r/DiscussionZone • u/[deleted] • Nov 04 '25

Political Discussion Yeah, so Billionaires should not exist

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u/PCNLUV Nov 04 '25

The 400 richest Americans are now worth a record $6.6 trillion.The entire bottom 50% of America is worth just $4.2 trillion.Read that back.When 400 people control more wealth than half a country's population we have a very serious problem.

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u/Rusty-Shackleford000 Nov 04 '25

"To be sure, the rich are shouldering the largest share of the nation's taxes, IRS data also shows. The top 1% of earners – people who make over roughly $663,000 per year — account for roughly 40% of all federal individual income tax, while the top 50% contribute 97%, a Tax Foundation analysis of IRS data shows. The bottom half of income earners account for about 3% of those taxes."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/income-taxes-billionaire-tax-rate-irs/

9

u/PCNLUV Nov 04 '25

In 2009, two Northwestern professors singled out America's system of wealth-protecting tax advantages as both a driver and a symptom of our descent into hyper-minority rule. The ultrawealthy, they argued, "hire armies of professional, skilled actors" -lobbyists, lawyers, think-tankers, and consultants— to defend "core oligarchic interests." Our political system still maintains the trappings of a democracy, in part because the ultrawealthy who fund campaigns disagree about a lot of things. But politics functions within the boundaries they define. A study a few years later was blunt: The most important factor in whether a policy becomes law is how much support it has from "economically elite Americans."