Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumA Wealth Tax Is Simply Un-American It would make the U.S. less hospitable to the most visionary entr
A Wealth Tax Is Simply Un-American It would make the U.S. less hospitable to the most visionary entr
The vision is to get all the money and create a peasant class that cant afford to live. Because they sure aint investing their money in products for sale prosperity producing jobs. Sorry Bloomberg, we dont need another person that thinks they are chosen by their almighty to be special and impose their will.
A Wealth Tax Is Simply Un-American
It would make the U.S. less hospitable to the most visionary entrepreneurs.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/opinion/articles/2019-10-29/wealth-tax-proposals-may-be-feasible-but-they-re-un-american
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,335 posts)Theres an entire bureaucracy in every county in the US set up to figure out how much every property is worth and tax a certain percentage of that value.
Is that un American?
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Prosper
(761 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,335 posts)But you are free to answer.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Prosper
(761 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
enough
(13,262 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
TidalWave46
(2,061 posts)of the Bundy crowd. They claim that in the land where property ownership trump all that no one actually ever truly owns their property because of it.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
redqueen
(115,103 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,335 posts)If you are a no new taxes type of person that is a different conversation.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
George II
(67,782 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
BlueMTexpat
(15,372 posts)my response below.
It's not all that complicated and certainly much fairer than what is happening now.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Prosper
(761 posts)dams up a river to tear the dam down. It is not fair to dam up a river that people depend upon for their livelihood. Money was created to facilitate the trading of goods and services. It should not be used to impose poverty.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
crazytown
(7,277 posts)Unlike an income tax, a wealth tax incentivizes productive investment.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
KPN
(15,649 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
KPN
(15,649 posts)past 40+ years during which the tax scam known as supply-side economics resulted in almost all of the income gains from economic productivity gains over that period ending up in the accounts of a relative few (the top 1%, but even more so for the top .01%) while wages/income stayed relatively flat overall for the remainder of Americans. In a nutshell, tax and economic policy that effectively transferred more and more of the income from productivity gains away from the working class to the .01-1%.
The wealth has already been transferred. The economic losses to middle and working class can never be recovered by simply taxing income because it is no longer income -- the wealth has already been accumulated. The wealthy already have it. The only way to recover some of those gains and restore a modicum of equity or balance is to tax that wealth, i.e., re-transfer some of that wealth back to the people who did the work to produce it in the form of federal revenue that benefits all Americans, not just the few.
Unless you have more than $50,000,000 in the bank, you don't have to worry about it.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Gore1FL
(21,151 posts)Think of it as a catch-up contribution.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
BlueMTexpat
(15,372 posts)Here's a quick video that shows how Warren's proposed wealth tax would work. Kudos to my fellow Warren supporter "sagesnow."
It's nice and short ... and easy to understand.
****************
No "visionary entrepreneurs" who have <USD 50 million will be hurt.
And don't you think that those who have >USD 50 million should begin to pay their fair share?
I do.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
oldsoftie
(12,587 posts)But instead of trying to get rid of that, we just talk about starting up even MORE programs that ALWAYS end up costing far more than estimated.
And lets not even factor in how most of this wealth is concentrated in company stock ownership & teh effect on stock price of having to sell share to pay the tax.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
BlueMTexpat
(15,372 posts)Wow, even faster than Warren and her team of experts! Impressive!
Obviously, this little video is quite simple and application of the wealth tax would be more complex (if it even gets passed), but frankly there are way too many Timid Tims who dismiss this out of hand.
The obscenely wealthy have ruined the world long enough and have caused an incredible gap - an abyss in fact - between rich and poor in the US, where we never dreamed it would happen. It is time for serious measures to be taken to remedy that.
I have to sell stock shares NOW to pay MY taxes and I am not in the top One Percent. Nowhere near! And I can still make ends meet. Granted, my comparatively small holdings hardly register with stock share prices.
But if the market stays healthy because not only the economy but ALL Americans are doing well, then it's a win-win situation for all. Any lost share value will soon be made up. I haven't heard either George Soros or Warren Buffet complaining and they are both financial wizards whom I respect.
The millionaires and billionaires will make out just fine despite all their current whining and gnashing of teeth.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
oldsoftie
(12,587 posts)Certainly the rich should pay more. But planning these special taxes that can and will be avoided is a waste of time. We dont tax nearly all the income NOW. We refuse to use a VAT like almost ALL the countries who have the programs we want. We dont even discuss the debt anymore. When the Debt Commission released their findings several years ago & the steps needed to deal with it, it was immediately ignored.
Thinking that we can fund massive projects solely on the backs of the super rich IS a fantasy. But run on that in the general election and lets just see what everyone else thinks.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Gore1FL
(21,151 posts)Paying the interest on the national debt is a worthy goal.
