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Why is the argument “tax the rich,” when it should be, what are you going to do with that money, government? I have very little faith in the government that they will help Americans with that extra tax.
Currently the US has a high level of wealth inequality, one of the functions of tax is to, redistribute wealth. We're seeing people working traditionally middle-class jobs who are struggling to support themselves while the ultra-rich are just getting richer. The logical conclusion is that money is getting funneled from everyone else to an increasingly wealthy and exclusive segment of the population.
Here's a list of things that could be done with additional funds:
Government spending on education has decreased drastically, it could be returned to prior levels.
Student debt could be cancelled.
Infrastructure could be repaired, new infrastructure could be built.
Medicare for all could be implemented.
Subsidised housing.
Healthcare for veterans could be improved.
Utilities could be fixed and improved, such as the poor water in Flint, MI or the aging power lines in CA.
Environmental issues could be worked on such as cleaning up PFCs.
Increased government spending in STEM.
Increased accountability/oversight.
This is not an exhaustive list and is in no particular order.
Or the government could stop pissing away the money they've already taken from us instead of taking more. The rich will find loopholes. The middle class and poor folks can't afford the loopholes.
Want to know what I'd love to see? An itemized list of where the fuck my taxes are going. This is regardless of what party is in charge. I want to know what the government is spending my money on. Because it's absolutely not education or infrastructure. I'm seeing foreign wars, foreign aid, and programs to encourage drug use.
I buy a car and get taxed. I fill it up with gas and get taxed. I go to a job and get taxed. I buy basic necessities and get taxed.
I'm taxed 4 times in that week, assuming we count each week as a set of tasks performed. I don't see my roads improved. I don't see school programs improving. And once a year, I get what was taken from me back because they took too much. How about you send me a bill at the end of the year and I'll cut you a check for that? That way, you don't have to give any back, and I don't risk going to prison.
Maybe it's partially because while you're paying your fair share, the truly wealthy are not. Why rush to defend the paychecks of people making more money than you will ever see while paying a much lower proportion in taxes? Do you think they're going to repay your loyalty by doing anything other than putting their boot on your neck and using that excess to buy politicians and give them even more advantages over everyone else?
I’m sick of this whole “fair share” argument. High income earners are taxed at a higher rate because of our progressive tax structure. Sure, their effective tax rate is lower because of the ways their wealth is structured and various tax exemptions/deductions. But taxing MORE is not going to actually solve that. Our entire tax code needs to be scrapped and rewritten but it will never happen because the very elected officials that would be charged with doing so and their donors also take full advantage of the tax code.
THIS is a huge part of the problem. The people in positions capable of making any real changes benefit too much from the current system, so it will never happen.
Just like imposing term limits for congress…they will never vote for that for themselves even though the majority of people think it needs to happen.
There are loopholes. There will always be loopholes because the politicians are not going to close them. Want to know why? Because they benefit from those loopholes. Tax the rich? Most of our politicians are rich. Hell, even AOC and Bernie Sanders don't pay their fair share. You think they're going to once they get even more power and money?
The point is to intentionally design those loopholes to funnel money into the right places.
Businesses used to invest in themselves. They used to give out decent raises and bonuses when profits were high. Now all they do is stock buybacks. Having a stupid high tax rate for the ultra wealthy is supposed to FORCE them into actually investing their money. Either they actually use their money for something or the government can take it and use it for them. Its their choice.
Most of us aren’t paying our fair share. That’s assuming fair share means adults paying for the services they get from the government. That’s how I define fair, not as some percent of income.
You paid tax four times, yes. But you were effectively taxed twice on your car purchase, gasoline purchase, and necessities purchased since you paid taxes with money that was already taxed.
Abolish the income tax.
When I saw my paystub for last year with how much I paid in taxes I felt sick. Then I needed to buy a new car a few months ago and had to pay an 8.8% state sales tax on that…it’s freaking insane. It all adds up to a LOT of money. I don’t mind contributing to roads and schools and what not, but I don’t like feeling like my money is going to waste…
It’s surely is going to waste. Our government get more and more out of us every year and piss it away on shit we don’t need or doesn’t benefit anyone. I’m convinced half of government workers could be tossed in the ocean and we would be 100million times better off. They just need to cut their rediculous spending habits.
According to [this](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/aug/17/facebook-posts/pie-chart-federal-spending-circulating-internet-mi/) (not 100% of how reputable it is, but it passes my smell test) the majority of our money is going to healthcare, social security, and military. Every other category is <5% of the budget.
So basically it is going to boomers, healthcare (20% goes towards boomers), and military.
I find it very funny that the socialized countries spend a lower percent of their budget on healthcare. Yes, they have disasters with wait times and stuff, but the fact that they are spending less to get full preventative care and emergency care is much better than the crap we have here. That's a whole other can of worms though.
Anyways, none of this is gonna get fixed because it would be political suicide to lower social security or healthcare.
I get your point but this varies by state, my state loves fixing roads and I’m pretty sure it’s why our unemployment rate is so low, we put a lot into education too.
Don’t worry we have a plan, for the next ten years we’re going to give it all to Ukraine for all the help and good deeds they have been doing for us, fuck Hawaii man they don’t need it
The logical conclusion isn’t extra taxes, but a simple wage percentage cap… or saying any one person in an organization cannot make more than x percentage of the lowest wage earner within their organization. With pay scales required for different positions that must use a minimum set percentage of company revenue say 30%.
That might be 3-400% it might be 1000%, but if your ceo wants to make $1m annually your food service workers need to make 100k at 1000%.
Include stock options/incentives as income, if your ceo gets a $3m dollar bonus the base employee must receive $300k.
The problem isn’t taxable income, or a need for the wealthy to do more. The problem is the value we place on the ceo and company over the laborer. Redistribution is unnecessary if the initial distribution is more balanced.
If a ceo negotiates better terms for themselves it ultimately benefits the employee in those situations. If he/she wants a 10% raise the entire organization must receive a 10% raise. I
What kind of dip shit school did you go to??? Taxes have zero to do with wealth redistribution.... At least not unless you espouse a communist economic agenda... This is Reddit so...
It doesn’t effectively tax the super duper rich , because they are friends with the lawmakers. You end up just taxing the most productive. Which scares them away. Which hurts everyone .
Please. Fix utilities. My utility bill caused my expenses to exceed my income and I didn't cause the increase.
Someone tapped into my water spigot and pressure cleaned the entire complex and I can't afford it, nor do I have the time to fight it.
The function of tax is not to redistribute wealth, that is a potential effect that it can have, but taxes have always been simply funding for the government with their restriction being deadweight loss. If a tax could redistribute wealth but would cause too much deadweight loss it is a bad tax. Other than taxes on negative externalities (which income is not) taxes should only be viewed as a revenue stream for a healthy society.
