Slayerfest79Oct 26
Grant Me Strength

If you tax the wealthy they’ll leave.

We tax them. They leave.

Every country taxes them. They leave.

Now they live in international waters on giant boats. They hate it. The food is awful. They get norovirus a lot.

The world carries on, considerably better off.

Oct 26 at 2:24pmWeb
Show threadRobee? Na! 🌈Oct 26
@GrantMeStrength I’ll happily do what they do, get paid what they get paid, and pay twice the tax!
Show threadEmily Vale, GendermancerOct 26
@RobeeShepherd @GrantMeStrength honestly? I would do what they do, for the same pay, welcome a 95% tax, and still take home like 5 times what I gross now.
Show threadRobee? Na! 🌈Oct 26
@sillyCoelophysis @GrantMeStrength Dammit stop undercutting me!!!
Show threadEmily Vale, GendermancerOct 26
@RobeeShepherd @GrantMeStrength that's the free market, baby! 🤣
Show threadCedar Fen Farm Cedar Fen FarmOct 26

@sillyCoelophysis @RobeeShepherd @GrantMeStrength

😂👍👍

Show threadgkrnoursOct 26
@sillyCoelophysis @RobeeShepherd @GrantMeStrength french suggest to tax those with more than 100 millions of wealth. At worst, this means they have 100 millions. For comparisons, in the movie die hard, they plan to steal 640 millions with a team of ~10 then live off the interest
Show threadEmily Vale, GendermancerOct 26
@gkrnours @RobeeShepherd @GrantMeStrength so the villains in Die Hard were significantly less villainous than any wealthy person today? Does that track if you adjust for inflation? 😆
Show threadgkrnoursOct 26
@sillyCoelophysis @RobeeShepherd @GrantMeStrength I don't think inflation did x2 over the last 30 years 😜
And sure, you cannot be a billionnaire without exploiting people. Sure the die hard villains wanted to steal 640 millions, kills a few dozen of hostages and steal a snicker but capitalism is ruining life of millions of people, hide report about climate change for decade, is fast tracking fascism everywhere...
Show threadEmily Vale, GendermancerOct 26
@gkrnours @RobeeShepherd @GrantMeStrength I'm pretty sure capitalism has killed more people this week than they did in the movie. But hey, who's counting? 🙃 (Definitely the capitalists. Money isn't the only thing they're trying to get the high score in.)
Show threadCraig StewartOct 26

@gkrnours @sillyCoelophysis @RobeeShepherd @GrantMeStrength according to https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator £640000000 inflation adjusted to today would be £1,792,081,261.24.

Now obviously this isn't an exact comparison. Die hard was American. And the £/$ exchange rate hasn't remained static. But it should be reasonably indicative.

Inflation calculator

Check how prices in the UK have changed since 1209

Show threadcrispy branzino ☭ (sold out forever)Oct 27
@sillyCoelophysis @gkrnours @GrantMeStrength "theyll leave".

-- implying a billionaire is of any tangible benefit to the society they occupy.
Show threadRobynOct 26

@RobeeShepherd
I don't think I could happily do what they do. Even if I didn't have a conscience it's clearly going to lead to an unliveable planet which no amount of wealthy can insulate them from.

@GrantMeStrength

Show threadscott fOct 26
@RobeeShepherd Why don't you run for billionaire? You've got my vote. @GrantMeStrength
Show threadPoligofsky 🇨🇦 .. 🚫🤖Oct 26

@GrantMeStrength

Ah, yes, the great global collective action problem.

Every country does X. A lovely dream.

Show threadJ LouOct 26

RE: https://mastodon.social/@jlou/115442512964300298

@8r3n7 @GrantMeStrength

Show threadG.I. Robot Oct 26
@GrantMeStrength @maco This is the future I want to live in. Make them go to their space stations. Let them live in their bunkers. But they’re not getting another dime from us.
Show threadAlison CreeksideOct 26
@GrantMeStrength "If you tax the wealthy they’ll leave."
This is only true if you're a tax haven.
Show threadLarryOct 26
@GrantMeStrength
They will threaten to leave but they enjoy clean water, modern medicine, literate minions enough to have a tax increase that doesn't affect their relative wealth be an issue.
Show threadolderOct 26

@quoidian

That's why they leave for Switzerland, not Cayman Islands.

