Should Billionaires Even Exist?

[Blackrook]

You know what’s not cool anymore? Billionaires.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren believe some Americans have too much money, and they’re not alone.

Their very existence is now the subject of political debate, sparked most recently by tax-the-rich proposals from two prominent politicians.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposed placing a 2 percent tax on wealth over $50 million and 3 percent on assets over $1 billion. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she wants to increase the marginal tax rate on those earning more than $10 million a year.

Their ideas went viral, starting a mainstream conversation about inequality and wealth.

This kind of talk has always existed among a certain group of hard-core progressives and left-leaning economists, but heading into next year’s presidential election, the idea that the super-rich should pay their fair share is gaining real momentum.

Marshall Steinbaum, a research director at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, has advocated taxing the rich at higher rates for years. “We do not need billionaires,” Steinbaum told HuffPost. “The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past.”

For Steinbaum, higher taxes on the wealthy would mean freeing up more money for everyone else. If you think of the economy as a pie, right now, billionaires are getting just about all of it, while we’re all left splitting just one slice.

If you raise taxes on the richest, their incentive to grab at every morsel declines. The theory is they’ll fight a little less hard to depress everyone else’s wages if they know that every extra million is going to get taxed away. A high-paid CEO has less incentive to keep workers’ wages low so he can get a bigger payday.

Billionaires were once a rare breed. In the past few decades, as the U.S. has slashed tax rates, their numbers have exploded, far outpacing inflation.

Since 2008, the number of billionaires in the world has doubled, according to a report published last week by the anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam. In just the last year, billionaires raked in an astonishing $2.5 billion each day.

In 1982, the first year Forbes debuted its list of the 400 richest Americans, there were about a dozen billionaires. The richest man in the U.S. back then was an 85-year-old shipping magnate with an estimated worth of $2 billion, or $5.2 billion in today’s dollars.

"We do not need billionaires. The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past."
--Marshall Steinbaum, Roosevelt Institute​

Nowadays, Forbes’ list is entirely billionaires. The richest is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, worth $160 billion.

More: Should Billionaires Even Exist?

I agree! Billionaires aren't cool anymore! The playing field is tilted like the Titanic before it went down. There is no logical reason for so few to have so much. What do you think?

So, what you're really saying is, should we get government to confiscate and redistribute wealth from private individuals?

.

Indirectly, by leveling the playing field. The fat cats have gamed the system. From the OP:

There is a raft of policies in place that help America crank out billionaires: lax antitrust laws and regulations; strong intellectual property protections; low tax rates; government-funded research. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (No. 2 on Forbes’ list in 2018) couldn’t have amassed a fortune, for example, without strict copyright and patent protections on his software, Steinbaum pointed out.

The late Steve Jobs, widely regarded as an absolute genius who deserved every last dollar, used a boatload of government-funded technology to help create his defining device, the iPhone. Google also benefited from government-funded research, argues Mariana Mazzucato in a piece in the Harvard Business Review.

“Over the years. U.S. taxpayers have been very good to Apple,” she writes, adding that in return, the Cupertino, California, computer maker and other tech companies have done everything they can to get out of paying taxes and paying it forward.

Most entrepreneurs like to argue that they’ve achieved great wealth in spite of the government, not with its help.

Lakhota your identity as paid political propagandist working for the DNC is confirmed.

Do you ever post your own ideas on this forum?

No, you do not, that would be a breach of contract.

 

[Oddball]

You know what’s not cool anymore? Billionaires.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren believe some Americans have too much money, and they’re not alone.

Their very existence is now the subject of political debate, sparked most recently by tax-the-rich proposals from two prominent politicians.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposed placing a 2 percent tax on wealth over $50 million and 3 percent on assets over $1 billion. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she wants to increase the marginal tax rate on those earning more than $10 million a year.

Their ideas went viral, starting a mainstream conversation about inequality and wealth.

This kind of talk has always existed among a certain group of hard-core progressives and left-leaning economists, but heading into next year’s presidential election, the idea that the super-rich should pay their fair share is gaining real momentum.