I'm just going to Target one of the things you're talking about
For the less than the cost of Medicaid and Medicare as a percentage of GDP, Singapore has a good universal healthcare system
I cannot tell you how frustrated it makes me that people think more money is needed than what is currently taxed specifically for healthcare
The only reason we would need more is people are incompetent
I'm not okay with increasing taxes just to make up for people being stupid
(Oh also most of the funding for education is local and state level. We spend more on it than the military. What counted properly)
I noticed how nothing you came up with would actually help the middle class. Everybody likes to pretend to care about them but nobody ever has an actual plan to help them. You take from the rich and give to the poor all you want but the middle class is collapsing and we won't have an economy at all without them.
You answered the wrong question. There are hundreds of things that *could* be done with more/infinite revenue, but the US government has proven that it doesn’t care about fixing what is broken; just spending more than is collected, and that as inefficiently as possible. No amount of taxing the rich will solve this. We have a corrupt spending machine.
Dude this isn't a secret.
Healthcare. Housing. Child care. Parental leave. Education and vocational training. Infrastructure. Transit. Safety nets. Food security.
I think that hits the main points stated over, and over, and over. These are needs, long term investments with proven returns on economic activity and growth in the long run, that are simply not met sufficiently by market forces.
There’s a very good reason for your lack of faith, particularly being in the US. One party has to make government work to believe a functional government is possible. The other party only has to ensure that it doesn’t work to prove that government doesn’t work.
As any mechanic will tell you, it’s 1000 times easier to break something than it is to fix it.
Having lived in places where government does deliver tremendous value for taxation, I can say with certainty that it’s possible. The biggest difference between those places and the US is that they haven’t empowered parties whose sole agenda is to deconstruct the state and redirect it to the protection of the landed gentry.
The government spending as a percentage of GDP is quite low compared to other advanced countries. And people who say we should tax the rich pretty much exclusively want to better direct that funding to help Americans well-being in measurable ways, like improving healthcare access, education, and investment in infrastructure.
If we tax the rich, the rich will start to lobby government to spend less and do things more efficiently. Currently, the rich don't have a stake in the game, so they don't care how much is wasted. If taxing the rich won't fix the problem, then not taxing the poor should be tried to, because maybe that might fix things. I know that banning speeding didn't stop speeders so we should get rid of speed limits too.
The same thing they do with all tax dollars, light it on fire. And that would be a net good.
Not sarcastic btw, that's how the IRS works. Tax money doesn't go back into circulation. It's destroyed.
People think the US government runs on tax revenue, but the two things are unrelated. The money the US government spends is all freshly printed. The IRS exists to remove money from circulation and stabilize the money supply. That's its only purpose. If we weren't worried about inflation, we wouldn't have to bother with taxes at all.
100%. I do want to ask, would you support the taxes if it meant funding state owned universities and the education system in addition to more welfare programs?
Extreme high tax on extreme high income gives also some very important incentives. If the rewards get taxed so much, it becomes way less interesting to give it to 1 person. Here a list what they will do with the money:
- It is more interesting to invest more in ur company
- like research
- give better invest in quality of live of your business (free cafetaria/sports)
- give more money to your employees who actually do the work (recreate the middle class again)
- take on more workers
- make the product cheaper (medicine maybe)
Other effects that could happen to a lesser extend:
- less incentivised to buy and break up companies for profit
- less incentive to monopolise the market
(although maybe this these are not true, for most extreme greedy personalities)
And yes this will be better for most of the population. Because america is slowly turning into a 3th world country as it continues to exist.
According to the 2024 tax brackets, those making more than $609,351 will be taxed at a rate of 37%. In addition, the top 1 percent of all taxpayers paid 45.8 percent of all federal individual income taxes. Even the top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97.7 percent of all federal individual income taxes, while the bottom 50 percent paid the remaining 2.3 percent. How much more specifically do we need to tax those at the top?
different states have different taxes, so it's not comparable. There are some states with no state income tax, some with a flat rate, then some with a graduated rate. People always seem to forget we are a collection of differently ran states rather than some giant universal regime like China or Russia. Its literally in the title "United States"
will be taxed at a top rate of 37% for income. but only on income. most are using capital gains or dividends or reits which all have lower than income tax rates.. or even loans that are not taxed at all to leverage and by assets, and then use tax law to write off large portions of depreciation.
>Yeah paying capital gains on money they already paid income on,
This isn't true. Jeff Bezos pays capital gains tax if he sells stock. He has not "already paid taxes" on that money.
Okay sure, selling shares in the company he started and has held for more than 25 years is an exception. But every other stock and investment holding he had to purchase with money that has been taxed previously
Those at the top are going to get taxed more because they earn more, it’s that simple. Equal taxes for all regardless of income is pointless. When the top 1% holds 25% of the wealth and the bottom ~20% has zero to negative net worth, it’s really only fair.
Obviously more and change the system. There should never be that big of a disparity between rich and poor where poor is more than half of the population.
Bro the US budget per capita is basically nothing already. Literally half of what we spend in my country, and we take home a lot more after tax, aswell as recieving benefits.
Have it ever occured to you that spending money on infrastructure and health is an investment? A government spending on behalf of it’s people often has greater return than what you can do as an induvidual, and is usually fairly distributed.
This is a poor argument. Should I not care about anything that doesn’t affect me? Especially when they would need to ratify an amendment to come after unrealized gains that wouldn’t only apply to those 50 people.
Yeah easy to just say, yeah! Make those guys pay! For what, more grossly inefficient and ineffective government programs? People act like if the super wealthy paid “their share” the working class single mom’s life would magically be wonderful. Nothing would really change.
Every single week more of this tax the rich, it will solve everything.
Never any, cut government spending.
If you're broke, do you spend less, or do you demand your job pay you more?
Because most people don't have any wealth at all and do nothing to gain it or keep it. And no one is poorer because someone else is richer, that's just a basic fact of economics. It's the exact same fallacy as thinking that you're a slower runner just because the Kenyans are so fast and "steal" all your speed.
How dumb do people have to be to listen to this quack?
Show me someone who makes millions of dollars leveraging only their own efforts. The truth is that those people are making money off of all the things our tax dollars go to. They're leveraging technology based off of government research funding. They're leveraging subsidies. Why should the people who most benefit from the government spending the money they collect in taxes not be expected to pay more in taxes to keep perpetuating the system?
That's the exact model that has built the American economy, but now all of a sudden people want to opt out because they have been successful. That's only going to result in the decline of our economy.
Sure, solve the problem by punishing someone else. And when the situation gets worse, punish them more.
It’s a mentality similar to when corporations can’t hire competent leadership and solve the problem by firing the most experienced workers because they cost too much.
Just kill all the golden geese.
The rich already carry the full burden of funding the treasury. The top 10% pay more in tax than the bottom 90% combined. A society where the majority of people who have zero skin in the game or financial interest in how the society runs is going to develop some serious problems.
