary Stevenson’s appeal to authority and explains why making money from binary bets doesn’t validate broader economic theories.
Whether progressive taxation advocate or free market sceptic, this episode offers a critical examination of wealth tax campaigns and the disconnect between what people say they support and how they actually behave when faced with real economic incentives.
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