@GrantMeStrength

Show threadNtropicOct 26
@GrantMeStrength when they leave you tax them for leaving.
Show threadipsquiggleOct 26
@Ntropic
This is key
@GrantMeStrength
Show threadRasmus LindegaardOct 26
@Ntropic @GrantMeStrength yes. You can leave anytime you want, but checkout costs every dime above the first mil
Show threadwebhatOct 26
@GrantMeStrength like the US we should tax them on their worldwide income, for having citizenship of the country. So they can spend their time on the boat and still pay tax
Show threadPeter BrownOct 26
@GrantMeStrength there doesn’t seem to be any actual statistical evidence that they do leave. Just anecdotal threats to intimidate government into not taxing them.
Show threadFeloniousPunkOct 26

@peterbrown @GrantMeStrength It’s just a scare tactic. Massachusetts proved it.

https://fortune.com/2025/10/21/zohran-mamdani-millionaire-tax-massachusetts-5-7-billion/

Millionaire tax that inspired Mamdani fuels $5.7 billion haul in Massachusetts

In two years levying a 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million, it's funded bridge repairs, bolstered literacy programs and tackled a transportation deficit.

Fortune
Show threadRobert ThauOct 26
@FeloniousPunk @peterbrown @GrantMeStrength The US has lots of test cases, due to differences between state income tax rates (excess of 10% in some states, zero on others), and millionaires always say the next little bit would be the one to make them move. But they're giving up money to stay where they are already, and the difference in amounts is minor. So if money would make them leave, they'd have already left.
Show threadKevin RussellOct 26

@FeloniousPunk @peterbrown @GrantMeStrength

The small uptick in fairness is tiny compared to trying to move businesses.

How does a landlord leave? Put apartments on barges?

Show threadJWcph, Radicalized By DecencyOct 27
@kevinrns @FeloniousPunk @peterbrown @GrantMeStrength Exactly - either they can't take their business with them, or they can & this opens up an opportunity in the market for someone else to step in. The only thing they can actually take away at will is their own taxes, but they do that already; none of them pay taxes, so what's the loss...?
Show threadJustin DerrickOct 26
@FeloniousPunk @peterbrown @GrantMeStrength They should increase it by 1% every year until they get back to the 90% marginal tax rate the US had until the 80’s.
Show threadPeter BrownOct 27
@JustinDerrick @FeloniousPunk @GrantMeStrength that was only the top rate. Most of your income was taxed at a much lower rate than that.
Show threadWesDymOct 27

@peterbrown @JustinDerrick @FeloniousPunk @GrantMeStrength Yes, that's what "marginal" means.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rate#Marginal

Tax rate - Wikipedia

Show threadPeter BrownOct 27
@wesdym @JustinDerrick @FeloniousPunk @GrantMeStrength yes the reply wasn’t specifically directed to you but anybody else reading the thread. I think I’d be looking at increments of more than 1% per year though
Show threadPeter BrettOct 26

@peterbrown Scotland has higher income tax than England. To within a rounding error, no-one has left over it.

@GrantMeStrength

Show threadBeldarakOct 26

@peterbrown @GrantMeStrength

also they do leave wether you tax them or not. They'll put as much as they can of their workforce in countries with less taxes and social laws

Show threadMaxilo OveritOct 26

@GrantMeStrength If you freeze or seize their assets, if you pierce their shell corporations, if you hold them without charges, if you invalidate their business licenses, they can't move their wealth or use it before you tax it out of existence. Courts can stop the wealthy from subverting tax power, and all it takes is political will.

Property rights are as made up as any of the rights the rich want to deprive the poor of.

Show threadLilly HunterOct 26
@GrantMeStrength And the Orkas sink their boats.
Show threadMichael WymanOct 26
@GrantMeStrength @msbellows who said we let them take the wealth with them when they leave?
Show threadDavid FyhrieOct 26

@GrantMeStrength

I couldn't care less if they leave, just tax them.

Show threadNickOct 26

@GrantMeStrength

They can't take land and buildings with them, though. So we can tax those.

If they sell them, someone else has to buy them. So we can charge stamp duty on the sale and then tax the new owner.

Show threadLazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Oct 26

@GrantMeStrength they need us more than we need them.