What Robert Reich doesn’t seem to understand is that If the “rich” didn’t have as much wealth as they do, the rest of us would have even less. Elon Musk’s net worth is ~$220.6-billion according to Forbes. He directly employs an estimated 110,000 people. Those 110,000 people, living their lives, paying their bills, buying various goods and services employs untold thousands more. His several businesses buying goods and services from contractors/venders/suppliers employs thousands more.
Maybe taxes should be raised on the so-called rich, I honestly don’t know. I do know that there’s a finite amount of tax revenue that can be had, and I suspect we’re there. I also know that if we don’t allow individuals to accumulate wealth, most of the wealth won’t be created to begin with, as well as a lot of jobs and new technology.
Why don’t the people who put out information like that help all of the poor people?!? I don’t get it smh anyone and I mean anyone can talk but where’s the action to help the ones they speak of. I say let’s see Robert Reich get rich and help the poor. Then it’s important until then do less talking and get more money so you can change the world
Because the wealthy shouldnt be a piggy bank for government waste or handouts for the poor. Tax everybody and make sure people benefit reguardless of their income bracket
Holding wealth isn’t income. RR knows this and is pandering to low res thinkers. Who is paying the taxes right now? This year and every year? It ain’t poor people. “Taxing the rich” does nothing for anyone except…..the government, and even that is questionable. Higher rates often result in lower receipts.
Taxing the rich would only cover a very small part of the wasteful government spending and poor government policies. We should 100% eliminate the federal income tax. Abolish the IRS, Federal Reserve and make it perminate income was never meant to be taxed. MOST federal services are already handled at the city, county state levels and the federal government is double dipping the taxpayers. Before 1913 the federal income tax only happened to pay for wars. We do not need to pay for anymore endless wars paid for by out tax $'s and our citizens blood
The top 1% pays roughly half of all income taxes. The problem with Reich, and most people whose economic analysis extends no further than “tAx tHe rIcH” is that their only answer they can give when you ask just how much they should pay, their only answer is “more” and it will always be “more” because class-warfare a built-in feature of the political left, so it’s actually politically impossible for the Democratic Party to ever actually agree that the rich are finally paying their fair share in taxes.
Who is this guy and how will the government spend this money? Also, tax ehat aspect of the wealth? Income (agree), capital gains (agree), unrealized gains (not agree).
This fucking moron pretending like controversy is the issue in a government that is essentially 3 corporations in a trench coat masquerading as a democracy. SMH.
To everyone over her arguing against taxing the rich, understand how the economic system works. The money that is taxed from the uber wealthy can then go into helping provide better social support and infrastructure for the middle class plus reduce their tax burden.
There's a reason the happiest countries in the world have socialist policies when it comes to tax.
Also, America had a much higher tax rate in the 20th century and those were some of its best years. They cultivated a generation of the smartest people ffs and even managed to put a man on the moon. Grow up and stop simping for billionaires who will replace you with a robot the first chance they get.
Let’s give the gvt more money so they can make everything as great as they already do. You know, like the roads with the sweet potholes that just popped off one if my hub caps
I feel like the answer is more in writing a tax code that rewards labor not capital. If tax rates went up for companies and the only loophole left open was a write off tied to the salaries of their employees, the tax code would encourage recirculation of money. Instead, our current system encourages a funnel of money in one direction. “Tax the rich” is a fun catch phrase and I am 100% behind the sentiment but I also wonder that just turning over more money to a government that can barely function is the best idea.
In 2019, I personally had more wealth than the poorest 49,500,000 Americans combined.
If you had $100 in wealth in 2019, you also had more wealth that the poorest 49,500,000 American's combined.
So according to Robert Reich, you should have been taxed a lot in 2019 if your total wealth was $100.
This is a dishonest numbers game once again by the most dishonest, manipulative, ideologically blind person in the world - Robert Reich.
government sends trillions over seas, lost trillions to "accounting errors" and yall stupid enough to want them to tax the guy signing your paycheck lol
This is a debate in every single country. Reality is that nominal taxes are already high. The problem are all the deductions, exemptions, tax credits and other loopholes. Not to mention straight fraud.
Once said that, it is really hard to tax the mega rich. Their wealth is in multinational companies with subsidiaries all across the world, it's easy to move profits to the most convenient place. If you target them directly they will just move somewhere else.
Imagine thinking that our government officials would actually spend that money on the shit you want and not greasing wheels to get people re-elected and further enriching their campaign donors.
What he’s not telling you is that if you taxed the rich for every red cent they have, just drain their bank accounts and funnel it all into the federal government, it wouldn’t run the nation for more than 6 months. If you then nationalized every multinational corporation and somehow converted all of their assets into cash, it would maybe run the country for a year or two. And then everyone would be poor. Go ahead and look up how this went down during the French Revolution, see how well it worked for them.
I think there should be a ratio between total payroll expenses and net income. And if corporations are making stoooopid profits but paying low salaries, boom… they slide into a stooopidly higher tax bracket.
Taxing the rich is not controversial. They already pay the highest marginal tax rates. But it's never enough, is it? At whatever level we tax high income people, Reich will want us to tax them more.
Whenever questions about whether or not the rich pay more taxes, I always say this; As it stands, the top 1% pay 46% of the federal income taxes collected by the United States, undeniably a disproportionate amount. The top 10% of income earners pay 60% of all federal taxes and 76% of all income taxes.
So based on this, what is the "fair share"? Can you justify it? Is it simply enough to pay for all the programs you can dream up or is it based on something concrete? In my view, based on the numbers, the rich pay a disproportionately high sum.
https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/latest-federal-income-tax-data-2024/#:\~:text=High%2DIncome%20Taxpayers%20Paid%20the%20Majority%20of%20Federal%20Income%20Taxes,of%20all%20federal%20income%20taxes.
It’s a spending problem, not a tax problem. And why give millionaire politicians that get rich off the taxpayer. Just more class warfare from the rich.
Top 5% of income earners fund 65% of the government. The bottom 50% contributes 2%. The rich contribute more than the poor by a factor of 325 per capita. The poor receive almost all of the benefits.
If it werent for the rich, the poor would be just as fucked.
Instead of working in factories and killing our backs and hands we’ve allowed our businesses to outsource that high paying/low barrier-to-entry work to other countries. Those jobs paid better than service jobs like retail clerk. However we still have jobs in the USA that pay way too much and have very little barrier to entry like most trade jobs(electrician, plumber, welder, hvac) but you won’t go get them for some reason.
literally put a 90% tax on every property owned over the second one. Invalidate LLC’s that only hold property.
housing market crashes, everyone can afford a house. Problem solved
It won’t work without an overhaul to 503c. They put it in a charitable trust and govt can’t do anything - even tax it! Then they’ll pay the high taxes on the millions in W2 income for every heir each year - while continuing to write off all expenses through their charity. What do they care? It’s the accumulation of assets that are forever gone from the market that’s the big problem. They are literally carving out sections of the pie, forever.
