Every Democrat running for President is going to need to wheel out their own solution as to how to “fix” the terrible conditions in a country currently experiencing a booming recovery, rising wages, and nearly record-low unemployment. Pretty much every declared candidate thus far has included one common feature in their platform and that’s sticking it to all of those wealthy fat cats with a bevy of new taxes. But how do they justify these plans to the public? NBC News took time out this week to explain the primary driving factors.

Setting up a general election contrast with President Donald Trump, Democrats are one-upping one another with proposals to impose new and higher taxes on millionaires, billionaires, their investments and their heirs.

The push to tax the rich any way they can is fast becoming a defining feature of the progressive landscape as the 2020 campaign gets under way.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wants “ultra-millionaires” to pay a 2 percent annual tax on assets over $50 million. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is weighing another presidential run, is calling for new estate tax rates as high as 77 percent on billion-dollar-plus inheritances. Both proposals came not long after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., called for a 70 percent tax rate on income over $10 million.

So what are the specific explanations for this as defined by NBC? Let’s take a quick look.

The first goal identified in the article describes the push for new taxes as, “an attempt to regain the populist high ground from Trump.” I suppose one person’s “populism” is another person’s great idea, eh? And make no mistake, “making the wealthy pay their fair share” is part of what passes for populism among liberals. The funny part is that “populism” is a term used as an insult when talking about Republicans, yet it’s just peachy for Democrats. But this is mostly an attempt to make small government conservatism a dirty word as it was before the Reagan era and make people welcome a bigger, more powerful government.

The second rationale is to find “new sources of revenue to finance increasingly ambitious progressive goals.” The Democrats are talking about all sorts of sweeping programs such as the Green New Deal, Medicare for All and even basic guaranteed income for “those unwilling to work.” In reality, taxing the heck out of the very wealthy wouldn’t come close to paying for any of those ideas, but it sounds good on paper, right?

NBC’s final point is that heavy taxation of the successful isn’t just about revenue. It’s about, “changing how the 1 percent behave.” This is where they’ve really hit the nail on the head. Taxing (or punishing) the successful is a fundamental hallmark of socialism. If you haven’t managed to be wealthy or successful, there’s no reason anyone else should either. Taking away wealth and “redistributing” it is at the core of socialist philosophy. Unfortunately, what you’re really removing is the incentive to succeed. Why bother busting your tailbone if the government is just going to come along and take away most of your gains?

Anyway, that’s what you have in store for you if the Democrats retake full control of the government in 2020. If you’ve made “too much money” over the course of your life, you may want to start looking at other places to squirrel away your assets.