I really wish articles like this wouldn't anchor around this refrain of "... while their wealth increased by $XXX". It's a staple of tax law that you're only taxed when income is actually realized, and there are a few glaring loopholes that allow people to avoid realizing capital gains. At the very least, things should be changed such that taking a loan against an asset beyond its basis is considered a realization of income - similar to how if you take a loan against your IRA it is considered a distribution.

But we already knew all that! We don't need numbers calculating out infinitesimally small fictitious "tax rates" (for a tax regime that doesn't actually exist) to illustrate it. Unless someone is actively selling the stock they own, they are not paying any income tax on its value, period end of story.

And so rather it feels like a wasted analysis to keep focusing on the value of zero divided by $big_number, when there are going to be far more interesting things like exactly what income did they realize, and what type of expenses did they use to offset it, what amounts did they actually pay tax on, and so on. Because capital gains deferral is not the only way the tax code skews towards the rich by far, yet it's currently using up all the air in the room.