Dewey Cheatem and Howe
Robert ReichThree multibillionaires now own more wealth than the bottom half of America – 160 million Americans.
Don’t tell us we can’t afford a wealth tax on the super-rich.
Ellie@rbreich You can't afford not to.
Xlc
genewitch@rbreich i am going to bookmark this, it should have some good arguments from both sides. although it is possible that the ultra-rich don't yet have sycophants all over the fediverse. either way...
italics are sardonism.
italics are sardonism.
WalkingSue@rbreich who are the three? I’m guessing Elon Musk and Bill Gates and who else?
Tom@tmyerscough @rbreich oh doh 🤦🏻♀️
Fillorian Rae@walkingsue maybe Bezos?
@Fillorian_Rae yeah I totally forgot about him. Weird
JDN 6
Mordko@walkingsue @rbreich Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg. All 3 far “poorer” than 3 months ago. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/27/elon-musk-lost-the-most-money-of-all-americas-billionaires-in-2022.html
Bottom half includes young people whose assets are not monetary but education and whole life of earnings.
Bottom half includes young people whose assets are not monetary but education and whole life of earnings.
@rbreich how do we resolve the “musk” issue - where he claims he not rich as it all in shares...
A Reformed Pastafarian@tmyerscough @rbreich we could start by fully funding the IRS, and put an army of people to work investigating his income sources and tax events.
Paul Yager 
@rbreich We should go back to the 1946 tax rate for millionaires where it is 91% after $200k. Maybe update it to 91% after $1 billion. Tax rates were like that until Reagan and "trickle-down" economics.
@mndatanerd @rbreich Totally agree!
Stefan Scholl@Stefan_S_from_H @rbreich That's a good point. A billionaire/millionaire business owner can decide to take a $1 salary. We do need a true wealth tax, even if that wealth is coming from investments or stocks.
@pyager @rbreich I think setting the cutoff for 91% tax rates at $1B is far too high, too. You could probably not hurt many people if you set that rate at anything over $250k.
You could safely set an income tax rate of 100% for any income over, say, $500k. At that point, the person will have earned $500k in one year, and only any marginal income above the first $500k they earn would be taxed at that rate.
Kevin RussellEisenhower, Republican President after Truman kept most of Roosevelt's, Truman's tax levels, when asked why, said words to the effect, "Lazy money, We only tax lazy money. Upgrade your factory, invest in your business and we dont."
But really, that was before a handfull of men started owning almost all of it.
We need strong, robust, fair, taxation of wealth.
@pyager 91% of what?
@Stefan_S_from_H How about 91% of "new wealth" not just salaries, which rich people can certainly manipulate?
@pyager Something worth $100 billion now could be worth $50 billion tomorrow.
Or you buy something for $44 billion, and it's only worth $44 million now. 😉
NerdiCorgi@rbreich In the most literal of senses: we can't afford a wealth tax. Why? Because I don't have enough money to take our politicians off they payroll of wealthy elites.
@rbreich we can't afford *not* to have an aggressive tax on the rich, both on their income and their wealth.
Robert Reich
@rbreich
Taxing wealth is supporyed by a majority of conservative voters, indy voters and lib voters. Only elected reps are slow, and all but a handful of Dem Reps support it.
Insist, demand, push, wealth taxes. Save the world.
Vaguely here 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈@rbreich tax the super rich until they are the average income.
Aaron Roco@rbreich So Nationalize Tesla and SpaceX instead?
@rbreich how do you plan to tax the super-rich?
I really want to know. It's not a rhetorical question. I imagine it's not so straightforward as taxing normal people.
Can this been explained in a short toot?
@Stefan_S_from_H I’m open to discussion, direct your questions to my forum.
https://t.me/Robertreich1
https://t.me/Robertreich1
Cat Power@rbreich this is really shameful. What will it take to call people to account? Is there any goal in life besides $$$?
Wayne55@rbreich Who needs that much money unless they’re planning on eating it.
Justin@rbreich - 100% with you on this. - for years the value of “user data” was harvested and monetized - those fortunes are the collections of all that value.