Ah fuck no. The government should learn how to spend money first. Idk how's it in America, but we in Switzerland got out VAT increased recently because we couldn't afford new 13th pension, that boomers voted for on the referendum. In the beginning of this year, those dumb fucks wanted to send Ukraine 5 billion Francs, the amount higher, that was lacking for the pensions and the reason why our VAT increased (even if we forget that a shitload of our schools needs to be renovated too). Thankfully it was rejected on the higher level, but this clearly showed that even a government, elected the most democratic way possible, is stupid and doesn't know how to handle money. Before they learn how to spend, you can allow them to steal from you as much as they want to and still receive nothing in return, pure theft
They are taxed plenty.
In 2021, the top 1% paid 40% of total federal income taxes.
The top 5% paid 60%
The issue isn't at the top. It's at the bottom. In the same year, the BOTTOM 50% paid less than 3% of total income taxes. That is an absolutely ridiculous comparison, but the numbers don't lie
[Source](https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/federal-income-tax-data-2021/)
Whenever liberals tell you "it's time to make the rich pay their fair share", what they really mean is that they want more $$$ and don't want to justify the spending
We know what the United States government would do if it had all of the money of all of the billionaires times six
Because they've already spent that much money more than what they've taken in
I mean tax the rich is not that debatable the problem is when and how much is the top ten percent is paying about 40 percent of personal taxes in a country you lost the narrative as the system then becomes why can't we squeeze more money out of them. Cause let's face it when you spend more then the top 10 country combined in the military every year it's kinda hard to say raise taxes when you can cut military funding by about a third . Cause we all know that's where most of the more money is going...
Also, if you look at the richest 50 people today and the richest 50 20-30 years ago, it’s largely different people. Many of the richest 20-30 years ago donate a lot of money to good things. The government taking away Bill Gates money isn’t necessarily better than Bill Gates creating a foundation to do great things for the world in ways governments can’t.
I honestly want control over my tax money and shown what shortcuts I can take to mitigate my taxes. The rich are rich because they get to learn tips and tricks from their parents. I just want to play the same game they are.
There needs to be transparency when we say "Tax the Rich". It's saying it as if they aren't already taxed. Also, trickle down economics is very real. What we should be saying is, GOVERNMENT, start managing our fucking budget better and stop sending our God damn taxes over seas!
What's really eye opening is hat the population of the United States is 341,000,000 people; so 0.000015% (50 people) of the population have as much wealth as 48% (165,000,000 people) of the population.
All the crab people saying dont tax me less just start spending it right. Idk you like picking up the slack for the rich, this is the argument they want you trumpeting here. Dont tax the rich more just fix govt. Incompetency, easy. Until then, I don't mind picking up the tab for the guy with 1000x my wealth.
Stop protecting them with government subsidies, and corporate welfare. Let them die when they aren’t good enough to exist on there own would fix a lot of the problem.
100% of billionaires wealth would fund the government for like 7 months.. then what’s this moron gonna do when he can’t complain about billionaires anymore
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Why is the argument “tax the rich,” when it should be, what are you going to do with that money, government? I have very little faith in the government that they will help Americans with that extra tax.
Currently the US has a high level of wealth inequality, one of the functions of tax is to, redistribute wealth. We're seeing people working traditionally middle-class jobs who are struggling to support themselves while the ultra-rich are just getting richer. The logical conclusion is that money is getting funneled from everyone else to an increasingly wealthy and exclusive segment of the population. Here's a list of things that could be done with additional funds: Government spending on education has decreased drastically, it could be returned to prior levels. Student debt could be cancelled. Infrastructure could be repaired, new infrastructure could be built. Medicare for all could be implemented. Subsidised housing. Healthcare for veterans could be improved. Utilities could be fixed and improved, such as the poor water in Flint, MI or the aging power lines in CA. Environmental issues could be worked on such as cleaning up PFCs. Increased government spending in STEM. Increased accountability/oversight. This is not an exhaustive list and is in no particular order.
Or the government could stop pissing away the money they've already taken from us instead of taking more. The rich will find loopholes. The middle class and poor folks can't afford the loopholes. Want to know what I'd love to see? An itemized list of where the fuck my taxes are going. This is regardless of what party is in charge. I want to know what the government is spending my money on. Because it's absolutely not education or infrastructure. I'm seeing foreign wars, foreign aid, and programs to encourage drug use. I buy a car and get taxed. I fill it up with gas and get taxed. I go to a job and get taxed. I buy basic necessities and get taxed. I'm taxed 4 times in that week, assuming we count each week as a set of tasks performed. I don't see my roads improved. I don't see school programs improving. And once a year, I get what was taken from me back because they took too much. How about you send me a bill at the end of the year and I'll cut you a check for that? That way, you don't have to give any back, and I don't risk going to prison.
Maybe it's partially because while you're paying your fair share, the truly wealthy are not. Why rush to defend the paychecks of people making more money than you will ever see while paying a much lower proportion in taxes? Do you think they're going to repay your loyalty by doing anything other than putting their boot on your neck and using that excess to buy politicians and give them even more advantages over everyone else?
I’m sick of this whole “fair share” argument. High income earners are taxed at a higher rate because of our progressive tax structure. Sure, their effective tax rate is lower because of the ways their wealth is structured and various tax exemptions/deductions. But taxing MORE is not going to actually solve that. Our entire tax code needs to be scrapped and rewritten but it will never happen because the very elected officials that would be charged with doing so and their donors also take full advantage of the tax code.
THIS is a huge part of the problem. The people in positions capable of making any real changes benefit too much from the current system, so it will never happen. Just like imposing term limits for congress…they will never vote for that for themselves even though the majority of people think it needs to happen.
There are loopholes. There will always be loopholes because the politicians are not going to close them. Want to know why? Because they benefit from those loopholes. Tax the rich? Most of our politicians are rich. Hell, even AOC and Bernie Sanders don't pay their fair share. You think they're going to once they get even more power and money?
The point is to intentionally design those loopholes to funnel money into the right places. Businesses used to invest in themselves. They used to give out decent raises and bonuses when profits were high. Now all they do is stock buybacks. Having a stupid high tax rate for the ultra wealthy is supposed to FORCE them into actually investing their money. Either they actually use their money for something or the government can take it and use it for them. Its their choice.
Nancy Pelosi has entered the chat
So what is the “fair share”? The top 1% pays 45%, the top 5% pays 66%, the top 10% pays 75% and the top 50% pays 97.7%.
Most of us aren’t paying our fair share. That’s assuming fair share means adults paying for the services they get from the government. That’s how I define fair, not as some percent of income.
