Wealth taxes are the latest levy catching the eye of John Swinney. It's hardly a surprise - they'd tax the ground we walk on if they could.
While they try to hoodwink the public into thinking a wealth tax could generate millions more for the economy, the reality is it could see businesses leave the country, unemployment rise and people become poorer.
It could cause ordinary people to face rising tax bills just because they own their own home or have worked hard to save for a pension.
Like rent controls, which, far from fixing housing emergencies, make them worse and increase costs, the effects are often the opposite of the aim.
For a start, any attempt to tax assets has to decide what they are. The SNP's definition of 'wealth' would no doubt include mansions, yachts, works of art and other things associated with the super-rich.
It might, though, also include the family home, shares and the value of someone's pension pot. Or cars or furniture or, for that matter, stamp collections and grandma's jewellery. That's all too likely because John Swinney never saw a tax he didn't like the look of.
His government has already imposed the highest income tax in the UK. It has brought in taxes that have failed to bring in the revenue anticipated because of their dampening effects on growth. Just the other day, Sir Tom Hunter's foundation slammed the Nationalists' tax regime as 'a disincentive for investment and growth'.
It's why we lag behind other parts of the UK. The tax gap puts firms at a competitive disadvantage, drives up costs and makes it harder to attract skilled workers, entrepreneurs and others essential to increase productivity and growth.
The impact is not confined to the rich. Many workers are already hit by huge marginal income tax rates.
Nurses, teachers, police officers and other middle earners are being clobbered and, incredibly, the SNP's plans to freeze thresholds mean workers on the average wage will be dragged into the higher rate by the end of this decade.
These are the people Finance Secretary Shona Robison characterises as 'those with the broadest shoulders' - suggesting any new 'wealth' tax would quickly hit those with relatively modest assets.
Imposing additional bands, while hammering Scottish workers and businesses, doesn't bring in much more revenue since people change their behaviour as a result - something even SNP ministers have admitted. It has also been confirmed by independent experts.
At this week's finance committee, one of them described the trivial differences in the lower bands as 'ludicrous', while warning that those caught in the higher rates would soon start negotiating on the basis of net pay.
If individual employees make that calculation, you can be sure trades unions have it at the centre of their negotiating plans. That's bad news for the SNP government, which spends a huge proportion of its budget on public sector pay.
The SNP believes there is no alternative to higher taxes, though, because it has made no effort to rein in the spiralling benefits bill which will hit nearly £10 billion by the end of the decade. Labour and Reform also support increased welfare spending.
The Scottish Conservatives are the only party that opposes this tax-and-spend consensus.
John Swinney's refusal to tackle this unaffordable public spending is hitting working Scots in the pocket. It's fuelling his relentless search for new taxes.
A search which may soon result in those of relatively modest means being redefined as wealthy.