Bill Gates debates Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 'tax the rich' policy

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates made some comments this week on the 'tax the rich' ideas making the rounds in America.

Taxing the rich is fine, he said in an interview with The Verge, and "more progressive" taxes on the ultra rich are okay.

Gates then went on to characterize Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as an 'extreme' politician who is missing the point by focusing on targeting high income brackets.

AOC identifies as a Democratic socialist, and in January 2019 floated the idea of a 70 percent marginal rate on earned income over $10 million.

Gates said in the interview that tax policies should focus on taxing wealth, not income, since the super-rich tend to have wealth in the form of assets, rather than income.

"If you focus on that, you're missing the picture," he said without mentioning AOC by name.

From Nilay Patel at The Verge:

Speaking on The Vergecast this week, Gates said that while marginal tax rates in the United States can be more progressive higher, in other words there are now some politicians who are so extreme that their proposals would lead to wealthy people hiding income and stashing it offshore. Thats a clear reference to new members of Congress like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who had just suggested a new top tax rate of 70 percent in the week before Gates sat for this interview.

Gates also said that the worlds wealthiest people only have a rounding error worth of actual income compared to their wealth they dont have a lot of salary, but instead sell stocks and other assets to raise cash, which isnt taxed as income anyway.