EIon Musk’s Wealth
2009: $.6B
2023: $249B
Jeff Bezos’s Wealth
2009: $6B
2023: $153B
Mark Zuckerberg’s Wealth
2009: $.6B
2023: $105B
Federal Minimum Wage
2009: $7.25
2023: $7.25
Billionaire tax rate: 8.2%
Worker tax rate: 13%
Pay workers.
Tax Billionaires.
Save our economy.
@MichelleRNCHPN @QasimRashid - Tax em or eat em; I’m beginning to not care which.
Also: Tax wealth more heavily than work.
@QasimRashid
I immediately thought ot the typical counter-argument: "But they create jobs!"
However, immediately under this was a post about layoffs by a mega-corp.
They only produce jobs accidentally. Their whole job is to reduce costs/jobs.
@hosford42 @QasimRashid
Even that's limited. The primary mission of a corporation is to serve the interests of its shareholders. If a company is young and expanding, that creates jobs. But if revenue isn't increasing as quickly as shareholders demand, the usual recourse is to cut expenses, including jobs.
Increasing demand creates jobs. Companies may or may not, depending on demand.
@hosford42 @QasimRashid
An extreme example is US health insurance. Americans pay more taxes per capita toward health care than Canadians do, but still pay a ridiculous amount in premiums and fees.
Put another way, *every penny* of US health premiums and user fees is profit for parasitic insurance companies.
@geobeck @hosford42 @QasimRashid
Who made up the rule that the purpose of a company is to enrich the shareholders. It’s not a law. (Hint: it was shareholders, and the economists they employ.)
How about a new rule? The purpose of a company is to create jobs. Full stop.
@HeatherH @geobeck @QasimRashid Sadly, it is a law. #FiduciaryDuty
The issue is, *somebody* has to decide what the right course is for a company. We call people who have the right to make that determination "shareholders" or "owners". These folks can only be counted on to make decisions in their own best interest. (Altruism exists, but try asking a random person on the street for money and you'll quickly learn it's far from universal.) So the law is designed to work within that constraint.
If you really want companies to do right by the average worker or consumer, the owners/shareholders of those companies have to be the workers or consumers, not third parties. Then the shareholders screwing the workers or consumers becomes the shareholders screwing themselves, and nobody will be on board for that. Like magic, making the oppressed and the oppressors be the same group makes the oppression cease.
@kkarhan @QasimRashid I'm okay with taxing capital gains at 0% but we should tax total assets over $100m at least 5% pa.
If someone is wheeling and dealing and making money on the deals, that's adding economic value. But if you can't earn i.e. >2.5% cash returns on $200m, you're both bad at capitalism and your assets are massively over-valued.
Yes, I'm sure it would be hard for Musk to cough up $12B in taxes every year but only because his $246B net worth is a bullshit valuation.
@QasimRashid Billionaires are awful for the economy. They horde money instead of putting it back in the economy.
Countries with lots of small companies and workers that went through an apprenticeship have the best performing economies in Europe (Switzerland outside and Germany inside the EU for example)
@QasimRashid
Reminder that "$.6B" is more money than any individual ever needs.
$600,000,000 is already obscene.
what if the billionaires are really brainy and if for a few years we let them do stuff (because we are daft and would not know what to do with more money), and they make a better world.
but ... if the are trying to screw us, and mess up, then there is going to be trouble !
@gollox @QasimRashid It doesn't work that way. If they build a better world without our input, it will be better for them, but not for us.
Also, they are not "really brainy" and we are not daft.
"But they all move to Dubai then"
"But they all move to Switzerland then"
"But they all move to the Caymans then"
"But they all move to Malta then"
Note though that billionaires do not actually have taxable income. Income tax is for workers. The average billionaire pays $0/a. 8.2% or 13% (or 25-33% in Canada) makes no difference, as any percentage of $0 is still $0.
We need a wealth tax, not income tax.
$.6B sounds so small in that context, but even *that* is…
$600,000,000.00
Which would take 39,787 years to earn at $7.25 for 40 hours a week.
"The rich gave a few shovels and a wagon.
The poor gave their labor and their lives."
SearingTruth
They're basically dragons. Hoarding wealth and blowing hot air everywhere to scare people away.
@QasimRashid $7.25? EVERY hour? That's just not fair! How can someone run a business under those conditions. No, i'll have to hire a contractor and offer to pay a specific amount per workload completed. If that means the contractor only earns $4.50/hr, that's for him to optimize hos way out of.
By the way: no breaks for contractors. They are companies, not people.
Patrick Ross
Qasim Rashid, Esq.
MichelleRN, Former CHPN, Ret.
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