Global Social Security Review 2024 No.여름 29, pp.69-80
Abstract
Tax policies in the modern welfare state are inextricably linked with social security policies. This is because tax policies not only provide the financial resources essential for implementing social security policies but also serve as a key mechanism for reducing market inequality. In any welfare capitalist society, however, a tax increase is a sensitive issue about which most political forces tend to remain discreet, especially in the US, where support for the market system is pervasive and firm. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, US society and its political circles have begun to consider the prospect of a tax increase in earnest and in a concrete manner, in the context of which a buzzword on the rise is ‘wealth tax’. In this article, I examine the ongoing discussion in the US regarding the introduction of a wealth tax and consider how it will unfold in the months leading up to the November election. To do this, I revisit the concept of a wealth tax as it emerged from US policy history and offer an account of the socioeconomic background that has brought the introduction of a wealth tax into public discourse. I also discuss some of the main features of the wealth tax as proposed in various bills and consider whether, and with what significance, the wealth tax might be implemented.
