Guy worth $340B spending $25M in WI is like the median American worker who makes $39,982 a year spending $2.94.

Meaning, a $5 cup of coffee has a greater financial impact on a working American than $25M did on a maniac billionaire.

This is how democracies collapse.

TAX BILLIONAIRES OUT OF EXISTENCE.

@QasimRashid "well actually you see he doesn't have all that money per se" SHUT UP. 😊
@switch Exactly. The only acceptable response to such insufferable bootlickers.

@QasimRashid
We should keep reminding ourselves of the dimensions. Such comparisons are very helpful.

Or this one:
1 million seconds = approx. 12 days
1 billion seconds = approx. 32 years
#TaxTheRich

@stehgeiger @QasimRashid

Yes. The inability of most people to really understand orders of magnitude and geometric growth is responsible for much of the effectiveness of disinformation and grift.

@stehgeiger @QasimRashid

My favorite is:

The difference between a billion and a million is about a billion

@QasimRashid

Yes, but no.

He's worth $340b, that's not his annual salary.

But, it's hard to find an equivalent for a normal American, because so many people have a net worth of zero or less because of loans or mortgages.

If you wanted something salary-like for Musk, you could use the change in his net worth over time. That also has major limitations because it fluctuates so wildly. His net worth has gone up more than $150b since this time last year, but it's down about $100b in just the last quarter.

@merc

I don't mind that #Musk doesn't have a billion dollar salary, because I favor a #WealthTax on his net worth.

If there are still billionaires after we implement a wealth tax, it's not big enough.

https://left-tusk.com/@BlueDot/113516268079604227

@QasimRashid

BlueDot🇺🇦 (@BlueDot@left-tusk.com)

Content warning: US politics

Mastodon
@BlueDot @merc @QasimRashid First, we have to restore democracy so it's possible to vote in someone who will do this.
@merc @QasimRashid I don't think most people have the imagination to understand Musk's relationship with money. He controls $340b in assets. What that means is that he can, very easily, leverage those assets to accomplish almost anything you could possibly imagine. He has no need to generate any sort of "income". It wouldn't allow him to do anything that he can't already do.

@merc @QasimRashid There's a reason income tax is the primary taxation form. The wealthy don't have incomes and play by other rules. Income is for regular people. What Darth Musk controls is a lot more powerful and it's silly to excuse it with "achtuallyy he doesn't.." this is the game. This is what's wrong with the system.

#WealthTaxNow

@merc @QasimRashid Just divide his total wealth (I refuse to call it "worth") by his age. It will vastly underestimate the current growth rate, but still make it painfully clear that no human should ever have that much power over society.

@QasimRashid people just have such a hard time getting the literally astronomical difference in scales. It’s so hard to comprehend a billion, let alone hundreds of billions.

I thought this website helpful.
https://eattherichtextformat.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/

Wealth, shown to scale

Wealth inequality in the United States is out of control. Here we visualize the issue in a unique way.

@QasimRashid

"Tax" them out of existence.

You're adorable.

At this point, "taxing" is the best they can hope for

@CosmickTrigger The tax is on monetary value, plus how much you have sticking up above the shoulders. If it sticks up too far, it gets "Deducted". @QasimRashid

@QasimRashid However, I found it interesting that he spent 10 times as much on the Wisconsin race than he is willing to pay to support Child 13.

The sign of a true pro-natalist!!!

@QasimRashid

Taxing billionaires is definitely a good thing to do, but just taxing them without removing capitalism, the system that allowed them to become billionaires in the first place, isn't going to permanently get rid of billionaires. If the system that creates billionaires continues to exist, then even if you do tax them out of existence, they'll still be able to come back.

@QasimRashid I keep seeing this kind of comparison but it's worse than that. Someone on $39,982 has to make the decision between donating $2.94 to a political campaign (let's say) and being able to afford their rent, electric bill, and so on.

We need more equitable pay and yes, I agree, we need to tax billionaires out of existence.

@QasimRashid they need their mental health diagnoses treated, wealth hoarding disorder
@QasimRashid you're mixing up net worth and annual revenue.
I still agree with the sentiment.

@QasimRashid

it’s critical to understand this point. This amount of money equals social control. That alone makes it dangerous to democracy. We have a choice between limiting the amount of money a person can have or limiting what they can do with it. I’d prefer to democratize the work place and let workers decide the distribution of wealth from their labor.

@QasimRashid while I fully agree with the overall direction of taxing the rich appropriately, it is still a very hard thing to do. I mean these pricks sit in the government rn :(
@QasimRashid Steve Keen says a transaction tax of 0.5% on every transaction is the way to do this. I tend to agree. Income tax is far too avoidable by those with means.
@Globob @QasimRashid is that translation tax called VAT or sales tax? Generally kept low for essential items to avoid affecting lower income people.
@smsm1 @QasimRashid A transaction tax is not a sales tax or VAT. In those cases everyone in the supply chain “snow plows” the tax burden forward until the consumer pays. A transaction tax is collected at each step in a supply chain.
@QasimRashid "Obscene" is always the word that comes to the front of my mind when I try to imagine that kind of wealth hoarding. They absolutely MUST have to pay taxes. Corporations as well!

@QasimRashid Point of order: that's like someone who has $40k _in their bank account_, not on their W-2.

Since a $40k earner probably only has access to a few hundred bucks at any given time with the rest going to bills and taxes — let's say they have $500 — it would be like that person spending 3.7¢.

@QasimRashid better yet, get rid of capitalism.

@QasimRashid

You can only tax wealth out of a jurisdiction, never out of existence.

@QasimRashid
There are difficulties in taxing the vastly wealthy, on unrealised income.

Perhaps their shares of companies could be taxed, simply as a percentage of the company, passing it into State control.

@QasimRashid Billionaires are a symptom of a failed tax code.
@QasimRashid Taxing billionaires out of existence means maintaining the very system that created them, and that will recreate them. The only way to stop the endless cycle is to cut the head off of the capitalist Ouroboros.

@QasimRashid I don't think that's exactly right - someone earning $39,982 per year has expenses like rent, food, utilities, etc., and spend everything they make.

I think it's closer to the equivalent of a $40k/yr worker finding a nickel on the sidewalk. It's money that came from nowhere, they don't need it, and they wouldn't miss it they spent it.

And on this scale, the entire presidency was only two quarters.

@QasimRashid first $999,999,999 is on us, everything above is 90%
@QasimRashid There is no ethical or moral justification for billionaires existing in a world with hungry children, unhoused people, and medical care bankruptcy. Tax them or seize their assets, I’m indifferent as to which. They can go quietly or they can go the French path, but either way, they gotta go.
@QasimRashid and even this comparison leaves out, that one need a minimum amount of money to survive. That value should be subtracted from the wealth first!