Where he runs into problems is in thinking that the net worth of billionaires can be transmuted. Most of the durable wealth in the world consists of capital goods. Whether housing is a capital good or a durable consumer good is debated, but, outside of housing almost all long duration wealth consists of capital goods. The government can only purchase consumer goods that were already produced, with the use of other scarce labor and capital goods. Advocates of wealth taxation look at the net worth of billionaires as a fixed number of dollars.