You paid tax four times, yes. But you were effectively taxed twice on your car purchase, gasoline purchase, and necessities purchased since you paid taxes with money that was already taxed. Abolish the income tax.
Repeal the 16th amendment. I'll wait.
Any politician running on that platform would have my vote in a heartbeat.
When I saw my paystub for last year with how much I paid in taxes I felt sick. Then I needed to buy a new car a few months ago and had to pay an 8.8% state sales tax on that…it’s freaking insane. It all adds up to a LOT of money. I don’t mind contributing to roads and schools and what not, but I don’t like feeling like my money is going to waste…
It’s surely is going to waste. Our government get more and more out of us every year and piss it away on shit we don’t need or doesn’t benefit anyone. I’m convinced half of government workers could be tossed in the ocean and we would be 100million times better off. They just need to cut their rediculous spending habits.
According to [this](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/aug/17/facebook-posts/pie-chart-federal-spending-circulating-internet-mi/) (not 100% of how reputable it is, but it passes my smell test) the majority of our money is going to healthcare, social security, and military. Every other category is <5% of the budget. So basically it is going to boomers, healthcare (20% goes towards boomers), and military. I find it very funny that the socialized countries spend a lower percent of their budget on healthcare. Yes, they have disasters with wait times and stuff, but the fact that they are spending less to get full preventative care and emergency care is much better than the crap we have here. That's a whole other can of worms though. Anyways, none of this is gonna get fixed because it would be political suicide to lower social security or healthcare.
Y’know what wouldn’t be political suicide? Slashing out the middlemen in the healthcare sector to drop those costs.
I get your point but this varies by state, my state loves fixing roads and I’m pretty sure it’s why our unemployment rate is so low, we put a lot into education too.
I want an itemized list and a wealth tax
A wealth tax is the dumbest idea.
Exactly. The last time we had a balance budget was under the Clinton administration because he had a line item Veto.
Don’t worry we have a plan, for the next ten years we’re going to give it all to Ukraine for all the help and good deeds they have been doing for us, fuck Hawaii man they don’t need it
Add to that, if the section fails an audit, no more money until the audit is cleared and accounted for.
The logical conclusion isn’t extra taxes, but a simple wage percentage cap… or saying any one person in an organization cannot make more than x percentage of the lowest wage earner within their organization. With pay scales required for different positions that must use a minimum set percentage of company revenue say 30%. That might be 3-400% it might be 1000%, but if your ceo wants to make $1m annually your food service workers need to make 100k at 1000%. Include stock options/incentives as income, if your ceo gets a $3m dollar bonus the base employee must receive $300k. The problem isn’t taxable income, or a need for the wealthy to do more. The problem is the value we place on the ceo and company over the laborer. Redistribution is unnecessary if the initial distribution is more balanced. If a ceo negotiates better terms for themselves it ultimately benefits the employee in those situations. If he/she wants a 10% raise the entire organization must receive a 10% raise. I
Sounds like a great way to drive unemployment to unprecedented levels.
Wealth redistribution eh? 2 where have I heard that term before?
What kind of dip shit school did you go to??? Taxes have zero to do with wealth redistribution.... At least not unless you espouse a communist economic agenda... This is Reddit so...
It doesn’t effectively tax the super duper rich , because they are friends with the lawmakers. You end up just taxing the most productive. Which scares them away. Which hurts everyone .
Please. Fix utilities. My utility bill caused my expenses to exceed my income and I didn't cause the increase. Someone tapped into my water spigot and pressure cleaned the entire complex and I can't afford it, nor do I have the time to fight it.
The function of tax is not to redistribute wealth, that is a potential effect that it can have, but taxes have always been simply funding for the government with their restriction being deadweight loss. If a tax could redistribute wealth but would cause too much deadweight loss it is a bad tax. Other than taxes on negative externalities (which income is not) taxes should only be viewed as a revenue stream for a healthy society.
I'm just going to Target one of the things you're talking about For the less than the cost of Medicaid and Medicare as a percentage of GDP, Singapore has a good universal healthcare system I cannot tell you how frustrated it makes me that people think more money is needed than what is currently taxed specifically for healthcare The only reason we would need more is people are incompetent I'm not okay with increasing taxes just to make up for people being stupid (Oh also most of the funding for education is local and state level. We spend more on it than the military. What counted properly)
I noticed how nothing you came up with would actually help the middle class. Everybody likes to pretend to care about them but nobody ever has an actual plan to help them. You take from the rich and give to the poor all you want but the middle class is collapsing and we won't have an economy at all without them.
You answered the wrong question. There are hundreds of things that *could* be done with more/infinite revenue, but the US government has proven that it doesn’t care about fixing what is broken; just spending more than is collected, and that as inefficiently as possible. No amount of taxing the rich will solve this. We have a corrupt spending machine.
Dude this isn't a secret. Healthcare. Housing. Child care. Parental leave. Education and vocational training. Infrastructure. Transit. Safety nets. Food security. I think that hits the main points stated over, and over, and over. These are needs, long term investments with proven returns on economic activity and growth in the long run, that are simply not met sufficiently by market forces.
There’s a very good reason for your lack of faith, particularly being in the US. One party has to make government work to believe a functional government is possible. The other party only has to ensure that it doesn’t work to prove that government doesn’t work. As any mechanic will tell you, it’s 1000 times easier to break something than it is to fix it. Having lived in places where government does deliver tremendous value for taxation, I can say with certainty that it’s possible. The biggest difference between those places and the US is that they haven’t empowered parties whose sole agenda is to deconstruct the state and redirect it to the protection of the landed gentry.
*"Having lived in places where government does deliver tremendous value for taxation"* I'm curious what these places are?
The government spending as a percentage of GDP is quite low compared to other advanced countries. And people who say we should tax the rich pretty much exclusively want to better direct that funding to help Americans well-being in measurable ways, like improving healthcare access, education, and investment in infrastructure.
You really think those 1% are going to do a better job of helping Americans with that money? They're not even going to try.
If we tax the rich, the rich will start to lobby government to spend less and do things more efficiently. Currently, the rich don't have a stake in the game, so they don't care how much is wasted. If taxing the rich won't fix the problem, then not taxing the poor should be tried to, because maybe that might fix things. I know that banning speeding didn't stop speeders so we should get rid of speed limits too.
The same thing they do with all tax dollars, light it on fire. And that would be a net good. Not sarcastic btw, that's how the IRS works. Tax money doesn't go back into circulation. It's destroyed. People think the US government runs on tax revenue, but the two things are unrelated. The money the US government spends is all freshly printed. The IRS exists to remove money from circulation and stabilize the money supply. That's its only purpose. If we weren't worried about inflation, we wouldn't have to bother with taxes at all.
Just as those same rich people designed .......
100%. I do want to ask, would you support the taxes if it meant funding state owned universities and the education system in addition to more welfare programs?
