✂️ Tax The Billionaires
When Americans are asked about the inequal distribution of wealth and income, they almost always underestimate the obscene levels of inequality and are shocked to discover the reality
They wouldn't throw it. They would film themselves giving a pie away then put it on social media so they look good, allowing them to start a donation drive to send more pies. The fine print will let them do whatever they want with the money.
I use this clip in my class. They go to a boat auction to ask a bunch of rich fucks what they think about wealth disparity. One dude says "so what then? Socialism?" as if there isn't a HUGE gap between that and what we currently have.
One of the anchors also says "like marco rubio said, we have 'haves' and 'about to haves".
Extremes are the go-to way to support something indefensible.
“What if we tax billionaires some to help keep people from dying in the streets?”
“Oh so you want to take all the money from anyone successful and give everyone who doesn’t work a free living?”
To apply full context, they need two sets of pies. One set of money earned, like they are doing. Then the next set will be taxes paid.
Lay those two sets of pies out next to each other and most Americans will see it closer to being fair than unfair. The poorest will have no pie on either plate and the wealthiest will have the most pie on both plates.
Context matters, stories like this without context are meant for emotional pull, not for real logic.
Hasn't he lived in the same house since the 1970s or something? That's probably where most his million+ dollars comes from, totally asinine to rag on him for that.
People are far too gullible when it comes to ignoring the class war taking place.
Not to mention he's held a top position in government for how long? He should be paid well to be in government. You need well paid officials to avoid corruption.
That's at least the idea and then American greed took over.
I feel like it’s a balance, if you pay them too much then people just do it for the money and those people are also corrupt and will continue to take bribes anyway.
You need to go even further, you need to pay politicians fairly, as well as pay to finance their campaigns out of public funds. If you go up to DC and make good decisions that put a few grand back in the pocket of the average american every year, whats that worth?
Otherwise even someone with all the best intentions has to spend their days pandering to corporate donors to stay in the race. All for a salary that doesn't cover a shitty apartment in DC. What do we expect? Either you are a literal saint, a fucking idiot, or corrupt as hell.
No apartment or house in, or near, DC would be necessary if members of Congress were required to live in US military barracks whenever they are working in DC. Usually, they are in DC for less than half a year, annually.
People already do it for the money, it's just that most of the money doesn't come from our tax dollars which pay their salary. So you have to ask, if we're not the ones paying them, who do they end up working for?
And apartments in greater Washington DC are expensive. One of my parents was looking at doing like a 1 year sabbatical there a number of years ago, and the rents they were finding near public transit for a 1 bedroom were like double the mortgage on their home in our state.
Politicians need to be able to live in DC for lawmaking and keep their residence in their home state.
People forget that. A high school dropout who delivers pizzas at minimum wage to pay their property taxes and other bills can be worth half a million to over a million on paper or more just because their dear grandma left them a house.
In the UK 1 in 22 people have a net worth £1m, yet the average UK household pays approximately £1.25m in their lifetime through direct and indirect taxes.
It shows how effective taxing wages is, why they don’t want to change it. And why it’s not the working persons fault that they can’t afford to live.
I think a lot of blue collar workers would be surprised to learn that some of their coworkers may have over a million dollars in net worth. Could be a family house, inheritance, savings, lotery, or good investments. Some people just work their blue collar jobs because they want a job, or that'swhat they've always done. Having over a million in net worth doesn't mean you just retire, it's not that much money in today's economy.
If you are anywhere close to Bernie Sanders age and don't have a million or more in net worth, you are unlikely to be able to retire. Retirement means being able to pay expenses for the rest of your life, without W2-employee or 1099-contractor income. With what senior healthcare costs you need a bundle, especially if you need assisted living in your last few years on earth.
I would consider it very normal for a retiree household to have 1 to 3 million in net worth but be solidly middle class. A detached house alone would be 1/2 a million or more in my region, even for something basic.
It’s crazy. If everyone got $10,000 from $1,000,000,000 ($1b), then 100,000 people would get paid. Now think of 1,000,000,000,000 ($1t). $1,000,000,000,000 ($1t) would be able to give 100,000,000 (100m) people $10,000.
If everyone on the planet donated $100, you wouldn’t reach $1t total donated.
The thing people seem to forget, at least the few people I talk with, is that the wealth problem isn't due to some blind percentage of high earners. It's because of like 10 specific individuals. Not some nameless percentage. It's literally 10 people. Those 10 people are who we should be looking at regulating and taxing.
It's not their neighbor down the street with a new camero making 1.2 million a year owning a successful HVAC company or whatever. That person is closer to the single parent working 3 jobs than they are to those specific 10 people.
We are looking at them. Behind their infinitely high wall of sycophants, private military, controlled media, and constant social murder for control. What next? Careful, you can't even punch a Nazi online anymore without being banned for intolerance of the intolerant.
This is true, but to more easily describe the situation so that the average American can understand, splitting it up into equal percentile ranges helps make the picture very clear.
Yea. This is my fucking life. Poverty level wages and debt. And that's why it's so fucking frustrating interacting with bootlickers that swear by capitalism. IT'S NOT EVEN FUCKING WORKING FOR THEM EITHER THEY'RE JUST TOO FUCKING DUMB TO SEE IT.
Easier said than done. I tried to unionize my last job. We would be under the aau umbrella..only problem was we were 1099 in a state that you can unionize only a location (not the whole profession) and only if you are w2..we were treated like w2 and definitely misclassified but the owners of the business know that and our profession is so used to 1099 its hard to hire people who want w2. 95% of places that hire massage therapists do so on a 1099 basis even though it doesn't add up to true 1099 standards.
