Many of us received this email from the Sanders campaign this morning. The subject is frightening:

[George II]

Billionaires should not exist

That is a very dangerous way of stating this. With the things we're seeing from the other side, how many people will take this literally?

Here's the body of the email (with links to donate omitted)

I want to ask you to clear your mind for a moment and count to 10.

1...
2...
3...
4...
5...
6...
7...
8...
9...
10...

In those 10 seconds, Jeff Bezos, the owner and founder of Amazon, made more money than the median employee of Amazon makes in an entire year. An entire year.

Think about that.

We live in a time when millions of Americans, including many Amazon employees, are working 2 or 3 jobs to feed their families and the three wealthiest people in this country own more wealth than the bottom half of the American people.

It’s absurd.

And in order to reduce the outrageous level of inequality that exists in America today and to rebuild the disappearing middle class, the time has come for the United States to establish an annual tax on the extreme wealth of the top 0.1 percent of U.S. households.

Our tax on extreme wealth would only apply to the wealthiest households in America and would cut the wealth of billionaires in half over 15 years — which would substantially break up the concentration of wealth and power of this small, privileged class.

This is how much more in taxes some of the richest people in America would owe this year:

The Walton family - $14.8 billion
Jeff Bezos - $8.9 billion
Charles Koch - $3.2 billion
Sheldon Adelson - $2.6 billion
Rupert Murdoch - $1.28 billion

Our plan would raise more than $4 trillion over the next decade and anyone with a net worth of less than $32 million would not see their taxes go up under this plan.

Now, I have never understood how someone could have tens and hundreds of billions of dollars and feel the desperate need for even more. I would think that with the amount of money the 0.1 percent of this country has, they might just be able to get by.

But the truth is, for the past several decades there has been a massive transfer of wealth from those who have too little to those who have too much.

And for the sake of our democracy and for working families all over America who are struggling economically, that has got to change.

But making it happen must start with all of us making our voices heard and being clear — loudly and directly — that the greed of the billionaire class of this country is intolerable, and it must end.

In my view, a nation cannot survive morally or economically when so few have so much and so many have so little. Millions of people across this country struggle to put bread on the table and are one paycheck away from economic devastation, while the wealthiest people in this country have never had it so good.

It has got to stop.In my view, a nation cannot survive morally or economically when so few have so much and so many have so little. Millions of people across this country struggle to put bread on the table and are one paycheck away from economic devastation, while the wealthiest people in this country have never had it so good.

It has got to stop.

[pangaia]

1. I wonder how he came up with $32 million ?

I'm not supporting or criticizing his intent, but what in living hell does anybody do with $32,000,000 !!!

What 'should' the number be? I don ;t know but a lot less than $32,000,000.

[HerbChestnut]

2. For clarity

$32,000,000 is for married couples. If you're single, the tax starts at $16,000,000

[pangaia]

3. humm......

well, that makes it ok, then








PS. I'm hoping to win the NYS lottery... Then I will give away almost all of it to people I know.....

[Newest Reality]

4. That does reflect...

That reflects the fact, without stating it bluntly, that the main problem we have is Oligarchy vs. Democracy, plain and simple.

If you were to think of levels, the MIC is the underlying foundation while the politics we see are more superficial and based on the division of the Left vs. the Right. This is not something to believe, it is something to know. The partisan politics aspect of it is rather simple and easy to digest on the level of the general public, so it addresses the lowest common denominator.

The Oligarchy and MIC is a more complex and in-depth issue that tends to stay sub rosa because the media has a vested interest in what it conveys on a mass level and that comes down to the monopoly on media and then points right back to the MIC. At this phase in our reckoning and will or ability to find out more, you can be sure that information about the fundamental powers, (no, not the Deep State propaganda) behind the system itself is just not emphasized and would easily be roped off as some form of conspiracy theory at best.

This explains the growing frustration of the cognitive dissonance of distractions and diversions that filter up into the mainstream and why the will and choices of the people remain thwarted and even ignored.

Consider what any President would have to deal with in office if he or she wanted to really confront that reality. Eisenhower and Kennedy both spoke about it and it is still evident and more powerful today, actually, moreso.

[TidalWave46]

5. He is very good at getting money from his base.

That's all this seems to be to me.

As far as the policy itself, I find it to be weak and little more than red meat. I say that about Warrens wealth tax as well though I would support the general concept of either of their plans.

So why do I call it weak while still supporting the general concept? It's red meat policy that is very short sighted, builds a false narrative, and has become a political cop-out.

This wealth tax should be a part of a much larger tax package. A career politician like Sanders should have something much more in depth to give to the American people. This is providing ones own cover for not wanting to delve into the increase in tax burden that needs to be realized across the income spectrum. It creates the narrative that "the rich will pay for it" when that is not even close to the case.

[GeorgeGist]

6. I agree ...

there's no reason (other than GREED) for Billionaires to exist.