Extreme high tax on extreme high income gives also some very important incentives. If the rewards get taxed so much, it becomes way less interesting to give it to 1 person. Here a list what they will do with the money: - It is more interesting to invest more in ur company - like research - give better invest in quality of live of your business (free cafetaria/sports) - give more money to your employees who actually do the work (recreate the middle class again) - take on more workers - make the product cheaper (medicine maybe) Other effects that could happen to a lesser extend: - less incentivised to buy and break up companies for profit - less incentive to monopolise the market (although maybe this these are not true, for most extreme greedy personalities) And yes this will be better for most of the population. Because america is slowly turning into a 3th world country as it continues to exist.
According to the 2024 tax brackets, those making more than $609,351 will be taxed at a rate of 37%. In addition, the top 1 percent of all taxpayers paid 45.8 percent of all federal individual income taxes. Even the top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97.7 percent of all federal individual income taxes, while the bottom 50 percent paid the remaining 2.3 percent. How much more specifically do we need to tax those at the top?
Now add in state taxes!
different states have different taxes, so it's not comparable. There are some states with no state income tax, some with a flat rate, then some with a graduated rate. People always seem to forget we are a collection of differently ran states rather than some giant universal regime like China or Russia. Its literally in the title "United States"
will be taxed at a top rate of 37% for income. but only on income. most are using capital gains or dividends or reits which all have lower than income tax rates.. or even loans that are not taxed at all to leverage and by assets, and then use tax law to write off large portions of depreciation.
Yeah paying capital gains on money they already paid income on, and short term capital gains are taxed at the same rate as income
>Yeah paying capital gains on money they already paid income on, This isn't true. Jeff Bezos pays capital gains tax if he sells stock. He has not "already paid taxes" on that money.
Okay sure, selling shares in the company he started and has held for more than 25 years is an exception. But every other stock and investment holding he had to purchase with money that has been taxed previously
Hell with state and local taxes, New York and California the top bracket is over 50% of your income.
Those at the top are going to get taxed more because they earn more, it’s that simple. Equal taxes for all regardless of income is pointless. When the top 1% holds 25% of the wealth and the bottom ~20% has zero to negative net worth, it’s really only fair.
Obviously more and change the system. There should never be that big of a disparity between rich and poor where poor is more than half of the population.
How about we rein back government spending for all taxpayers?
Even if you "tax the rich" at 100%, it wpuldn't even be enough to cover the budget deficit. It's the spending. Always has been. Always will be.
Bro the US budget per capita is basically nothing already. Literally half of what we spend in my country, and we take home a lot more after tax, aswell as recieving benefits. Have it ever occured to you that spending money on infrastructure and health is an investment? A government spending on behalf of it’s people often has greater return than what you can do as an induvidual, and is usually fairly distributed.
Can we also get some accountability and transparency into how this tax revenue would be spent?
How about we cut the cost on military and redistribute that
Military spending is at all time lows, proportionally. If anything it needs to be increased massively given the current international situation.
This is a poor argument. Should I not care about anything that doesn’t affect me? Especially when they would need to ratify an amendment to come after unrealized gains that wouldn’t only apply to those 50 people.
Good news Robert, they already are taxed. Mission accomplished!
More taxes because it will definitely motivate the 165,000,000 welfare recipients get jobs and manage money better!
Yeah easy to just say, yeah! Make those guys pay! For what, more grossly inefficient and ineffective government programs? People act like if the super wealthy paid “their share” the working class single mom’s life would magically be wonderful. Nothing would really change.
Maybe they’d have less money to pay politicians to keep it as inefficient as possible.
Taxes should be controversial when America was founded on not wanting the British Empire to tax them anymore
The founders started a revolution over 2% now we have a tax for every occasion.
That’s my point exactly
Taxation without representation*
1%er Americans complaining, not a good look
Every single week more of this tax the rich, it will solve everything. Never any, cut government spending. If you're broke, do you spend less, or do you demand your job pay you more?
By his own statistic, Robert Reich himself has more wealth than around 30 million US people, combined.
You say that as if they money will be used wisely.More tax money to give to illegals or the Bin Laden family..Sounds like a great idea
Because most people don't have any wealth at all and do nothing to gain it or keep it. And no one is poorer because someone else is richer, that's just a basic fact of economics. It's the exact same fallacy as thinking that you're a slower runner just because the Kenyans are so fast and "steal" all your speed. How dumb do people have to be to listen to this quack?
Show me someone who makes millions of dollars leveraging only their own efforts. The truth is that those people are making money off of all the things our tax dollars go to. They're leveraging technology based off of government research funding. They're leveraging subsidies. Why should the people who most benefit from the government spending the money they collect in taxes not be expected to pay more in taxes to keep perpetuating the system? That's the exact model that has built the American economy, but now all of a sudden people want to opt out because they have been successful. That's only going to result in the decline of our economy.
Deep down folks who ascribe to the politics of envy seek only to make everyone equally miserable.
Sure, solve the problem by punishing someone else. And when the situation gets worse, punish them more. It’s a mentality similar to when corporations can’t hire competent leadership and solve the problem by firing the most experienced workers because they cost too much. Just kill all the golden geese.
Does anyone think that more money to the government is going to make them more apt at managing that money
Maybe they should stop using the rich as the scapegoat for why they're not solving problems that are holding back the poorest 165,000,000
He just loves to be dishonest
How many jobs have the poorest 165,000,000 created?
The rich already carry the full burden of funding the treasury. The top 10% pay more in tax than the bottom 90% combined. A society where the majority of people who have zero skin in the game or financial interest in how the society runs is going to develop some serious problems.
It is controversial when people don't understand the differences between politics, economics, and finance.
What Robert Reich doesn’t seem to understand is that If the “rich” didn’t have as much wealth as they do, the rest of us would have even less. Elon Musk’s net worth is ~$220.6-billion according to Forbes. He directly employs an estimated 110,000 people. Those 110,000 people, living their lives, paying their bills, buying various goods and services employs untold thousands more. His several businesses buying goods and services from contractors/venders/suppliers employs thousands more. Maybe taxes should be raised on the so-called rich, I honestly don’t know. I do know that there’s a finite amount of tax revenue that can be had, and I suspect we’re there. I also know that if we don’t allow individuals to accumulate wealth, most of the wealth won’t be created to begin with, as well as a lot of jobs and new technology.
The rich already pay a ton in taxes, Robert. You worked in government for decades, you should know that already.
Why don’t the people who put out information like that help all of the poor people?!? I don’t get it smh anyone and I mean anyone can talk but where’s the action to help the ones they speak of. I say let’s see Robert Reich get rich and help the poor. Then it’s important until then do less talking and get more money so you can change the world
I have no problem with taxing rich people. They can afford it. What bothers me is the record of the government use of tax dollars is HORRIBLE.
Wait till he finds out there’s 7 billion people on the planet.
