this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2024
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politics

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[–] [email protected] 251 points 8 months ago (4 children)

If the billionaires are upset it’s a good sign you’re doing something right.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 8 months ago

Exactly. Most policies are in billionaire's favors, since they fund lobbying groups and super pacs. They mostly stay quiet about everything because they’re getting their way behind the scenes. If they’re complaining outright, it’s an absolute win for everyone else

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[–] [email protected] 203 points 8 months ago

Crying billionaires are a sign of society healing.

A healthy society has zero billionaires.

Let’s go further with these taxes.

[–] [email protected] 123 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Don't like it? Fuck you. Your greed is unconscionable and your hoarding of wealth is amoral and disgusting. In conclusion, fuck you.

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[–] [email protected] 123 points 8 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (11 children)

It's nuts for them to rail against this because when Biden said 25% minimum, I was like, "that's it‽"

I get taxed at 25% already and I'm making $125k.

25% is nowhere near enough. Anyone making over 400k individually should be taxed closer to 50%.

[–] [email protected] 77 points 8 months ago (10 children)

there should be a 100% tax for anyone who has a billion dollars or more.

That level of wealth is not compatible with existing in a society.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I think the biggest problem isn’t the tax rate, but the fact that the billionaire class can circumvent the tax system entirely.

Own billions of dollars in stock, don’t ever sell any, don’t pay any taxes on that growth. Maybe some dividends get taxed or something.

Need pocket money though. Take out a loan for $100 million using a little bit of your stock as collateral. You don’t get taxed on taking out debt.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago (7 children)

People don't realize that billionaires don't have their billions sitting in a bank account somewhere like you or I might have our own life savings tucked away in a savings account. That would be foolish of them, obviously, the FDIC won't insure them past a certain point, so a bank failure could cause them to lose everything.

Every single billionaire is only a billionaire "on paper". It's the sum total of all their assets, both liquid and non-liquid (like stocks, but also properties, etc.). They leverage their assets as collateral for a loan, and then use that loan to buy the stuff they want or just use it to make more investments. They leverage debt in a way that we can't even begin to fathom.

It's mad, but I can see the conundrum. How do you tax assets that aren't worth anything until sold? Can you compel them to sell their assets to settle a tax bill? How do you go after rich folk who use loans to circumvent generating income through the sale of their assets without also harming regular people who need to take out loans to buy things like cars and houses?

Rich people have gotten too good at playing the system and we seriously need to look at how we can fix things before it's too late. Right now, the wealthy have unprecedented control over the government, but it's still not an oligarchy yet. There's still time, though. Someone out there has to have a solution.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

“I don’t agree with the idea of just singling out people because of how much they have or don’t have,”

That's literally how income tax works, you ignorant slut.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

The ones being singled out are poor people and the middle class. The rich get preferential rates, deductions that only apply to them, the ability to have armies of accountants and lawyers to limit their liability, and are far less likely to be audited.

It SHOULD be that all income within different brackets should be taxed the same. The rich only pay more because they have more. We all should be taxed 50% on income over $500,000, it’s just that most of us don’t have any income over that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (2 children)

He best start believing in being singled out to pay more taxes because the alternative is being singled out to have his head cut off.

The old old money knew this. Why do the nuveau rich not?

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You have to leave incentives for people who are the ones who are going to create the jobs for all those people trying to climb the ladder.

Oh my god, FUCK OFF

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Billionaires: you should tax us more

Also billionaires: nooooo.... Not more taxes!

[–] [email protected] 63 points 8 months ago

Maybe not the same billionaires?

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

"You're trying to take away the incentives for people to work hard," [Catsimatidis] said.

The working class is referred to as such for a reason.

He should stop pretending to be one of them.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

Biden claimed in his State of the Union address that the 25 percent minimum tax on the ultra-rich will raise $500 billion over 10 years. “Imagine what that could do for America,” he said.

Maybe I'm not good at comprehending numbers at this scale but does this seem kind of low to anyone else? I mean, that's a lot of money in absolute terms but the government spent $6.3 trillion in FY 2023 alone.

We should still do it obviously. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good and all that.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 8 months ago

No, it sounds correct. Taxing billionaires' income is fine, but the real money would come from actually taxing corporations more.

