"Taken" lol. Is there any journalist who can write about this with some intellectual honesty?
America's 1% Has Taken $50T From the Bottom 90%
31–40 of 961 posts
Re: America's 1% Has Taken $50T From the Bottom 90%
#32Around the same time this was shared to HN I Tweeted/FB/LinkedIn variations of the following
>If I earned $10,000 a day it would take me 273.97 years to have earned 1 billion dollars. Meanwhile, Elon was worth about 20 billion a year ago, last month he was worth an estimated $185bn. Oof. In reality, I make a little over $17 an hour
His net worth increased an estimated 4.66 million times my annual gross income in the past year. I've been at my job 15 years.
When you stop and think about it, it can quickly approach the territory of crippling. I'll probably have to work until the day I die, or until I physically can't, whichever comes first.
My wife does a little bit better than me as a public school teacher, but she also probably logs 70-80 hours a week of work once you factor in grading/lesson plan/meetings/coaching track for an extra $1500 a year/Friday detention/etc.
If someone gave me 100,000 USD, my stress level would freefall. My quality of life would drastically improve. My financial security would be able to weather any realistic event sans aggressive cancer treatment. Mr. Musk had his net worth increase 1.6 million times that amount last year. (Edit: This is an example, I'm not begging for money, so stop using it as a means of attacking my entire post)
Some days I just "can't even". With my faith, my wife, my friends, I try to be upbeat and positive when it comes to the future but when I see people like Musk, Bezos, even Gates and then I start worrying about replacing the roof/well pump/affording a mower come spring/why does one spot of the kitchen floor dip a bit when I stand on it and how much is that going to cost me/how long is my wife's car going to last/how long is my car going to last/is it going to warm up anytime soon because we've already filled the propane tank twice since November/etc and I just start to want to fully disconnect from reality and wish catatonia upon myself to escape it.
Then if I think about how fortunate I actually do have it, then I start getting depressed that there are people out there making 2.5x less than me in my own state, that there are homeless populations here in the U.S., and then I think but what about the people in 'third world countries', our minimum wage and homeless have it even better than many of them, then that catatonia starts sounding really nice again. If I can't even seem to improve my own situation to have even a fraction of a percent of the financial security that even some people I personally know have (people that have posted on this very forum) then how the heck am I ever going to be able to help enough even less fortunate than me to not feel like crap when I remember they exist and have it worse than me?
Re: America's 1% Has Taken $50T From the Bottom 90%
#33In my lifetime some sort of switch has flipped, where the people advocating for more taxes no longer do so with an explicit intention to pay for something greater or something new, but simply on the assumption that the act of taxing people will inherently make them more equal. Is there a coherent philosophical basis for this train of thought? Is there any historical precedent that increased taxes is what we need to b…
I'd say the current biggest problem is that the highest earners simply do not pay much in taxes through loopholes and avoidance, not that taxes need to be increased across the board.
EDIT: the_gastropod's comment also under this parent is a great short summary of this issue. I second their recommendation of "Capital in the 21st Century"
Re: America's 1% Has Taken $50T From the Bottom 90%
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
If Bezos continues paying people at minimum wage, hires union busting lawyers, and hires more lawyers to actively lobby to keep minimum wage low for 20+ years while he makes more money. Is he stealing from poor people or is that just people on the Internet trying to convince themselves he is stealing from poor people?
Amazon has been paying significantly above minimum wage for several years now: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/02/653597466/amazon-sets-15-mini...
Oh good, a few years will rebalance everything. Honestly the point I was making was that the wealthy will continue to pursue ways to maintain a larger and larger wealth gap as a matter of self-interest.
Re: America's 1% Has Taken $50T From the Bottom 90%
#35In my lifetime some sort of switch has flipped, where the people advocating for more taxes no longer do so with an explicit intention to pay for something greater or something new, but simply on the assumption that the act of taxing people will inherently make them more equal. Is there a coherent philosophical basis for this train of thought? Is there any historical precedent that increased taxes is what we need to b…
I'd say the current biggest problem is that the highest earners simply do not pay much in taxes through loopholes and avoidance, not that taxes need to be increased across the board. EDIT: the_gastropod's comment also under this parent is a great short summary of this issue. I second their recommendation of "Capital in the 21st Century"
Are you talking about on a percentage of their income or as a percentage of the total amount of taxes paid? I believe the top 10% pay essentially 90% of all non sales taxes in US.
Re: America's 1% Has Taken $50T From the Bottom 90%
#36[deleted]
Re: America's 1% Has Taken $50T From the Bottom 90%
#37In my lifetime some sort of switch has flipped, where the people advocating for more taxes no longer do so with an explicit intention to pay for something greater or something new, but simply on the assumption that the act of taxing people will inherently make them more equal. Is there a coherent philosophical basis for this train of thought? Is there any historical precedent that increased taxes is what we need to b…
I'd say the current biggest problem is that the highest earners simply do not pay much in taxes through loopholes and avoidance, not that taxes need to be increased across the board. EDIT: the_gastropod's comment also under this parent is a great short summary of this issue. I second their recommendation of "Capital in the 21st Century"
What do you want to do with their money though?
Re: America's 1% Has Taken $50T From the Bottom 90%
#38In my lifetime some sort of switch has flipped, where the people advocating for more taxes no longer do so with an explicit intention to pay for something greater or something new, but simply on the assumption that the act of taxing people will inherently make them more equal. Is there a coherent philosophical basis for this train of thought? Is there any historical precedent that increased taxes is what we need to b…
Highly recommend reading Pikkety's "Capital in the 21st Century". The gist is this:
- Historically, capital grows faster than the economy at large (generally around 5% annually)
- Steep marginal tax rates help disincentivize high pay (e.g., if the top marginal rate was 90% like it was during the Eisenhower administration, a corporation would see much more of its money go to employees if it gave its lower income workers raises vs giving its exec team bonuses. The purpose of raising taxes on the über-rich isn't necessarily to generate revenue, it's to set up incentives to narrow income disparity, by forcing corporations to distribute money efficiently.
- High top marginal income taxes coupled with a steeply progressive wealth tax would also disincentivize hoarding of capital, and would further "squeeze" the wealth distribution to less problematic levels.
Re: America's 1% Has Taken $50T From the Bottom 90%
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd say the current biggest problem is that the highest earners simply do not pay much in taxes through loopholes and avoidance, not that taxes need to be increased across the board. EDIT: the_gastropod's comment also under this parent is a great short summary of this issue. I second their recommendation of "Capital in the 21st Century"
What do you want to do with their money though?
Use it to live? Money lets you afford healthcare. Without that, you die. Dying is not equal to living.
Re: America's 1% Has Taken $50T From the Bottom 90%
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd say the current biggest problem is that the highest earners simply do not pay much in taxes through loopholes and avoidance, not that taxes need to be increased across the board. EDIT: the_gastropod's comment also under this parent is a great short summary of this issue. I second their recommendation of "Capital in the 21st Century"
Are you talking about on a percentage of their income or as a percentage of the total amount of taxes paid? I believe the top 10% pay essentially 90% of all non sales taxes in US.
By percentage of wealth.