Your “so-called serious people” swipe doesn’t exactly convey that you are making a good faith effort to understand these proposals…
Also, there no reason a middle class investor would have to sell all their stock to pay taxes. If the value of your portfolio doubled, you’d only have to sell between 7.5% and 10% of your holdings to cover the taxes (at the current capital gains tax rates).
If all you own is shares in a company, you are not rich, you can be homeless. If you sell your shares and make money out of that, then is the moment to pay your taxes, not a nanosecond before that.
Also, there no reason a middle class investor would have to sell all their stock to pay taxes. If the value of your portfolio doubled, you’d only have to sell between 7.5% and 10% of your holdings to cover the taxes (at the current capital gains tax rates).