How should we target wealth inequality?

While rising wealth inequality has prompted calls for taxes on net wealth, I argue that egalitarians should focus on the purchasing-power that wealth provides. Wealth is a flawed proxy for purchasing power because government policy and market sentiment create volatile asset prices, detaching them from the intrinsic, income-generating value. This volatility turns a wealth tax into a double-edged sword, because a tax based on a temporary, inflated asset value can be financially ruinous when that value disappears. Egalitarians may therefore continue to target wealth inequality, but the relevant measure of wealth should be adjusted to reflect the purchasing power that assets actually generate rather than their potentially transitory market valuation.