that billionaires exist is a failure to tax. its kinda simple.
this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2024
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It's not a failure of anything. Billionaires are an inevitably of capitalism.
Yep.. It's just working as intended. Maybe not as advertised, but...
It’s not about capitalism, it’s about greed. There were and are plenty of greedy people in communist regimes
Except capitalism could otherwise be called "Greed: The Game"
Capitalism takes greed and puts it to work as the center of an economic system. While greed has either destroyed or deformed communism any time it's been tried at scale, there's 100% no separating greed from capitalism - they're inexorably linked.
The Nordic model proves that you can have robust welfare states while engaging in free markets.
China also shows that there’s some value to market socialism, but I am no economist so idk 🤷♀️
Oligarchy-esque politics, monopolies, and favoring short term gains over long term benefits are the main issues currently, I think.
I think many people would agree with welfare states like we have under the Nordic model, but many would not agree with Stalin-like Marxist-Leninism, or similarly extreme economic system.
I haven't looked at any numbers, but surely if we taxed billionaires enough to turn them back into millionaires, we'd probably not have to tax anyone else at all.
The combined wealth of the ~750 US billionaires at the end of 2023 was about $5.2T. Total individual federal income tax revenue in 2023 was $2.2T.
So it seems non-billionaires could go federal tax free for 2 full years.
I think the better option is to close loopholes. Even if we increase taxes, they still have ways of avoiding taxes. We need to make it less avoidable for the rich.
Wouldn't that Tax the Rich+?
Can't hide land values
I recently read some fluff piece predicting that Elon would be the first "trillionaire".
You have to be morally bankrupt to be that rich.
I'd prefer taking away most of their fake money and gaining back control over our economy
we need a space tourism tax immediately
I disagree because there will come a day in the future, however distant it may or may not be, that folks of all classes will have affordable access to space tourism, and most folks (read: the non-rich) do not need to be taxed any more than they already are.
Now, taxing those who own space tourism is something I can get behind. Tax them for the pollution they generate for fueling their rockets. Tax them for any space debris they generate. And tax them for simply existing in the first place.
But how will we push so much money through lobbying without a 'fuck you i'm going to space' class?
Yeah but let's watch them get into the rocket and fly off into smitherines first. Then we can tax them real good.
*eat
For any EU citizens I can recommend to sign this petition to the Commission: https://www.tax-the-rich.eu
Just find everything from their pockets first before you even ask us. Your tax rate is now related to the amount of the country's wealth you have. Counting all the stuff you moved out of country specifically to avoid this. That should actually count against them double to further disincentives doing so.
Maybe even worse in the first few years of the change so it will be extremely difficult for them to move back quickly enough to dodge some of the impact of this.
Abolish money as a concept instead of half measures.
At this point money isn't going anywhere until nobody wants it anymore.