Billionaires made $3.9 trillion during pandemic - enough to pay for everyone's vaccines

[Twilight Hue]

And it works. The company that instituted a decent pay rate for everyone found that the employees were indeed ready to help when the pandemic struck by taking voluntary pay cuts.

Shared rewards and treating everyone as worthwhile is the way to go.

I wish a tethered pay scale would be mandatory.

I would seriously vote for anyone who could help make that a reality.

 

[Kenny]

I am not playing with words. That is your sin. And yes, I pay for the government to protect what I have. I pay property tax, I pay income tax, I pay sales tax. You are trying to exclude the wealthy from paying taxes on their personal property.

Ok... you just validated my position that you don't have an argument...


Get back to me when you have an actual point to make.

 

[Heyo]

I disagree. There are already property taxes. The average person has to pay those. A wealth tax is only an extended property tax. Why should the lower classes have to pay a tax on their property and the wealth should be able to get away with not paying one on theirs?

How do you construct from my post that lower classes should pay property taxes and upper classes not?
Btw.: I'm against property taxes. People should pay fees for services provided by the government like road maintenance, police and fire departments etc. Ideally roughly proportional to the use those services have to them. (I.e. your property is more likely to use those services the bigger it is.)

 

[Sunstone]

I don't know yet. I would like at a minimum to know enough about it that I could roughly weigh the effect a wealth tax would have on private persons raising enough money to fund new and innovative businesses against how it would reduce the risk of tyranny. As it happens there are sometimes studies that help with getting a handle on such things. When the idea is actually on the table, I'll try to find a few for my illumination.

Then I'll decide. Complete information is impossible, though. It always is.

 

[Wandering Monk]

When their are extremes in wealth distribution, wealth always gets redistributed, either politically and peacefully or violently.

We always need to opt for the former.

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

I am surprised that there are that many billionaires and even more surprised that so many billionaires now find themselves in poverty

Haha... I had to re-read that line my first time through because I caught that same idea from it first.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Haha... I had to re-read that line my first time through because I caught that same idea from it first.

Well I have to be fair. I agree with the OP so I needed to find some "point of contention".

I cannot see why the middle class that largely subsidizes the rich does not think that it is fair that the rich pay the same sort of taxes that they do. The greatest part of our investments for a good part of our lives is in our homes. We do pay taxes on that investment. Yet the investments of the rich are not to be touched. It really makes no sense.

 

[Audie]

Billionaires made $3.9 trillion during the pandemic — enough to pay for everyone's vaccine



Not that it's any great surprise, but it's good to look at the numbers just the same.



So, the billionaires made out pretty well during the pandemic, although 200 to 500 million have fallen into poverty and could take more than a decade to recover.



There is of course, an obvious and easy solution to the problem, as outlined in the article:





Should there be a wealth tax? Thoughts?

You think there isn't?

How much more do you want to expropriate?

I would prefer we return to pre-Regan era taxes where the top marginal bracket was 70%. And if I'm dreaming I'd want a global wealth cap. And if I'm dreaming of ponies I'd want a 50% decrease in defense spending, heavy restrictions on private insurance with a NHS replacement and nationalized college education for everyone. All things I think we need to change US wealth hoarding and low economic mobility in lower class.

Hoarding? Like a big money bin, bulging
bank accounts?
Where does a billionaire keep his money?

How are you going to take it, and who manages
the property and businesses - government agents?

How does this work?

 

[Stevicus]

I am surprised that there are that many billionaires and even more surprised that so many billionaires now find themselves in poverty

Sloppy writing on my part, but I guess I opened myself up to that.

 

[Kooky]

How do you construct from my post that lower classes should pay property taxes and upper classes not?
Btw.: I'm against property taxes. People should pay fees for services provided by the government like road maintenance, police and fire departments etc. Ideally roughly proportional to the use those services have to them. (I.e. your property is more likely to use those services the bigger it is.)

