believe JP5 is a bit sketchy on the facts where yachts are concerned. Alot of boat builders went bust about 10-15 years ago because they over expanded, became over leveraged and failed to forsee the overproduction in modest sized boats: Cape Dory, Pearson, Bristol. All of the usual suspects doomed these businesses. Some work was lost in the megayacht industry because of a tax imposed by Reagan (I think) but yards like Palmer Johnson and Hinkley not only continue to thrive but are doing exceedingly well. Politicians who do not want to appear to be raising taxes love to resort to "fees" as an alternative. User fees strike me as reasonable however....the wealthy are always in a better position to avoid taxes either by buying things elsewhere, registering things elsewhere etc. Better to tax at the source, I.M.O.

There are implications to the fact that increasingly the wealthy have most of the disposable income: They are more likely to spend and invest in other countries and multinational companies which do not pay U.S. taxes. They have a major inflationary affect on prime real estate. When a critical mass of wealthy people move to an area they tend to demand alot of expensive town services. Rents, land, taxes become too high for local people. On the other hand they bring money and investment into a community -its a double edged sword, really. Healthy societies have a large middle class I.M.O.