See, they only have income in certain circumstances, so the amount raised from an income tax would not be very high. You can raise corporate taxes by a little bit and get much more.

That way the income is taxed before it gets to anyone. It doesn't matter if they have a billion dollars. Plus it encourages investment in the company (wages, new products, better quality, etc.) because business costs are tax write-offs.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 8 months ago
[–] [email protected] 48 points 8 months ago

Thoughts and prayers

[–] [email protected] 46 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Billionaires should not exist. Honestly, I'd expropriate them.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Apparently it's not just Billionaires who hate this, but also Russian trolls pretending to be leftists. Who would have guessed the two would be allied?!

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 8 months ago

Did you expect an addict to thank you when you take away their drug cold turkey? Billionairism is a mental disorder, like addiction, and it should be handled with the same care. The kind of care that only billionairs can afford in the US, I must add.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 8 months ago (1 children)

For $10,000 a year, billionaires can pay me to give a shit.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Why would you take away these creations from them??? /s

https://www.twwyachts.com/yachts-for-sale/support/

Image

Support yachts are the finest way to improve your yachting experience. Not only you will be able to increase the number of guest & crew accommodations, but also the amount of water toys & tenders that are within your fleet. Upgrapding the mothership to obtain the same results usually comes at a much heftier cost than a support vessel. In addition, the support yacht will be able to resupply the mothership while at anchor and make sure that you never run out of food, wines and all the supplies you may ever need.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Music to my ears? Oh wait, he could lose the billionaire vote. Like all 100 of them.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago

Problem isn't the billionaire vote, but rather the billionaire dark money being funneled to the other guy instead. Which I'm sure they're all doing anyway, but they could decide to do it more. Which makes it ever more important for grassroots efforts to get the vote out so that we can eat the rich in spite of their efforts to dodge our hungry maws.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Good. Rage until you hurt yourself you undeveloped children.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago

Wah wah wah just get into your fkn submarine, we double-checked the bulkhead for you 🫡

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago

😭🤌🎻🎶🎵

[–] [email protected] 22 points 8 months ago

"Won't you please stop and think of the billionaires?"

"For just $5,479,452.05 a day, you can support a multibillionaire who needs you TODAY."

🎶🎶 "We are the world... we are old white men... We are the ones that have yachts that need second yachts to land helicopters on... so you start giving us your change... If you don't, we'll fucking find a way to kill you." 🎶🎶

[–] [email protected] 22 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I don't really understand why they're upset, or how it will raise that much revenue. As the article points out, most billionaires don't get their billions from income, they get it from investments. For instance, Jeff Bezos' salary is like $80k, and then he gets other compensation that puts him at like $1.7M. if you put him in a much higher tax bracket, he shouldn't even care - would hardly notice - because he's worth $194B. To put that in perspective, if he earns just 5% a year in growth on that, it's almost $10B. His compensation is like 0.02% of what he's likely to make on investments, if that.

It's also worth mentioning that most billionaires can't really spend much of the billions. If Bezos tried to cash out much of his Amazon stock, the price would plummet and he'd be worth a lot less. What those guys do is take out loans with the stock as collateral and live off of that. Of course, Bezos himself is at a level of wealth where he can cash out a small percentage and it's still enormous. I think last year he cashed out like $2B worth, which is a giant amount of money, but only 1% of his net worth.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Wealth Tax. That is what we desperately need.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (1 children)

why do i suddenly have the impression this tax aint coming to pass?

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

Well they got rich taking advantage of the poor. That’s the only way you become a billionaire. I feel nothing towards them.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago

Billionaires: "I DO think we should be taxed more."

puts money into lobbying against tax increases

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Billionaires: You want to prey upon the rest of us unilaterally? That fine. Just stay on your little island, announce it as a sovereign nation, pay to defend it, and good luck! That's what happens when you contribute nothing to society yourself...

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago
[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago

Good. Fuck em.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago

State of the Union Tax Proposals

Oh, so it's about the vague promises he made in a speech, not actual policy? Excuse me if I don't rush to celebrate how marvelously progressive he's being just yet 🥱

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago
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