Marshall Steinbaum, a research director at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, has advocated taxing the rich at higher rates for years. “We do not need billionaires,” Steinbaum told HuffPost. “The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past.”

For Steinbaum, higher taxes on the wealthy would mean freeing up more money for everyone else. If you think of the economy as a pie, right now, billionaires are getting just about all of it, while we’re all left splitting just one slice.

If you raise taxes on the richest, their incentive to grab at every morsel declines. The theory is they’ll fight a little less hard to depress everyone else’s wages if they know that every extra million is going to get taxed away. A high-paid CEO has less incentive to keep workers’ wages low so he can get a bigger payday.

Billionaires were once a rare breed. In the past few decades, as the U.S. has slashed tax rates, their numbers have exploded, far outpacing inflation.

Since 2008, the number of billionaires in the world has doubled, according to a report published last week by the anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam. In just the last year, billionaires raked in an astonishing $2.5 billion each day.

In 1982, the first year Forbes debuted its list of the 400 richest Americans, there were about a dozen billionaires. The richest man in the U.S. back then was an 85-year-old shipping magnate with an estimated worth of $2 billion, or $5.2 billion in today’s dollars.

"We do not need billionaires. The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past."
--Marshall Steinbaum, Roosevelt Institute​

Nowadays, Forbes’ list is entirely billionaires. The richest is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, worth $160 billion.

More: Should Billionaires Even Exist?

I agree! Billionaires aren't cool anymore! The playing field is tilted like the Titanic before it went down. There is no logical reason for so few to have so much. What do you think?

Tell Schultz, Bezos, Zuckerburg, Buffett, Gates, and Soros that they and their filthy billionaire money is no longer welcome in your sacred Democrat Party.

Tell those immoral bastards to GTFO of your pure party of the exploited and downtrodden.

Go ahead asshole, excommunicate all those incomprehensibly wealthy bastards from your tribe of moral purity.

Quit your blabbering and walk the walk that you talk so well.

 

[Bootney Lee Farnsworth]

ndirectly, by leveling the playing field. The fat cats have gamed the system. From the OP:

There is a raft of policies in place that help America crank out billionaires: lax antitrust laws and regulations; strong intellectual property protections; low tax rates; government-funded research. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (No. 2 on Forbes’ list in 2018) couldn’t have amassed a fortune, for example, without strict copyright and patent protections on his software, Steinbaum pointed out.

The late Steve Jobs, widely regarded as an absolute genius who deserved every last dollar, used a boatload of government-funded technology to help create his defining device, the iPhone. Google also benefited from government-funded research, argues Mariana Mazzucato in a piece in the Harvard Business Review.

“Over the years. U.S. taxpayers have been very good to Apple,” she writes, adding that in return, the Cupertino, California, computer maker and other tech companies have done everything they can to get out of paying taxes and paying it forward.

Most entrepreneurs like to argue that they’ve achieved great wealth in spite of the government, not with its help.

So, we arbitrarily decide that rich people have "gamed the system" and should lose all their wealth...redistributed to YOU???

Behold, theft by government.

.

 

[Lakhota]

You know what’s not cool anymore? Billionaires.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren believe some Americans have too much money, and they’re not alone.

Their very existence is now the subject of political debate, sparked most recently by tax-the-rich proposals from two prominent politicians.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposed placing a 2 percent tax on wealth over $50 million and 3 percent on assets over $1 billion. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she wants to increase the marginal tax rate on those earning more than $10 million a year.

Their ideas went viral, starting a mainstream conversation about inequality and wealth.

This kind of talk has always existed among a certain group of hard-core progressives and left-leaning economists, but heading into next year’s presidential election, the idea that the super-rich should pay their fair share is gaining real momentum.

Marshall Steinbaum, a research director at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, has advocated taxing the rich at higher rates for years. “We do not need billionaires,” Steinbaum told HuffPost. “The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past.”

For Steinbaum, higher taxes on the wealthy would mean freeing up more money for everyone else. If you think of the economy as a pie, right now, billionaires are getting just about all of it, while we’re all left splitting just one slice.

