A Jubilee Tax for Citizens’ Capital Accounts

Karl Widerquist’s proposal for Citizens’ Capital Accounts (CCAs) is bold and timely. Given the times we live in, I’d like to encourage us to think even more boldly. Widerquist proposes to fund CCAs through a 2 percent wealth tax, or 1 percent for a gradual phase-in. This would create an endowment per capita for the United States comparable to the per capita endowment of the Alaska Permanent Fund (APF). But why not aim higher? If a 2 percent wealth tax will yield about $3,500 per person, why not have a onetime “jubilee” wealth tax of 29 percent,1 and create a $50,000 endowment for everyone, and then fund the endowments for newborns with the 0.4 percent annual wealth tax until the system became self-sustaining?