I do not understand people who rent caring this much about someone who owns houses, a cruise ship and a jet just for laughs. I feel like I need to start carrying copies of “so. you’re in love with a narcissist” to give out whenever I run into one of these stupids.
He’s just not into you, sweetheart.
People
cosplaying as folksmaking under $50k per yearFriendly reminder that Joe The Plumber wasn't named Joe, wasn't a Plumber, and was earning well into the six-figure tax bracket before he spent a year on the right-wing freak show talk circuit.
It isn't even temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Its astroturfed outrage by paid performers and fellow grifters, intended to give their wealthy peers cover when they pile out into the suburbs waving No Step On Snek flags from their BMWs and F-350s.
Billionaires make money off stocks and asset gains, so taxing income higher generally only hurts the upper middle class (i.e. doctors, high earning professionals).
In Canada the average effective tax rate actually decreases once you hit like $750k (I don't have exact numbers, it's been a while since I analyzed this one) because those people stop paying as much employment tax and instead pay capital gains which are taxed at 50%.
So, if you're middle class, or upper middle class, you're paying twice as much as the millionaires and billionaires are per additional dollar made.
And that's the best case because the really rich people put their assets under a corporation and continually "reinvest" their gains while harvesting their losses (businesses pay 26.5% tax).
So Rich people pay a marginal rate of 26.5/26.8%, while the upper middle class pay 53.5% on their income.
They’re not temporarily embarrassed millionaires. There’s no such thing, really.
They’re groupies. They don’t care how bad their life is, they’re star-crossed and get a weird vicarious thrill from it. They know they’ll never be that rich, but as long as their star is rising, they’re happy. It’s more like fans of a sports team. If their star quarterback is winning – even if that means they’re personally doing worse – they’re on the winning team.
The false narrative of ‘temporarily embarrassed millionaires’ is detrimental because it’s misleading in how we talk to and about them. I don’t remember who started that, but it’s dead wrong.
e: to clarify, they aren’t supporting this shit because they think it will benefit them someday. If that were the case, they could be reasoned with. It’s worse:
They support this shit because they believe those billionaires are deserving or anointed by god. A fundamental part of conservatism is the belief there is a natural order to society with more deserving people on top, and if that hierarchy is disrupted, all of society will fall into chaos. They believe certain people should naturally be on top, and there’s honour in knowing your place and performing it well. Conservatism was born when feudalism died and the historical lords shifted their ideology from feudalism to capitalism to keep their wealth and power.
That ‘knowing your place in the hierarchy’ bit is a large part of racism as well as their penchant for fascism. The world makes more sense and is thus safer when everyone is in their proper place.
Why not 85%?
99%*
There are so many loopholes. How do you "tax" on investments? My buddy is a millionaire and takes loans out on his investments and pays no taxes. Like WTF. I'm sitting here pay 35% and he pays almost nothing because the interest he pays can be written off.
I agree with the sentiment but this feels like Wojacking, and I don't think we need to stoop to their level.
Edit: I didn't realize it said you would be taxed 70% on income above 10 million, I was thinking it was 70% of 10 million. Yeah 10 million (or 6.5 after normal taxes) in one year is plenty.
I think America is fueled by the dream of "making it big". I believe we should all have that opportunity and so I think these income taxes should take effect on the second year that your income exceeds the threshold, but that you should pay a lower rate for the first year. People invent things, they write stories, make movies, win at gambling... Those people should be allowed to enjoy their success, not be punished because their payout came all in the same year.
I have no problem with the rich being taxed at a significantly higher rate than all of us, but how will this help everyone else? The government isn't going to lower taxes for everyone else. The government isn't going to spend the money more wisely. The government isn't going to give the rest of us money. The government isn't going to improve the existing programs that are in place, or create new programs to help people. What they will do, is find even more ways to line their own pockets, and the pockets of their friends and donors. Just a thought, but maybe we should address that first? Fix the government, and we can fix everything else.
And before someone starts in about how it's a particular party that's a problem, remember that almost every federal level politician is corrupt, and scamming the people. Just take a look at how many significantly increase their wealth while in office. It's staggering, and it's both parties. We need an overhaul of the system. That's where the fix needs to be.