If you raise taxes on the richest, their incentive to grab at every morsel declines. The theory is they’ll fight a little less hard to depress everyone else’s wages if they know that every extra million is going to get taxed away. A high-paid CEO has less incentive to keep workers’ wages low so he can get a bigger payday.

Billionaires were once a rare breed. In the past few decades, as the U.S. has slashed tax rates, their numbers have exploded, far outpacing inflation.

Since 2008, the number of billionaires in the world has doubled, according to a report published last week by the anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam. In just the last year, billionaires raked in an astonishing $2.5 billion each day.

In 1982, the first year Forbes debuted its list of the 400 richest Americans, there were about a dozen billionaires. The richest man in the U.S. back then was an 85-year-old shipping magnate with an estimated worth of $2 billion, or $5.2 billion in today’s dollars.

"We do not need billionaires. The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past."
--Marshall Steinbaum, Roosevelt Institute​

Nowadays, Forbes’ list is entirely billionaires. The richest is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, worth $160 billion.

More: Should Billionaires Even Exist?

I agree! Billionaires aren't cool anymore! The playing field is tilted like the Titanic before it went down. There is no logical reason for so few to have so much. What do you think?

So, what you're really saying is, should we get government to confiscate and redistribute wealth from private individuals?

.

Indirectly, by leveling the playing field. The fat cats have gamed the system. From the OP:

There is a raft of policies in place that help America crank out billionaires: lax antitrust laws and regulations; strong intellectual property protections; low tax rates; government-funded research. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (No. 2 on Forbes’ list in 2018) couldn’t have amassed a fortune, for example, without strict copyright and patent protections on his software, Steinbaum pointed out.

The late Steve Jobs, widely regarded as an absolute genius who deserved every last dollar, used a boatload of government-funded technology to help create his defining device, the iPhone. Google also benefited from government-funded research, argues Mariana Mazzucato in a piece in the Harvard Business Review.

“Over the years. U.S. taxpayers have been very good to Apple,” she writes, adding that in return, the Cupertino, California, computer maker and other tech companies have done everything they can to get out of paying taxes and paying it forward.

Most entrepreneurs like to argue that they’ve achieved great wealth in spite of the government, not with its help.

Lakhota your identity as paid political propagandist working for the DNC is confirmed.

Do you ever post your own ideas on this forum?

No, you do not, that would be a breach of contract.

The OP affects everyone - regardless of party affiliation. It's not about politics - it's about social justice for everyone.

 

[deannalw]

Son of a bitch!

Fuck a nation evil enough to allow their citizens to be mega rich!

We wanna be like Venezuela!

WAH!

 

[Bootney Lee Farnsworth]

Person A is accused of robbing a bank for $100,000 cash.

Lakota, mad about the alleged (but not proven) injustice to the bank, demands that Person A pay $100,000 NOT to the bank, but to him.

This is Lakota's reasoning.

 

[Blackrook]

You know what’s not cool anymore? Billionaires.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren believe some Americans have too much money, and they’re not alone.

Their very existence is now the subject of political debate, sparked most recently by tax-the-rich proposals from two prominent politicians.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposed placing a 2 percent tax on wealth over $50 million and 3 percent on assets over $1 billion. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she wants to increase the marginal tax rate on those earning more than $10 million a year.

Their ideas went viral, starting a mainstream conversation about inequality and wealth.

This kind of talk has always existed among a certain group of hard-core progressives and left-leaning economists, but heading into next year’s presidential election, the idea that the super-rich should pay their fair share is gaining real momentum.

Marshall Steinbaum, a research director at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, has advocated taxing the rich at higher rates for years. “We do not need billionaires,” Steinbaum told HuffPost. “The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past.”

For Steinbaum, higher taxes on the wealthy would mean freeing up more money for everyone else. If you think of the economy as a pie, right now, billionaires are getting just about all of it, while we’re all left splitting just one slice.

If you raise taxes on the richest, their incentive to grab at every morsel declines. The theory is they’ll fight a little less hard to depress everyone else’s wages if they know that every extra million is going to get taxed away. A high-paid CEO has less incentive to keep workers’ wages low so he can get a bigger payday.

