Why Is It So Hard To Tax Billionaires?
Why Is It So Hard To Tax Billionaires?
There are a hell of a lot of games and loopholes. And, Congress won’t do shit about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E308lijSQv0
Tag: inequality
AI’s New Trillion Dollar Mission
We’ve got to be able to have fair, reasonable ways to tax the super wealthy without demonizing them.
The wealthy pay a lot, however, due to how incredibly much they have, and inequality, they still don’t pay their fair share. The goal of taxation is to pay for government in the least harmful way possible, not to liquidate the rich. Fair taxation and reasonable welfare policy is good. Class warfare is evil. A society that taxes in order to end billionaires, or that uses rhetoric that endangers the wealthy, will be a violent and repressive society–either because the masses will turn authoritarian and violent, or because the wealthy will out of fear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu5wTYUaPs8
Justin Wolfers: This Dumb Trade War Just Got Dumber
Fast food restaurants are reporting that people are buying cheaper things and running out of money at the end of the month. Meanwhile, the wealthy have never been wealthier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKPRis-2uTM
Our Tax System Should Make You Furious | The Ezra Klein Show
Jeff Bezos pays himself an 82k salary even though he is the head of a massive company, Amazon, but he is fabulously wealthy through his stock, which he can use to take out loans tax free. So, he lives a tremendously wealthy lifestyle while paying very little taxes. This is legal. The estate tax is supposed to make up for this, but it is riddled with loopholes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX5U5DNUfBc
Crisis, Conversion and Collapse: Nick Holmes on the Roman Revolution
The Roman Empire fell partially because super-rich land holders selfishly avoided taxes, weakening the empire from within.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ke7n-OV33Q
Why inequality is NOT the problem | prof. Lane Kenworthy
Studies don’t add up to supporting that inequality matters outside of the inequality itself. Instead of focusing on inequality, it’s better to focus on helping everyone live a better life than on inequality per se.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziVSakxDaPk
Oxford Study EXPOSES USA: Americans Twice as Poor as Europeans, 35-Year Decline Hidden
In the US, it takes twice as long for the average person to earn a dollar compared to the UK, France, and Germany. The US has higher GDP per capita, but it’s so unequal that more of its citizens are worse off compared to Western Europe. In 1990, the US’s time-to-get-one-dollar numbers were comparable to these countries. In the US, the well-off are doing better than ever, but everyone else lives precariously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNlxckSioxY
How To Fix The American Tax System – ft. Ray Madoff
Economist Luigi Zingales was on Fox News for something other than the estate tax, but they asked him about it and he said he was for it. He was never invited on Fox News again.
Frank Luntz was hired by the Republican Party and groups funded by super wealthy people to fight the estate tax. He renamed it the death tax so people wouldn’t think of it as a tax that mostly affected the super wealthy.
The problem with the super wealthy and taxes isn’t tax rates, it’s that much of their income is not taxed at all. It isn’t counted as income. Before the fall of Communism, the American super wealthy actually paid taxes, but without the threat of Communism, there wasn’t the pressure to show that capitalism will work for everyone. Many changes, and a lack of reform to catch up with gaming the system, has resulted in the estate tax being a joke and the super wealthy paying very little tax compared to their lifetime income.
High income people pay taxes, but the super wealthy don’t officially have much income. Of course, they do have income, but it doesn’t count and is often never taxed.
https://www.capitalisnt.com/episodes/how-to-fix-the-american-tax-system-ft-ray-madoff
How One Banker’s Greed Triggered the French Revolution
America’s rising debt, inequality, and inability to appropriately tax its wealthy, rhymes with what was happening leading up to the French revolution. The French put off their economic problems until the only solution was revolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqFSX7HQjwk
Laffer’s curve: the tax myth that promoted inequality
The Laffer curve confuses economic incentives with social reality. Most people can’t just stop working or even work much less, because tax rates go up. Even those who can stop working, often keep working in the face of higher tax rates. Some countries with high tax rates have high growth. The marginal tax rate whereby most people will work less is very high, like 70%.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrO9VpQCXZU