Government programs can be good things. Spending more to make the country better and it's citizens happier is all part of promoting the general welfare.
I am pretty sure most billionaires have some liquidity. I don't see frantically selling shares as a huge problem for them.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
oldsoftie
(12,587 posts)theres no mention of the debt in anyones platform as far as I know. Maybe there is & I havent seen it
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
redqueen
(115,103 posts)If we can get it through Congress would love to see it work as expected.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
BlueMTexpat
(15,372 posts)But then, that is the situation with ALL Dem plans/proposals.
So why not think BIG as well?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
brewens
(13,618 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Turbineguy
(37,364 posts)It will make people stop buying lottery tickets too!
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
ritapria
(1,812 posts)There has to be a solution to the horrendous income inequality that is leaving half of Americans behind - living paycheck to paycheck ...Most of these folks work very hard - to little avail ..Many turn to alcohol and drugs ...Their lives shortened.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
redqueen
(115,103 posts)a financial transaction tax and capital gains/carried interest tax get passed.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Prosper
(761 posts)guide money to the real economy of making products to sale. Money should be regulated like a natural resource preventing money from leaving the real economy of goods and services. If Billionaires would use their wealth to securitize the goods and services economy they would be responsible for prosperity. Stagnating money in Trusts and as security for third party investing removes the lifeblood money from the economy.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
wiley
(2,921 posts)She is one of the richest candidates ever to run for POTUS. I wonder if she openly admits she is one of the super wealthy in this country?
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Gore1FL
(21,151 posts)Having money isn't a crime or a sign of moral bankruptcy.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
dawg day
(7,947 posts)Western Europe and the US are where rich people want to live. (There are other places they want to live, of course... that's why they buy 9 houses.) They are where rich companies want to get started.
I will never ever understand why a billion dollars isn't enough for these people, why they carp and moan about having to invest a tiny percentage of their enormous wealth in the country where they live and make most of their money.
And do we really think the Google founders, the Amazon founder, Zuckerberg-- those "Visionaries" == back when they started their companies were thinking, "Oh, I can't start here in Seattle or Silicon Valley or Cambridge because someday I might have to pay a wealth tax if I make a billion dollars"?
Of course not. They all started their companies in high-tax states, after all, and why? Because countries and states with higher taxes usually have good higher education and infrastructure necessary to start a cutting-edge "visionary" company.
"Visionaries" aren't very visionary if they're worried more about taxes twenty years down the road than they are about educated workers and exciting environments.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Gothmog
(145,489 posts)I personally doubt that the proposed Wealth Tax is constitutional. The direct tax clause of the US constitution is clear and the 16th Amendment does not authorize this tax
Link to tweet
The fate of a wealth tax, then, would hinge on whether it counts as a direct tax. Thats a tough question to answer, because the Constitution itself doesnt really define what a direct tax is, beyond the fact that the category includes a poll tax, which is a fixed amount charged for every person. Taxes like tariffs and certain others that cant be fairly distributed on a per-person basis are generally not considered direct taxes. But how all of this would apply to a wealth tax isnt entirely clear. The Supreme Court weighed in on this question more than 100 years ago and not in the wealth taxs favor. In 1895, the court struck down a federal income tax law because it taxed income generated from property, including land and other kinds of personal property, like stocks and bonds. The decision was controversial, and Congress and the states effectively reversed part of it 20 years later with the passage of the 16th Amendment which allowed Congress to tax income without worrying about how evenly it was distributed. But Congresss authority to tax wealth wasnt addressed by the amendment, and the Supreme Court hasnt really returned to the issue in the past century.
Warrens defenders argue, however, that the court simply got it wrong back in 1895, and that a modern wealth tax wouldnt count as a direct tax. But the courts right-leaning justices might approach the tax with a less favorable eye. And the existence of the old precedent could give the courts conservative justices a way to dispatch a wealth tax relatively easily, which gives experts like Daniel Hemel pause. A wealth tax could raise trillions of dollars or, if its struck down by the Supreme Court, it could raise nothing, said Hemel, a law professor at the University of Chicago. Thats a really big risk if you care about the redistribution of income and youre trying to figure out how to get it done.
This tax is not likely to survive legal challenge
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
dawg day
(7,947 posts)Shrug. They dropped it and raised the income tax and the sales tax. So rich people who live off their investments got a break, and working people paid more taxes.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Gothmog
(145,489 posts)The federal income tax is allowed only due to the 16th Amendment
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
dawg day
(7,947 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Gore1FL
(21,151 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Gothmog
(145,489 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Joe941
(2,848 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided