A great tax right off, but more importantly a gesture of goodwill to the 3rd world so as to drape themselves in a protective cloak when they travel.

Once you get really wealthy, the FIRST thing you have to do is spread the wealth and get folks dependant upon your charity. These folks will protect you. Oprah, Gates and the rest know their own survival depends upon being seen more as a bank that gives money away than a tycoon who hordes it.

No more will you hear about the electronic pixellated Mona Lisa and other works in lakefront mansions. You will hear what their paid press agents pound into the newswires.

A politician does much the same thing.

Get folks dependant upon your redistribution of others wealth and these masses will protect you and keep you in office.

Politicians have used this tactic in the US long before FDR, though he really encapsulated it and squeezed three terms out of it, literally staying in power like a tyrant until his dying day. He was our Stalin.

Being "comfortably rich" ends at a net worth about 25 million. After that you have to worry inside your home, outside your home, in your car, out of your car...basically ALL the time. That's not worth ANY amount of money.

Money is supposed to make your life easier, not harder. Once the balance tips too far, it seriously screws up your life.