Billionaires were once a rare breed. In the past few decades, as the U.S. has slashed tax rates, their numbers have exploded, far outpacing inflation.

Since 2008, the number of billionaires in the world has doubled, according to a report published last week by the anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam. In just the last year, billionaires raked in an astonishing $2.5 billion each day.

In 1982, the first year Forbes debuted its list of the 400 richest Americans, there were about a dozen billionaires. The richest man in the U.S. back then was an 85-year-old shipping magnate with an estimated worth of $2 billion, or $5.2 billion in today’s dollars.

"We do not need billionaires. The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past."
--Marshall Steinbaum, Roosevelt Institute​

Nowadays, Forbes’ list is entirely billionaires. The richest is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, worth $160 billion.

More: Should Billionaires Even Exist?

I agree! Billionaires aren't cool anymore! The playing field is tilted like the Titanic before it went down. There is no logical reason for so few to have so much. What do you think?

So, what you're really saying is, should we get government to confiscate and redistribute wealth from private individuals?

.

Indirectly, by leveling the playing field. The fat cats have gamed the system. From the OP:

There is a raft of policies in place that help America crank out billionaires: lax antitrust laws and regulations; strong intellectual property protections; low tax rates; government-funded research. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (No. 2 on Forbes’ list in 2018) couldn’t have amassed a fortune, for example, without strict copyright and patent protections on his software, Steinbaum pointed out.

The late Steve Jobs, widely regarded as an absolute genius who deserved every last dollar, used a boatload of government-funded technology to help create his defining device, the iPhone. Google also benefited from government-funded research, argues Mariana Mazzucato in a piece in the Harvard Business Review.

“Over the years. U.S. taxpayers have been very good to Apple,” she writes, adding that in return, the Cupertino, California, computer maker and other tech companies have done everything they can to get out of paying taxes and paying it forward.

Most entrepreneurs like to argue that they’ve achieved great wealth in spite of the government, not with its help.

Lakhota your identity as paid political propagandist working for the DNC is confirmed.

Do you ever post your own ideas on this forum?

No, you do not, that would be a breach of contract.

The OP affects everyone - regardless of party affiliation. It's not about politics - it's about social justice for everyone.

You don't fool anyone. You're a Communist. If you could get away with it, you'd have me and everyone like me arrested, tortured, and shot.

 

[Bootney Lee Farnsworth]

The OP affects everyone - regardless of party affiliation. It's not about politics - it's about social justice for everyone.

That is a code word for MOTHERFUCKING COMMIE BASTARD.

Just so you know. Commie.

.

 

[OKTexas]

George Soros is a billionaire, why isn't he in the picture?

He helps keep the left wing hate site that wrote the article in business. They know who butters their bread.

.

 

[Blackrook]

This kind of talking is why Howard Schultz is running as an independent. I hope he screws the Democrats good.

 

[Oddball]

You know what’s not cool anymore? Billionaires.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren believe some Americans have too much money, and they’re not alone.

Their very existence is now the subject of political debate, sparked most recently by tax-the-rich proposals from two prominent politicians.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposed placing a 2 percent tax on wealth over $50 million and 3 percent on assets over $1 billion. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she wants to increase the marginal tax rate on those earning more than $10 million a year.

Their ideas went viral, starting a mainstream conversation about inequality and wealth.

This kind of talk has always existed among a certain group of hard-core progressives and left-leaning economists, but heading into next year’s presidential election, the idea that the super-rich should pay their fair share is gaining real momentum.

Marshall Steinbaum, a research director at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, has advocated taxing the rich at higher rates for years. “We do not need billionaires,” Steinbaum told HuffPost. “The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past.”

For Steinbaum, higher taxes on the wealthy would mean freeing up more money for everyone else. If you think of the economy as a pie, right now, billionaires are getting just about all of it, while we’re all left splitting just one slice.

If you raise taxes on the richest, their incentive to grab at every morsel declines. The theory is they’ll fight a little less hard to depress everyone else’s wages if they know that every extra million is going to get taxed away. A high-paid CEO has less incentive to keep workers’ wages low so he can get a bigger payday.

