It is somewhat different: in your example, it’s just a matter of the taxation rate.
In Norway, it seems they were taxing paper gains: as an entrepreneur you take all the risk and put the effort to make your company succeed, maybe work with the smallest salary you can, so as to help your company grow more… then they come and say: “well on paper, if hypothetically you were to sell your company now, it would be worth X, so we are going to tax you on that.”
…now to pay taxes you have to sell a chunk of your company, or find other ways to fund your tax bill, which is probably going to take away resources from growing your company, which probably means your company’s will grow less and hire less…
By the by, one of the people specifically pointed out in this article was apparently paying a total tax bill of 17 million dollars against a net worth of 2 billion, and whatever tiny increase in taxes he would've ended up paying was enough to make him flee the country.
If you can't bear to pay back even a tiny, tiny fraction of what you've been given then you shouldn't have it at all.
The people who are fleeing the country aren't just fleeing a specific rate of taxation. They are fleeing the idea that their wealth was, as you put it, simply given to them.
They are fleeing from people like you.
I blame the rich people a little bit for leaving. My fight or flight reflexes learn more towards the side of fight.
Money is earned when you lift crates for an hour and get $10 for it. 2 billion? Well, I can't imagine how many crates you'd have to lift to actually *earn* something like that.
Corporations are only allowed to exist with consent of the public. Break the social contract and get fucked at your own peril.
In Norway, it seems they were taxing paper gains: as an entrepreneur you take all the risk and put the effort to make your company succeed, maybe work with the smallest salary you can, so as to help your company grow more… then they come and say: “well on paper, if hypothetically you were to sell your company now, it would be worth X, so we are going to tax you on that.” …now to pay taxes you have to sell a chunk of your company, or find other ways to fund your tax bill, which is probably going to take away resources from growing your company, which probably means your company’s will grow less and hire less…