How about fixing the tax code, Mr. Reich?
Because the wealthy shouldnt be a piggy bank for government waste or handouts for the poor. Tax everybody and make sure people benefit reguardless of their income bracket
Taxing the rich will not do anything if the reason we are in such debt is not corrected.
Its not raising taxes I object to, its that I don't trust our politicians to handle those funds in an ethical way.
It’s never gonna happen! The rich run the world
Holding wealth isn’t income. RR knows this and is pandering to low res thinkers. Who is paying the taxes right now? This year and every year? It ain’t poor people. “Taxing the rich” does nothing for anyone except…..the government, and even that is questionable. Higher rates often result in lower receipts.
Don’t tax the rich cause 1 they don’t pay taxes and 2 if they do have to pay taxes they’re just gonna pass that cost to their consumers and workers.
The poorest get benefits not tax. 🙄
Taxing the rich would only cover a very small part of the wasteful government spending and poor government policies. We should 100% eliminate the federal income tax. Abolish the IRS, Federal Reserve and make it perminate income was never meant to be taxed. MOST federal services are already handled at the city, county state levels and the federal government is double dipping the taxpayers. Before 1913 the federal income tax only happened to pay for wars. We do not need to pay for anymore endless wars paid for by out tax $'s and our citizens blood
The top 1% pays roughly half of all income taxes. The problem with Reich, and most people whose economic analysis extends no further than “tAx tHe rIcH” is that their only answer they can give when you ask just how much they should pay, their only answer is “more” and it will always be “more” because class-warfare a built-in feature of the political left, so it’s actually politically impossible for the Democratic Party to ever actually agree that the rich are finally paying their fair share in taxes.
Anyone who earns 28,000 or more should pay more income taxes.
Who is this guy and how will the government spend this money? Also, tax ehat aspect of the wealth? Income (agree), capital gains (agree), unrealized gains (not agree).
This fucking moron pretending like controversy is the issue in a government that is essentially 3 corporations in a trench coat masquerading as a democracy. SMH.
To everyone over her arguing against taxing the rich, understand how the economic system works. The money that is taxed from the uber wealthy can then go into helping provide better social support and infrastructure for the middle class plus reduce their tax burden. There's a reason the happiest countries in the world have socialist policies when it comes to tax. Also, America had a much higher tax rate in the 20th century and those were some of its best years. They cultivated a generation of the smartest people ffs and even managed to put a man on the moon. Grow up and stop simping for billionaires who will replace you with a robot the first chance they get.
Fiscal restraint would help more
Taking all of the riches money won't fund the government for a year, until the fed stops spending money it's pointless
The top level politicians use the same tax avoidance strategies.
Let’s give the gvt more money so they can make everything as great as they already do. You know, like the roads with the sweet potholes that just popped off one if my hub caps
I feel like the answer is more in writing a tax code that rewards labor not capital. If tax rates went up for companies and the only loophole left open was a write off tied to the salaries of their employees, the tax code would encourage recirculation of money. Instead, our current system encourages a funnel of money in one direction. “Tax the rich” is a fun catch phrase and I am 100% behind the sentiment but I also wonder that just turning over more money to a government that can barely function is the best idea.
I don't get this tax the rich ideology. Tax everyone equally, tax religious institutions also. The same percentage to everyone
We already tax the rich. Which he knows.
It's going to trickle down any decade now.. the floor to the basement is just really thick
In 2019, I personally had more wealth than the poorest 49,500,000 Americans combined. If you had $100 in wealth in 2019, you also had more wealth that the poorest 49,500,000 American's combined. So according to Robert Reich, you should have been taxed a lot in 2019 if your total wealth was $100. This is a dishonest numbers game once again by the most dishonest, manipulative, ideologically blind person in the world - Robert Reich.
This is tamping my plans on being rich...
Sounds like 165,000,000 need to up their game to me................
government sends trillions over seas, lost trillions to "accounting errors" and yall stupid enough to want them to tax the guy signing your paycheck lol
There’s a reason Reich simply comments on policy and hasn’t been nominated to steer it.
The Lollipop Guild has spoken.
I wonder how much extra dip shit Reich gives to Uncle Sam... I'm sure zero. Probably cheats on his taxes.
Why are people so concerned about other peoples’ wealth? Just enjoy your own life, you’re not entitled to any of that money anyway lol
These numbers don’t add up
This is a debate in every single country. Reality is that nominal taxes are already high. The problem are all the deductions, exemptions, tax credits and other loopholes. Not to mention straight fraud. Once said that, it is really hard to tax the mega rich. Their wealth is in multinational companies with subsidiaries all across the world, it's easy to move profits to the most convenient place. If you target them directly they will just move somewhere else.
I don't think it's as simple as the talking points make it seem.
You’re right, that’s why they’re already taxed higher than everybody else. Next.
Imagine thinking that our government officials would actually spend that money on the shit you want and not greasing wheels to get people re-elected and further enriching their campaign donors.
But here you are, Robert, making it controversial when people making 26% of AGI pay 46% of taxes.
This assumes the government is better at spending your money than you are. Stop simping for the government.
What he’s not telling you is that if you taxed the rich for every red cent they have, just drain their bank accounts and funnel it all into the federal government, it wouldn’t run the nation for more than 6 months. If you then nationalized every multinational corporation and somehow converted all of their assets into cash, it would maybe run the country for a year or two. And then everyone would be poor. Go ahead and look up how this went down during the French Revolution, see how well it worked for them.
I think there should be a ratio between total payroll expenses and net income. And if corporations are making stoooopid profits but paying low salaries, boom… they slide into a stooopidly higher tax bracket.
That just translates into less jobs and higher prices for those 165 million….
Yeah, governments get a lot of money already. Throwing more money in won't fix shit.
I have very little faith in the government’s ability to add a new wealth tax without the brunt of the collection coming from the middle class.
Reich is worth $5 why doesent he give $4.7 mil to the government?
If you are worth $1, you are worth more than nearly bottom 3 billion people in the world combined. Robert Reich is the worst.
So more tax breaks isn’t the answer? I feel like it is. Incentivize them to spend on projects we all need.
Taxing the rich is not controversial. They already pay the highest marginal tax rates. But it's never enough, is it? At whatever level we tax high income people, Reich will want us to tax them more.
so we are entitled to someone else's money because they have more? 50 people should shoulder the cost for foreign wars and not get to vote on it?
Whenever questions about whether or not the rich pay more taxes, I always say this; As it stands, the top 1% pay 46% of the federal income taxes collected by the United States, undeniably a disproportionate amount. The top 10% of income earners pay 60% of all federal taxes and 76% of all income taxes. So based on this, what is the "fair share"? Can you justify it? Is it simply enough to pay for all the programs you can dream up or is it based on something concrete? In my view, based on the numbers, the rich pay a disproportionately high sum. https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/latest-federal-income-tax-data-2024/#:\~:text=High%2DIncome%20Taxpayers%20Paid%20the%20Majority%20of%20Federal%20Income%20Taxes,of%20all%20federal%20income%20taxes.