@rbreich
From my perspective, we can’t afford to not tax billionaires, and the longer we take to come to this realization as a society, the more damage we allow their greed to inflict
From my perspective, we can’t afford to not tax billionaires, and the longer we take to come to this realization as a society, the more damage we allow their greed to inflict
@rbreich at some point, wealth accumulation moves from something that is maybe neutral for society into something that is pathological for the person and malignant for society. I'm not smart enough to know where that point is, but we desperately need to find it and reset our national tax policy with it in mind.
We need rich people to fully and really understand that the sun doesn't, in fact, shine out their backside.
@mndatanerd it will better once again, It might only take time.
Happy holidays 🎁. Do you follow my daily review?
https://t.me/Robertreich1
Happy holidays 🎁. Do you follow my daily review?
https://t.me/Robertreich1
Alius Ratio@rbreich As long as we keep electing the rich to make the laws we will keep getting laws that favor the rich.
@aliusratio @rbreich fun fact: I was once told by my state representative -- while I was fighting through job instability and poverty, no less -- that her husband made $750k/year as a health care executive, so "not all Democrats are poor."
Agree that we can't keep electing rich people and expect anything to change, especially if they are winning under the supposedly progressive party's banner.
xs4me2@rbreich
It is simply unacceptable.
It is simply unacceptable.
Krag
Coyote Surfing 🎸🎡 🌊Americans need to take more personal responsibility for their lives
° start an oil corporation
° open a mafia casino
° get $2 Billion from Saudi Arabia
COME ON PEOPLE !!
It's Just Jenn 🏳️⚧️@rbreich If by a wealth tax you mean seizing all wealth above a billion dollars I'm on board.
Thales@rbreich If they don’t want to pay taxes like we all do to maintain the economy, based on our income, if they don’t want to pay livable wages to maintain the economy, if they don’t want to take responsibility for economic and environmental fallout, then they should take their business and go live on an island.
They’re exploiting the economy, people, the environment, while refusing the responsibility that we all have to maintain it. That’s not a sustainable civilization. Classic garbage capitalism; zero liability and responsibility, infinite profit.
Why are we enabling and supporting this deranged, repulsive, and sociopath producing monetary and economic system???
Psychiatric Help 5¢@rbreich
HOW can America possibly pay off THE DEBT CRISIS!! if rich Americans are dumb enough to pay taxes? We need Very Stable Genius JOB CREATORS. Like the 'YOU'RE FIRED' Guy and the other 'Live at work or YOU'RE FIRED' dude.
Taxes are for coal miners great grandchildren to pay. Don't be a Commie.
HOW can America possibly pay off THE DEBT CRISIS!! if rich Americans are dumb enough to pay taxes? We need Very Stable Genius JOB CREATORS. Like the 'YOU'RE FIRED' Guy and the other 'Live at work or YOU'RE FIRED' dude.
Taxes are for coal miners great grandchildren to pay. Don't be a Commie.
WrathofJan 🌞🌻🌎🖖
MysticalWolf@rbreich So, the people that took this land from the natives weren't actually fleeing for religious reasons, that was an excuse. They left and conquered this land years ago because they didn't wanna pay taxes anymore. The cycle repeats. And those rich folks that actually made the constitution, otherwise people of color and their own wives would have been in the constitution to begin with.
As you see though, women and people of color weren't and still aren't because now we are going backwards.
@rbreich We absolutely need a wealth tax, but it's difficult to implement one since wealth is difficult to measure.
I think we should at least start with taxes on real estate and stocks, though.
Dandydan@rbreich tax more at the million.
More millions more taxes. Billionaires are taxed twice the millionaires.
More millions more taxes. Billionaires are taxed twice the millionaires.
@rbreich ...isn't one of them Indian?
@rbreich 😂😂😂little socialist!
Kate Nova@rbreich Wealth Tax? I'd be happy if they just paid normal taxes. Or any taxes at all!
@rbreich How do you get pigs off the trough?
MT Nickerson@rbreich it’s astounding that a person can lose billions of dollars and still be worth more than a hundred billion dollars.
Jeff@rbreich republicans want ruled
Derek 🌈@rbreich First step is getting everyone off Facebook and Twitter over to #Mastodon or anything else that is using the #fediverse
Hotch Deercliff@rbreich we should tax wealth over $100 Million at 100%. This would let people achieve the American dream and have more wealth than they could spend in a lifetime while preventing catastrophic wealth disparity.