Karl W. Smith, Columnist

Sanders, Warren and the Politics of Grievance

Both want to tax wealth and ban fracking, but neither policy would do much for working Americans.

February 10, 2020 at 11:30 AM UTC

Karl W. Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. Previously, he was vice president for federal policy at the Tax Foundation and assistant professor of economics at the University of North Carolina.

A wealth tax and a fracking ban brings them together.
Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

A wealth tax and a ban on hydraulic fracking, both of which have the support of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, would address seemingly separate issues. Yet they stem from a common impulse, one that also undergirds the current trade war: to use the tax code to punish those seen as responsible for unfairness, even if doing so hurts the average American worker.

Almost every attempt to model the economic implications of the wealth tax concludes that it would lead to a huge drop in U.S. savings. Some say that this would also result in a large decrease in wages as U.S. investment collapses.