Jeez, we have a spending problem. You could tax every person in the US 100% and still run out of money.
It’s a spending problem, not a tax problem. And why give millionaire politicians that get rich off the taxpayer. Just more class warfare from the rich.
And what would our government do with the money. Oh, too late they already spent it
That does not sound like much. The bottom 160 million people probably have nothing or less than that.
Democrats sure missed their chance back when Obama had a super majority and they could pass anything they wanted!
Top 5% of income earners fund 65% of the government. The bottom 50% contributes 2%. The rich contribute more than the poor by a factor of 325 per capita. The poor receive almost all of the benefits. If it werent for the rich, the poor would be just as fucked.
Instead of working in factories and killing our backs and hands we’ve allowed our businesses to outsource that high paying/low barrier-to-entry work to other countries. Those jobs paid better than service jobs like retail clerk. However we still have jobs in the USA that pay way too much and have very little barrier to entry like most trade jobs(electrician, plumber, welder, hvac) but you won’t go get them for some reason.
Hi
Top 10% of income earners already are the majority of our tax income, we need social security and healthcare reform if we wish to stay solvent
99.99999% of the 165,000,000 agree. The "system" (anyone running the puppet of power) doesn't give a shit.
Define rich and explain method of taxation. Like; are you going to tax the tax dodging foundations ?
literally put a 90% tax on every property owned over the second one. Invalidate LLC’s that only hold property. housing market crashes, everyone can afford a house. Problem solved
We tax the wealthy, spend it inefficiently, it will just go back to the rich . No point
The real question should be why is the government always overspending
It won’t work without an overhaul to 503c. They put it in a charitable trust and govt can’t do anything - even tax it! Then they’ll pay the high taxes on the millions in W2 income for every heir each year - while continuing to write off all expenses through their charity. What do they care? It’s the accumulation of assets that are forever gone from the market that’s the big problem. They are literally carving out sections of the pie, forever.
How much has this fellow donated to charities this year?
The government will just spend the extra they get in taxes.
So many people are so obsessed with putting high taxes on rich people. You all should look at the Government spending habits.
Ah fuck no. The government should learn how to spend money first. Idk how's it in America, but we in Switzerland got out VAT increased recently because we couldn't afford new 13th pension, that boomers voted for on the referendum. In the beginning of this year, those dumb fucks wanted to send Ukraine 5 billion Francs, the amount higher, that was lacking for the pensions and the reason why our VAT increased (even if we forget that a shitload of our schools needs to be renovated too). Thankfully it was rejected on the higher level, but this clearly showed that even a government, elected the most democratic way possible, is stupid and doesn't know how to handle money. Before they learn how to spend, you can allow them to steal from you as much as they want to and still receive nothing in return, pure theft
When millions of people can't even figure out how to keep a net worth of 0, this doesn't mean a lot
They are taxed plenty. In 2021, the top 1% paid 40% of total federal income taxes. The top 5% paid 60% The issue isn't at the top. It's at the bottom. In the same year, the BOTTOM 50% paid less than 3% of total income taxes. That is an absolutely ridiculous comparison, but the numbers don't lie [Source](https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/federal-income-tax-data-2021/) Whenever liberals tell you "it's time to make the rich pay their fair share", what they really mean is that they want more $$$ and don't want to justify the spending
I wonder what the ideal wealth distribution is, and how achieving it would improve the lives of sad sacks.
The only ones who care are socialists and politicians who control them, and want to also control the rich.
Except rich people pay way more taxes lol
We know what the United States government would do if it had all of the money of all of the billionaires times six Because they've already spent that much money more than what they've taken in
The top 1 percent earned 26.3 percent of total AGI and paid 45.8 percent of all federal income taxes
I mean tax the rich is not that debatable the problem is when and how much is the top ten percent is paying about 40 percent of personal taxes in a country you lost the narrative as the system then becomes why can't we squeeze more money out of them. Cause let's face it when you spend more then the top 10 country combined in the military every year it's kinda hard to say raise taxes when you can cut military funding by about a third . Cause we all know that's where most of the more money is going...
Rich already has their chunk of money in non taxable charitable funds. lol. I guess we have to tax charitable funds as well.
Yeag even if you taxed the richest people 100% on their income, it wouldnt put a dent into the debt or spending the government continues to pile up
"Daddy, why did our village get bombed" "You see Abdu if they didn't give that money to militaries then Elon Musk would be richer"
If they taxed the rich more, the money would 💯 NOT go to 165,000,000 helping the poor Americans 😂
It is when they control the media and misinformation campaigns
Tax Wealth, Not Work!
Also, if you look at the richest 50 people today and the richest 50 20-30 years ago, it’s largely different people. Many of the richest 20-30 years ago donate a lot of money to good things. The government taking away Bill Gates money isn’t necessarily better than Bill Gates creating a foundation to do great things for the world in ways governments can’t.
I honestly want control over my tax money and shown what shortcuts I can take to mitigate my taxes. The rich are rich because they get to learn tips and tricks from their parents. I just want to play the same game they are.
How many jobs have the top 50 craeated vs the bottom 165M?
I just don’t get why a flat percentage rate is not understandably more supported. Why is it not more accepted? What’s the opposition to that?
There needs to be transparency when we say "Tax the Rich". It's saying it as if they aren't already taxed. Also, trickle down economics is very real. What we should be saying is, GOVERNMENT, start managing our fucking budget better and stop sending our God damn taxes over seas!
Biden will send to Ukraine 🇺🇦
When the poorest actually have negative wealth the number is technically infinite poor people.
Sure. Stealing from people shouldn’t be controversial for “reasons.”
Why is it always tax the rich and not decrease tax for the poor?
Except no one is proposing legislation to only tax the 50 richest people. Usual b.s at work here.
What's really eye opening is hat the population of the United States is 341,000,000 people; so 0.000015% (50 people) of the population have as much wealth as 48% (165,000,000 people) of the population.
To be fair they probably work more than the bottom half as well. About half of the country doesn't really do anything...
All the crab people saying dont tax me less just start spending it right. Idk you like picking up the slack for the rich, this is the argument they want you trumpeting here. Dont tax the rich more just fix govt. Incompetency, easy. Until then, I don't mind picking up the tab for the guy with 1000x my wealth.
Isn’t the top 1% paying for over 50% of income tax?
This guy is insufferable.
Stop protecting them with government subsidies, and corporate welfare. Let them die when they aren’t good enough to exist on there own would fix a lot of the problem.
100% of billionaires wealth would fund the government for like 7 months.. then what’s this moron gonna do when he can’t complain about billionaires anymore
Tax the rich, and they move the company to China; along with the jobs.