#NoBillionaires

Show threadMiakoda Oct 26
@GrantMeStrength "they will leave"
Good!
Good fucking riddance!
Goodbye!
And they can take their fucking AI buttons with them!
Show threadNiek van LeeuwenOct 26
@GrantMeStrength
Tax them when they leave the country!
Show threadBuhbuhOct 26
@GrantMeStrength If they hold a US passport they still have to pay taxes and to get rid of their passport they have to pay an upfront percent of their assets and should be forced out of the company if its based in the US.
Show threadParade du Grotesque 💀Oct 26

@GrantMeStrength

Studies after studies have proved that the vast majority of millionaires and billionaires do not "move" if they are taxed more.

The reasons for this? They like the country or city they reside in, don't speak foreign languages well enough, and/or realize that even with a ton of money, they may wish not to move their family or risk losing control of their business.

But I like the idea of all the wealthiest relocating in international waters. Much easier to bomb and sink...

Show threadKinene⭐🐻Oct 26
@ParadeGrotesque @GrantMeStrength Like all the asshats that moved from California to Texas "because it is cheaper." Until they received their power bills, then discovered the Texas power grid is not tied into other US grids, and is prone to failure. Sucks to be them (not).
Show threadSarah E BourneOct 26
@GrantMeStrength Massachusetts added 4% tax on income over $1m. Revenue is way up. Nobody left. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
Show threadMarta ThreadbareOct 26
@GrantMeStrength The problem is when they don't leave and instead decide to use their contacts in the US government to make the CIA stage a coup against you and set up a fascist dictatorship.
Show threadRob WilliamsonOct 26

@GrantMeStrength

They don't even leave. They just bleat about leaving.

Seriously wealthy people don't have money, they have assets. You can't take your skyscraper with you when you leave the country. Tax the assets, and I care not where the wealthy bitch about it on corpo social networks.

Show threadKhleedrilOct 26
@GrantMeStrength But there's always somewhere, like Monaco as an example, that will take them all.
Show thread7leaguebootdisk𓅽Oct 26
@GrantMeStrength money is just numbers in a database. The stuff that matters is here, they can't take it.
Show threadDianora (Diane Bruce)Oct 26
@GrantMeStrength As trickle down economics doesn't work a damn having them stay doesn't really matter.
Show threadPatrick Morris MillerOct 26
@GrantMeStrength They move to an abandoned platform in the North Sea. Now their troubles really begin.
Show threadWhiskey JackOct 26
@GrantMeStrength the myth is that somehow, if billionaires leave, society would suffer - roads will still get built, products made, and electricity will flow. The reason billionaires threaten to leave is because a distribution of wealth through taxes would give rise to competition that might make them work harder, ironic no?
Show thread🔏 Matthias WiesmannOct 26
@GrantMeStrength the boat in international waters plan works until pirates come. Defending you from pirates is the responsibility of the country you bear the flag from, or the US if you bribe them…
Fun fact, piracy in international waters can only be a crime if there is an international law.
Show threadAlexOct 26
@GrantMeStrength I though going to Mars was the new thing where super rich people want to go when they leave, now?
Show threadcraignicolOct 26
@GrantMeStrength @anilmc show me a time when this has actually happened, and wasn't just the Beatles and Stones throwing a tantrum.
Show threadanilmcOct 27

@craignicol @GrantMeStrength

Some may quibble but many of the really longlived empires had more or less bicentennial jubilees where debts were just reset. Because most of the money borrowed is from rich people the effect is kinda similar.

Show threadKevin GranadeOct 26

@GrantMeStrength it's such a stupid fake catch-22. "If we derive any benefit from them they'll go away". Ok so they're useless one way or another, so the thing that's more fair.

Not even getting into how bad faith, "but they'll leave" is, they have more mobility than poorer people but it's not infinite.

Show threadKevin RussellOct 26

@GrantMeStrength

Bankers can leave, bankers can leave our deposits here while looking for other people to rip.off.

Landlords can go, and leave homes here.

Agribusiness billionaires can go, the soil acreage stays here.

Manufacturing plant is not leaving with the jackass, it stays here, to build solar wind and EVs.

We make it all👈
They steal it all👈

They might leave?
Dont let the door hit ya

Tax wealth, robustly. TAX WEALTH vigorously. Really get in there.

#eu #france #uspol #cdnpoli

Show threadKevin RussellOct 26

@GrantMeStrength

Taxing elite billionaires IS POPULAR with conservative and liberal voters. Not with conservative or liberal party leaders.

Get rid of party leaders who want the rich richer.

Get rid of party leaders who wont tax billionaires.

Get rid of them. Inoculate against leaders who won't tax fairly.