A 1% annual wealth tax on billionaires in Illinois would, by itself, balance the budget.

A 2% wealth tax on billionaires would pay for universal single payer healthcare for everyone in Illinois.

Tax the billionaires.

@theleftistlawyer the rich can pay 1% of assets under management to wealth managers for uncertain returns. Spending an additional 1%AUM to fix the economy would probably lead to better returns.
@theleftistlawyer
We can't do that! With a 1% annual wealth tax, in fifteen years, they'd have five times as much money as they do now!
@theleftistlawyer
And don't adjust the lower limit upwards til inflation gets us to where most doctors reach past it at some point in their lives.
If anything, add another % at 10 billion, and another at 100 billion, etc.

@theleftistlawyer

Here is another worthy idea to pursue at the state level.

The states have the constitutional right to dictate the terms of corporate operation within their territory. They can forbid corporations from spending money on political parties or politicians at least that’s my understanding.

There’s more than one way to skin citizens United. I think Robert Reich has spoken on this just recently.

Antitrust is unnecessary component of bringing morbid wealth back to earth

@theleftistlawyer think of what that will cause, they might threaten to move to Idaho or Wyoming where only corrupt uncritical journalists & influencers will visit them all on private planes!

@theleftistlawyer
Yeah and make sure moving to Florida or Nevada or wherever doesn't extinguish the tax liability. Tax income, cap gains etc. based on where they're earned, not where the tax cheats have fled to.

#uspol #TaxBillionaires #TaxMillionairesToo #EisenhauerTaxRates

@theleftistlawyer I am sorry, but this is a bad idea. We should tax things we want less of, but we should want more billionaire entrepreneurs
@a @theleftistlawyer billionaires exist because of a failure in society. Somebody was not held accountable when stepping on all the necks necessary to accumulate such extraordinary wealth. At my current, decently-paid, civil service public safety job, I would have to work over 1,200 years to accumulate one billion dollars. Gross, not net. No single individual needs, or deserves, that much money and influence. Not even the "nice" ones.

@a @theleftistlawyer If anything has been proven those "billionaire entrepreneurs" are the things we have very little use for and that anyone having that amount of wealth is a failure state caused by lack of paying their way.

The burden of wealth is responsibility towards the societies that enabled your wealth. Failure to do so should mean ostracisation from society at least and being murdered on your lawn by your employees for wage theft at worst.

@theleftistlawyer how many billionaires are in Illinois? I imagine there are like 5-10 maybe? Sports team owners and bank dudes. I imagine a world where every state but one taxes the shit out of billionaires. Maybe put a jet tax in them so they can't just fly in do business and fly out.
@theleftistlawyer it would be interesting to make a table showing wise could be done with every percentage taxed (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.....).
@theleftistlawyer but what if instead we channeled that good energy into a fecklessly incompetent war in the middle east :)

@theleftistlawyer taxation, especially of billionaires, at the national level is not about revenue. Especially in the US.

We don't need to balance the budget. We need to tax billionaires to rein in their power. The only reason to have a billion dollars or more is to use the ridiculous excess to adversely influence our democracy. Billionaires need to be taxed until they are no longer billionaires.

@theleftistlawyer much of the countable #wealth of #billionaires isn't #cash or even particularly liquid.
Accept that relevant proportion of firms, but preferably ones with tangible #property within easy reach, in kind, as payment of that 1% or 2%

States are suitable holders of property,,and can be reasonably good and durable conservators of it.
Cash risks handing ownership abroad.

@theleftistlawyer Any wealth tax on Illinois billionaires would result in a severe reduction in the number of said billionaires domiciled in Illinois. They don't get to be billionaires by paying taxes.
Effectively, the US is a tax haven. The states know this.