America is falling out of love with billionaires, and it's about time
Our emerging political debate over taxing the rich seems to be getting bogged down in details how high a tax rate, should we tax income or wealth, etc., etc. But this fixation on nuts and bolts is obscuring what may be the most important aspect of the discussion: America is becoming fed up with its billionaires.
That sentiment is long overdue. It has begun to surface in the suggestion by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that the top marginal rate on high incomes shift back to what it was in the 1950s or 1960s, and in Sen. Elizabeth Warrens proposal for a wealth tax on those with high net worth.
Since the Reagan administration, the political establishment has strived to convince Americans that extreme wealth in the hands of a small number of plutocrats is good for everyone. Weve had the trickle-down theory, the rechristening of the wealthy as job creators and their categorization invariably as self-made. Weve been told, via the simplistic Laffer Curve, that if you raise the tax rate you get less revenue.
There are three main subtexts of these arguments, all of which show up in the email in-box whenever I write about wealth and taxation. First: The extreme wealth of the few creates wealth all along the income scale, for the masses. Second: Its immoral confiscatory to soak the rich via taxation, at least above a certain level that never seems to be precisely defined. And third: If we torment the wealthy with taxes, theyll pack up their wealth and leave us, whether for some more accommodating nation on Earth or some Ayn Randian paradise.
https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-billionaires-20190201-story.html
dlk
(11,574 posts)dalton99a
(81,565 posts)WA-03 Democrat
(3,053 posts)nocoincidences
(2,227 posts)We bought the idea that anybody can do anything in America but it is far from the truth and getting farther every day.
shanny
(6,709 posts)never thought I could say this: thanks, tRump!
SWBTATTReg
(22,156 posts)changes that need to be done in reversing the stagnant income gains of the last 20 years or so, put in place a better minimum wage for all (livable wages), plus other changes to the tax code that are needed to reverse the massive, ongoing accumulation of wealth for seemingly no purpose other than to brag endlessly about.
At what point is enough, enough?
I certainly don't want anyone to go to bed hungry, sick, or without shelter, all of those things that most of us are lucky to have via our hard work and jobs. Some unfortunately do have hard times either via business layouts/closings, or illness in the family, etc., and do need help. This happens.
We need to help when possible. After all, there may be a time when you may need it.
Take care.