Sheryl WeikalA 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.
Girl Lich 🏳️⚧️⚢💀@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
Grease the Subtle@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.
This is not true. While you are right that there are not many nice billionaires, they are very useful. Billionaires who become billionaires legitimately become so by being vital to the creation or distribution of something that people really like.
MeaningfulBits@a @grease @theleftistlawyer I can't tell if you left the /s off at the end or not.
We do not want more people hoarding wealth. They can be very generous $999millionaires and their lives wouldn't change a bit.
@MeaningfulBits @a @theleftistlawyer and really, it's not even about the money, right? As mentioned somewhere else in the thread, most net worth is not liquid assets, so it's all about consolidated power and influence. If you have one dude with $1B, versus 1,000 people with $1M, which scenario is going to better fit into the public good of an allegedly democratic republic government? Which voice might have an outsized effect on public policy?
Of course that begs the question that a demo-repub govt is what we're aspiring toward.