'Tax the Rich. It's Just That Simple': US Campaign Aims to Make Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share

[guillaumeb]

From the article:

A coalition of over a dozen progressive advocacy groups launched a nationwide "Tax the Rich" campaign Wednesday with the goal of building a grassroots movement to unrig the tax code and make wealthy Americans pay their fair share......

To underscore this point, Tax March released new polling data (pdf) Wednesday showing that 75 percent of likely 2020 voters—including 60 percent of Republicans—support raising taxes on the wealthy.....

Ezra Levin, co-executive director of Indivisible, argued that combating inequality with higher taxes on the rich would have both economic and political benefits.
"Concentration of wealth equals concentration of power," said Levin. "That means taxing the rich not only builds a more just economy, it builds a stronger democracy for all of us."

To read more:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/03/tax-rich-its-just-simple-us-campaign-aims-make-wealthy-pay-their-fair-share?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=%27Tax%20the%20Rich.%20It%27s%20Just%20That%20Simple%27%3A%20US%20Campaign%20Aims%20t


There is a reason that economic equality is falling as the number of billionaires is rising.

[unblock]

1. the usual idiotic argument against taxing the rich is that they need that big incentive.

yeah right.

jeff bezos is worth about $150 billion today.

if had taxed an extra 20% of all his income at every step of the way (which is a truly massive increase in the tax rate), he'd be worth about $120 billion today.


anyone want to tell me that if rates were that much higher for the last 30 years or so, when jeff bezos was thinking about founding amazon, he would have said, "well, at these high tax rates, i might be the richest person in the world someday, but if that means only $120 billion, meh, that's not worth it, i'll just go work at mcdonald's instead.

seriously, it's ridiculous. the rich will play the game no matter what the rules are. of course they always want the most favorable rules for themselves, but they'll never stop playing the game of trying to get as much money as possible for themselves.

even if taxes go up, they'll always try to generate as much profit as possible.


the only thing to worry about is if they'll shift things to lower tax jurisdictions, but that's another story. imho, we should tax all income worldwide, period. no hiding income in the caymans or ireland or wherever. if you made a profit, you pay taxes, period.

[guillaumeb]

4. But the job creators!!!

That has been the mantra, that these job creators will only create jobs if they are taxed lightly, or not at all.

But history dose not support such Libertarian fantasy.

Given that most jobs are generated by small businesses, and given that most of these small business owners will never be rich, there is no reason that there could not be a 70% top marginal tax rate applied to all income, both earned and unearned.

[Yavin4]

13. How can anyone survive on $120 billion?

Do you want the man to starve?

[ck4829]

22. LOL

[Hortensis]

2. Obama begin taxing the rich in spite of a republican

Obama begin taxing the rich. In spite of a republican controlled Congress, he was able to return the tax rate on individual income to pre-Reagan levels. Democrats were going to continue that in this session.

Now we get to start over from the real deep hole in 2020. Presuming we get control of Congress of course.

Those very few who thought losing control of government to Republicans would end up better, a first step to a wonderful new world, how’s it going for you?

Countdown to election day 2020: 578 days

[guillaumeb]

5. 578 days?

But in Trump days, that will seem like 20 years.

Lower taxes on the rich have affected the majority negatively. Another toxic legacy of the Reagan Revolution.

[Hortensis]

21. The solution is always Democratic

majorities. And president and governors, of course.

And, yes, it will seem forever, whether he or Pence is in office. Thank heavens the electorate gave us a majority in the house and more states. Otherwise,

But they have court-packing power.

[TheBlackAdder]

3. The wealth is where the money is. Audit one billionaire would yeild more than 10,000 average people.

.

The claim is that they should be audited like everyone else, but the errors for the wealthy are substantially more than the errors for someone making $20K a year.

Besides, as part of the society, billionaires should automatically get audited to ensure compliancy.

.

[guillaumeb]

6. Agreed.

And countries should cooperate in setting standards to eliminate tax havens.

[TheBlackAdder]

7. Check this shit out. Disney, Koch and a couple hundred others dodge US taxes.

.

They used E&Y or KPMG to perform 5 nation hops so their clients pay less than 1% income tax.

Then, these folks petition for repatriation, and pay 5% to bring the money back to the US, so they pay 6% tax.


https://www.icij.org/investigations/luxembourg-leaks/new-leak-reveals-luxembourg-tax-deals-disney-koch-brothers-empire/

.

[guillaumeb]

8. And it is legal.

Even encouraged by a system that allows it t happen.

[guillaumeb]

9. From your link:

Since the first wave of stories was published by a team of more than 80 journalists around the world, ICIJ’s “Lux Leaks” investigation has sparked swift condemnation and calls for reform in Europe. In the wake of the revelations, Jean-Claude Juncker, the new president of the European Commission, who was prime minister of Luxembourg while many of the controversial tax policies were enacted, survived a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament but saw his leadership questioned.
Juncker has firmly maintained that his home country’s tax practices are legitimate but also admitted after the “Lux Leaks” publications that the system was “not always in line with fiscal fairness” and may have breached “ethical and moral standards.”

[NacLeeFF]

11. Better yet - have no such thing as billionaires. nt

[ck4829]

23. Indeed

[NacLeeFF]

10. Most people who are rich already pay a lot in taxes. It's a small # at the *very* top who don't. nt

[guillaumeb]

12. Welcome to DU.

And the conversation.

Yes, most do pay their taxes. But a small number of very wealthy greedy rich do not.

[NacLeeFF]

14. Agreed. Thank you for the welcome!

[guillaumeb]

15. George Soros pays me to do it.

And to protest.

[NacLeeFF]

17. But I thought Soros was a greedy billionaire! You like greedy billionaires now?

[guillaumeb]

19. Nice. eom

[NacLeeFF]

20. I try.

[ck4829]

24. George Soros is cool, we'll keep him with his Soros Bucks

[malaise]

16. According to ReTHUGs that's socialism

[guillaumeb]

18. And we all know that GOP politicians never lie. eom

[ck4829]

25. Kick