What if people can't pay the roads? Where would they walk?!
What would happen if there was a fire in their house
and they couldn't pay the fire department?!

 

[Heyo]

What if people can't pay the roads? Where would they walk?!
What would happen if there was a fire in their house
and they couldn't pay the fire department?!

That's why you pay those fees yearly, not when you need something. And if you can't pay the fees, how can you maintain house and land? But in a momentary dry spell, I'm sure there can be something arranged with the community.

 

[Stevicus]

That's why you pay those fees yearly, not when you need something. And if you can't pay the fees, how can you maintain house and land? But in a momentary dry spell, I'm sure there can be something arranged with the community.

Some of the semi-rural districts around here have privatized fire departments, where residents pay a fee (although I don't know if it's monthly or yearly).

I suppose it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. Either you pay it in taxes or pay it in fees. Property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes...I'm not a fan of sales taxes, since those hit the poor and the lower classes harder. Same for things like toll roads.

I recall when there was a proposal to impose a yacht tax.

 

[Suave]

Some of the semi-rural districts around here have privatized fire departments, where residents pay a fee (although I don't know if it's monthly or yearly).

I suppose it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. Either you pay it in taxes or pay it in fees. Property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes...I'm not a fan of sales taxes, since those hit the poor and the lower classes harder. Same for things like toll roads.

I recall when there was a proposal to impose a yacht tax.

I'd like there to be a national 10 percent value added tax made progressive by something called a prebate. This would give every adult resident an “advance refund” at the beginning of each month so their purchases made up to the poverty level are effectively tax-free of the value added tax system. The prebate prevents an unfair burden on low-income families.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Some of the semi-rural districts around here have privatized fire departments, where residents pay a fee (although I don't know if it's monthly or yearly).

I suppose it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. Either you pay it in taxes or pay it in fees. Property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes...I'm not a fan of sales taxes, since those hit the poor and the lower classes harder. Same for things like toll roads.

I recall when there was a proposal to impose a yacht tax.

The yacht tax was poorly conceived. It was a tax on American manufacturers of yachts. It should have been a tax on the general possession of yachts. Older yachts and yachts made outside of the U.S. benefited. No one else really did. And it harmed the working class people in the U.S. involved in making yachts.

There might be a good and reasonable reason to start a tax, but if it is poorly executed it may have the opposite effect than one desired. Care must be taken whenever a new tax is conceived.

 

[Heyo]

Some of the semi-rural districts around here have privatized fire departments, where residents pay a fee (although I don't know if it's monthly or yearly).

I suppose it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. Either you pay it in taxes or pay it in fees. Property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes...I'm not a fan of sales taxes, since those hit the poor and the lower classes harder. Same for things like toll roads.

I recall when there was a proposal to impose a yacht tax.

I guess people living in rural areas are less detached from the realities of life. City dwellers often don't know what is going on around them and what their taxes are doing. (And that detachment makes it possible to easily misuse the taxes.)

 

[McBell]

All that needs be done is limit the wealthy s loop holes and tax credits to be equal to those who make less than 1 million a year.

Of course, since it is the wealthy who make the tax laws.....

 

[Twilight Hue]

Is it just me, feeling a bit sick in the stomach, at seeing the insane levels of opportunistic profiteering going on, liberally taking advantages off people's misfortunes?

 

[Twilight Hue]

Of course, since it is the wealthy who make the tax laws.....

And that is the crux of the problem. There's nothing common people can do about it.


Er wait.. uh... GameStop anyone?

 

[Audie]

Some of the semi-rural districts around here have privatized fire departments, where residents pay a fee (although I don't know if it's monthly or yearly).

I suppose it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. Either you pay it in taxes or pay it in fees. Property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes...I'm not a fan of sales taxes, since those hit the poor and the lower classes harder. Same for things like toll roads.

I recall when there was a proposal to impose a yacht tax.

Everything hits the poor hardest.

The industrial revolution and capitalism
gave the poor a way out.