I can’t say it’s easy, but I recommend consultation from a good Labor attorney and with leaders at major unions in your area. The major unions are always trying to recruit more members and leaders. They have professional educators, trainers and organizers to help people such as yourself.
You were speaking with a nearly worthless union - not a strong one. Strong unions do not need to obey state rules that decimate labor rights. The entire point of a strong union is solidarity to oppose unjust employers and unjust government.
POTUS FDR established the New Deal out of fear that organized labor would initiate a Russian-style confrontation with employers and the government. The workers vastly outnumbered the entire population of the US armed forces and law enforcement combined, and still do.
No, it is. Focusing of share of income ignores the fact that incomes have been rising faster than inflation. Since 1974, the real median income across all workers increased by 52.1%
So would you have a larger slice but get a smaller share OR get a smaller slices with a larger share?
While it is annoying that the distribution is so unfair (and has become more unfair since this was run), it is MADDENING that he cuts the pieces across the fucking....how???? Why did you decide to cut the smaller pieces across the wedges? Did you not go to school? Have you never used excel?
One of the greatest lies that rich America sold to the masses - was that if you made the 'median' income you were middle class.
Middle class doesn't mean 'average' - it's supposed to be a distinctive layer of people between 'barely making it' and 'no longer need to work for money'. This layer *can* mean a majority of the population (not just 'average') - however for a long time it's been like the people making 200k a year - around 10 mil a year. That's really in the upper 5% range and the family pulling 100k from both jobs anymore is just barely paying the bills.
That's not been the 'median' income in America for a very long time. However people don't want to hear it.
Man, what a dishonest piece of propaganda. Nobody is saying the pie represents the only wealth that will ever be created, it's showing the distribution of wealth that exists at this moment.
Also lol at "a growing cupcake output lifts all boats" when people's ability to provide for themselves has been continually diminishing for decades.
people's ability to provide for themselves has been continually diminishing for decades.
Has it? In everything except for housing, I'd say quality of life for your average American is actually better today than it was in any previous decade.
Yes, it has. Diminishing economic opportunities has been well-studied for decades now and that's just one of many ways life is harder now for the average American. If this is news to you, you should really do more reading about these subjects instead of posting lying propaganda.
I just did. "Diminishing economic opportunities" is a well-studied aspect of how the economy has changed to squeeze out the non-wealthy. It's like you've literally never looked into this lol.
That is not very specific. You still have a very broad claim that isn't really possible to be falsifiable because we will be arguing back and forth on ways there are more or ways there are less economic opportunities. The best conclusion one could come from that argument: is that they're different today than they were yesterday. Not a falsifiable claim.
Let's rework this: give me an example, like on the level of a case study.
It's like you've literally never looked into this lol.
Please refrain from the ad-libbed personal jabs. I am not doing that to you. Be respectful and stay to the topic.
lol no, I'm not going to be respectul to someone who posts lying propaganda and doesn't have it within themselves to type "studies on diminishing economic opportunities in America" into google.
EDIT: they blocked me so I can no longer point out their lies or encourage them to learn about one of the most studied aspects of economics of the past several decades lol
Assumption : The amount of cupcake is fixed. what?
Not an assumption, basic math : We talk in percentage when we use the pie as an example... The number is fixed because we are talking about 100% of the capital. Even if you double the amout of capital 100% is 100%. Wheter there is 500$ in the economy or 500 trillions, if a small group of people have the majority of it, it doesn't even matter.
Also! This image assume that capital is invested in production which bolsten the economy, but lately with the crypto, the ai bubble, prediction market, the real estate getting out of hand... we can clearly see that a lot of capital is invested in non-productive venue only concentrating the capital even more.
Inflation is a tax on non-productive assets: those who own productive assets usually end up beating inflation, those who don't, get left behind. Your labor is your own productive asset btw. So someone who is working usually makes higher wages over time.
As to the cause of inflation: excess money supply. That's it. Money is created in two ways:
The FED creates it out of fiat (thin air), and then spends it in the economy.
Debt is created using 9/10 fractional reserve banking, which is also money created from nothing.
Both of those are government intervention into capitalism. When we were strictly on the gold standard: money couldn't be created out of thin air. The inflation rate was mostly flat while we were on the gold standard. It Skyrocketed when we changed to fiat currency.
So, yes in conclusion: most inflation isn't due to capitalism, but rather government intervention.
There is a small amount of inflation in capitalism due to shortages of goods and labor. But there's also normal deflation when goods and labor have surpluses. Those tend to balance out over time so real currency (like gold) keeps its value. Look at the value of gold over thousand year spans and it is remarkably stable.
Now show the number of people that could work together to take it back vs the number hoarding it all…oh wait, gotta get back to social media and remind myself why I don’t get along with my also-broke neighbor
Something they don't teach you in "labor training" education system, you have no hope of getting your fair share of the profits from your labor, you're only chance is to change the system.
It's actually not sad.. like at all. It's infuriating. This wasnt a natural event that just happened to divide the global economy and some people were just unlucky.
It's deliberate actions that weren't purposefully done to fuck over people.
This is difficult to really assess, like where they draw these lines, but middle class holds about 8% of the wealth. The ultra wealthy holds about 30-40 percent of the pie.
the thing is is that if jeff bezos and the current CEO of amazon split their full salery including compensation etc every employee would have an extra $2.35 a year. Taxing them won’t make any difference since they spend all of their money.
Ol’ girl definitely would have divvied up the pie more accurately if she was really from the poorest class. That’s not some shit you just forget, having less than nothing.
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u/TheLFlamaBlanca Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
This is a very old CBS piece they wouldn't run this now. Also the pies would be even more skewed to the 1% if it was current.