Mastodawn

Flag59 Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson And here we are. Dominated by the ultra rich. Americans need to fight back. This is bull shit. Now is the time to start organizing.

Lee 🌏Jan 21, 2023

@Flag59 @dcjohnson
And here we are in 2023 with dumb people defending Billionaires for paying too much tax. 🤦

@MrLee @Flag59 @dcjohnson

essjax Jan 21, 2023

Lee 🌏Jan 21, 2023

@Essjax @Flag59 @dcjohnson
Ha! (Fixed it :-)

DavePerrino ✅Jan 21, 2023

@MrLee @Flag59 @dcjohnson Just wait until republicans cut their social security and Medicare.

Here's something else that's different!

U.S. Military Spending/Defense Budget 1960-2023

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/military-spending-defense-budget

U.S. Military Spending/Defense Budget 1960-2023

Military expenditures data from SIPRI are derived from the NATO definition, which includes all current and capital expenditures on the armed forces, including peacekeeping forces; defense ministries and other government agencies engaged in defense projects; paramilitary forces, if these are judged to be trained and equipped for military operations; and military space activities. Such expenditures include military and civil personnel, including retirement pensions of military personnel and social services for personnel; operation and maintenance; procurement; military research and development; and military aid (in the military expenditures of the donor country).

nader Jan 20, 2023

@waldenecovillage Is this data adjusted for inflation? I couldn't find a statement about it in the link

JR Jan 20, 2023

@nader @waldenecovillage rates of taxation are independent of inflation.

Thomas Jan 20, 2023

@waldenecovillage @dcjohnson I recall that the military budget was about $100 billion in 1980, so the chart is not adjusted for inflation. The % of GDP is encouraging news.

Lacci 🐇Jan 21, 2023

@waldenecovillage
I hadn't actually realized that the US had cut military spending as a percentage of GDP by more than half since the 60s. That's kind of a big deal given that federal taxes as a % of GDP are basically unchanged. I knew there had been reductions in military spending but not by that much.
@dcjohnson

FogBelter Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson also forgotten, those higher tax rates were implemented by the ruling class to save it from itself, for when the oligarchs become detached from society, imbue themselves with mythological traits, and become perceived as a toxic burden by the people, history shows, they tend to be purged.

LibertyForward1 Jan 20, 2023

@FogBelter @dcjohnson Let us binge and purge. #EatTheRich

Solar🌄Garden Jan 21, 2023

@FogBelter @dcjohnson

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/19/millionaire-davos-tax-inequality-rich

I’m a millionaire – this is why I’m at Davos begging to pay more tax

I’ve seen how growing inequality is tearing societies apart. Now I’m calling for the world’s richest people to pay their fair share, says founder member of Patriotic Millionaires UK Phil White

The Guardian

OrionPax TA Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson
And high corporate taxes are great for growth because they incentivize companies to reinvest their revenue, rather than get taxed on it as profits!

Threadbane Jan 21, 2023

@orionpax @dcjohnson They just give their top officers gigantic stock option handouts and bonuses the corporation writes off as payroll and then the corporate officers pay tax lawyers to avoid paying anything resembling a fair tax. As a last resort, they can pay more dividends to get the corporate profits to zero and shareholders can diddle their personal finances to pay pennies on the dollar of a fair tax.

Erik Ableson Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson Ahh, the good old days… (as opposed to the imaginary version so many seem to adhere to)

Paranoid Factoid Jan 20, 2023

Absolutely right!

I remember that too.

70 Kangaroo Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson That has all disappeared hasn't it. The rich must be happy but the rest of us are much poorer.

PeterGuen Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson I thought I was dreaming.

Coach Pāṇini ®Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson American oligarchs won, and I’d posit that the GOP base saw this reality sooner than everyone else, which is why they made decisions to snub the system in the form of Trump

Aya Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson I think this is why Islam is so vilified. Not because of doctrine, because let's fake it, all religious extremists are batty - look at America's right wing - but because Islamic law actually says 1) no patent law 2) no 'unearned' income (such as landlording) 3) inheritance to be shared far and wide in the family - pretty much even odd cousins 7 times removed are included. It's literally the antithesis to neoliberal doctrine

Aviva Gary Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson truth

R.A. Porter (he/him)Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson Yeah, but you're taking about when the government was run by rabid leftists like...checks notes...Eisenhower.

AndyH Jan 21, 2023

@coyotesqrl @dcjohnson

That damn progressive Ike, who build the interstate highway system and started NASA.

AndyH Jan 20, 2023

President Eisenhower taxed the shit out of the wealthy and built the interstate highway system.

Why is there an interstate highway in Hawaii?

Why is I-4 an interstate when it's only in Florida?

David Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson And some people want the really rich who fly private jets to Davos to control the global economy. You won’t own anything, but you’ll be happy. I’d be happier if they limited their total compensation to $150K per year, and gave up their private planes and fancy homes and lived like the redo of the world does.

Thomas Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson Those quite high marginal tax rates that you cite were not implemented until after World War II. They were implemented to pay off the war bonds. The Republicans have given away so many tax cuts that most people barely pay any taxes. The treasury is funded by the taxes on the upper class.

Corporate taxes cause mis-allocation of capital. A case can be made to have no corporate taxes. Just collect income taxes.

DanS Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson Well-conceived, fair and progressive taxation is absolutely the most efficient way to grow both equity and the economy at the same time. That is why eliminating taxes is now a sacred tenet of one of our political parties in the USA.

JR Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson In 1973 the richest man in the world was worth about 2 billion dollars . Probably about 10-12 billion in 2023 $.

Voron Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson Economic Royalists was the term FDR used for them

Jyoti Mishra Jan 20, 2023

Bring back THESE good old-fashioned values!

Pat Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson #taxes I know from my business experience that high income people did not pay those high tax rates. Even the moderately rich and corporations acquired tax shelters (e.g., real estate ltd partnerships)--the sale of which was a bustling industry. To think people and corps paid those high rates is misleading. Nobody with a good accountant paid high taxes.

@patrascan @dcjohnson But aren't today's rates also, in practice, reduced by various offsets including losses from prior years? If the rich never paid a full 91%, it's just as true that today they don't pay the full 37%. The comparison remains apt.

@Dbregernyc You make a good point! I think some folks believe that once upon a time the rich were forking over 91% of their income in taxes and as a result we were somehow better off as a nation because our tax code demanded higher payments from those who could afford it. Therein lies the misunderstanding, I think.

@patrascan. Let's say you're able to shelter one half of your tax liability then and now so that pre-JFK the top bracket effectively paid 45% of their income in taxes and today they pay 19%. 1959 looks a lot better for the public weal to me. And understand the top bracket kicked in at the equivalent of $4m but now at $700k which means a lot of people who aren't very rich pay the same rate as the 0.1%.

@Dbregernyc Leona Helmsley put it very succinctly when she said "Only the little people pay taxes". And thus has it ever been!

@patrascan Real estate depreciation - values actually increase while the owner deducts the "loss" of value resulting from wear and tear. It's magic!

@Dbregernyc Seriously! And in tax shelters of early 1970s for real estate limited partnerships, each and every general partner in a commercial project (no matter how many GPs there were!) was permitted to write off the entire depreciation for the whole project. Talk about magic!

@Dbregernyc oops I meant limited partners when I said general partners. Usually there was one GP and then any number of LPs. Sorry for confusion

@patrascan And the $700k earner is much less likely to be able to shelter income.

Dave Johnson Jan 28, 2023

@patrascan they did. The nonsense that they didn't just justifies lower tax rates.

Pat Jan 28, 2023

@dcjohnson Leona "only little people pay taxes" Helmsley disagrees with you. And she would know!

Helderweb Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson as a result of the tax rates of the 1940s and 50s the USA won the Second World War, built the Interstates and even got to the Moon. The secret is a strong/working middle class.

(((JaneinNJ)))Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson Yup, yup, and yup.

cinematicenthus Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson yes! I'm so glad you mentioned this. I grew up with my grandparents who ran their own business from the 1950s-90s. They constantly told me about how high the tax rate they paid.
Also read books correlating higher tax rates paid by the wealthy prevented severe income inequality. Sure enough, we've gone from 90% paid to barely 20% paid and we wonder why the middle class has to bear the brunt of income inequality.

David Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson The tax rate was 90% because the government was able to get away with it, not any altruistic reason.

David Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson I love it when people claim saving Democracy just perfectly meshes with their world view, and everything else isn’t.

Simon

Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson and then the boomers came along

GATEKEEPER Jan 20, 2023

@dcjohnson
The wealthy are subject to high interest rates. They pay cash for everything.

climate voter/radical oldie Jan 21, 2023

@dcjohnson And this was under a Republican President, Eisenhower.

terryt Jan 21, 2023

@dcjohnson yep, I remember those days as well. There was a middle class and a family could live on one income.

Humble Fan of Atty. Woo Jan 21, 2023

well, the Repubs & the ultra wealthy screwed the pooch on that deal and here we are about to be drop kicked into the cesspool they've created. carry on

Patricklee Jan 21, 2023

@BillMcGuire @dcjohnson yup. It’s a century in the making and now they get their wish.

It’s worse than before the French Revolution and look what happened then…

Kypedsnp Jan 21, 2023

@dcjohnson
My latest (depressing) read...

Joe ❌👑Jan 21, 2023

@dcjohnson Also, hardly anyone paid that top rate on the majority of their income, because corporate execs didn't get astronomical compensation back then.