Should the wealthy pay for the COVID economic recovery?

Saw and NPD ad on Facebook today which suggested that the ultra-wealthy who profited from/during COVID should pay for the recovery.

But, I fear these sort of blanket sentiments miss on a lot of fronts and could be abused.

In general, I would tend to agree that the wealthy should be paying more in taxes. One of the bigger problems in this and many other developed countries IS wealth disparity. But, do I think that they should be specifically taxed for the purpose of COVID recovery? No.

Part of the reason is simple. Most of the people who became more wealthy during the pandemic didn't actually become inherently any wealthier. Sure, some companies like Amazon and Shopify directly profited during the pandemic. But, the majority of those who saw their wealth "grow" did not do so directly. Which is to say that their direct income did not necessarily increase.

In fact, in many cases their actual income may have decreased compared to previous years.

How is this the case? Well, what a lot of people are ACTUALLY measuring is not income. But, overall value of their holdings. Some of those holdings are stocks. In fact, a great deal of that wealth is in stocks. If you were invested in certain industries, like tech or online shopping during the pandemic you likely saw your net worth grow.

Should you be penalized for this?

Because, as worded, that is exactly what such language seems to imply. That people should be taxed additionally not on their direct income, but based on how wisely (or luckily) people invested their money.

Most people did not directly profit from the pandemic. Most people who did profit, did so indirectly. And many of these people may not be otherwise high earners. And many who lost great sums, perhaps because they were invested in oil and gas and sold after the crash may be otherwise ludicrously wealthy individuals otherwise.

And a great many wealthy individuals actually agree that they aren't being taxed enough. So, why do you need the pandemic as justification?