Billionaires were once a rare breed. In the past few decades, as the U.S. has slashed tax rates, their numbers have exploded, far outpacing inflation.

Since 2008, the number of billionaires in the world has doubled, according to a report published last week by the anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam. In just the last year, billionaires raked in an astonishing $2.5 billion each day.

In 1982, the first year Forbes debuted its list of the 400 richest Americans, there were about a dozen billionaires. The richest man in the U.S. back then was an 85-year-old shipping magnate with an estimated worth of $2 billion, or $5.2 billion in today’s dollars.

"We do not need billionaires. The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past."
--Marshall Steinbaum, Roosevelt Institute​

Nowadays, Forbes’ list is entirely billionaires. The richest is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, worth $160 billion.

More: Should Billionaires Even Exist?

I agree! Billionaires aren't cool anymore! The playing field is tilted like the Titanic before it went down. There is no logical reason for so few to have so much. What do you think?

So, what you're really saying is, should we get government to confiscate and redistribute wealth from private individuals?

.

Indirectly, by leveling the playing field. The fat cats have gamed the system. From the OP:

There is a raft of policies in place that help America crank out billionaires: lax antitrust laws and regulations; strong intellectual property protections; low tax rates; government-funded research. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (No. 2 on Forbes’ list in 2018) couldn’t have amassed a fortune, for example, without strict copyright and patent protections on his software, Steinbaum pointed out.

The late Steve Jobs, widely regarded as an absolute genius who deserved every last dollar, used a boatload of government-funded technology to help create his defining device, the iPhone. Google also benefited from government-funded research, argues Mariana Mazzucato in a piece in the Harvard Business Review.

“Over the years. U.S. taxpayers have been very good to Apple,” she writes, adding that in return, the Cupertino, California, computer maker and other tech companies have done everything they can to get out of paying taxes and paying it forward.

Most entrepreneurs like to argue that they’ve achieved great wealth in spite of the government, not with its help.

Lakhota your identity as paid political propagandist working for the DNC is confirmed.

Do you ever post your own ideas on this forum?

No, you do not, that would be a breach of contract.

The OP affects everyone - regardless of party affiliation. It's not about politics - it's about social justice for everyone.

Your OP is too stupid an hypocritical for words.

Go loot the men depicted in your idiotic OP first....They have all the cash...They won't miss it...Right?

 

[Mousterian]

The plan is to tax people with an income above $10million at a rate of 70%.
The top marginal tax rate has been at least 70%, (and up to 90%) for most of the 20th century.
In the Golden Age, when America really was great, the wealthy paid 90%-94%. 1946-1963.

 

[Lakhota]

Does anyone believe that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos should be worth $160 billion?

That's 160,000 million.

 

[deannalw]

You know what’s not cool anymore? Billionaires.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren believe some Americans have too much money, and they’re not alone.

Their very existence is now the subject of political debate, sparked most recently by tax-the-rich proposals from two prominent politicians.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposed placing a 2 percent tax on wealth over $50 million and 3 percent on assets over $1 billion. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she wants to increase the marginal tax rate on those earning more than $10 million a year.

Their ideas went viral, starting a mainstream conversation about inequality and wealth.

This kind of talk has always existed among a certain group of hard-core progressives and left-leaning economists, but heading into next year’s presidential election, the idea that the super-rich should pay their fair share is gaining real momentum.

Marshall Steinbaum, a research director at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, has advocated taxing the rich at higher rates for years. “We do not need billionaires,” Steinbaum told HuffPost. “The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past.”

For Steinbaum, higher taxes on the wealthy would mean freeing up more money for everyone else. If you think of the economy as a pie, right now, billionaires are getting just about all of it, while we’re all left splitting just one slice.

If you raise taxes on the richest, their incentive to grab at every morsel declines. The theory is they’ll fight a little less hard to depress everyone else’s wages if they know that every extra million is going to get taxed away. A high-paid CEO has less incentive to keep workers’ wages low so he can get a bigger payday.

Billionaires were once a rare breed. In the past few decades, as the U.S. has slashed tax rates, their numbers have exploded, far outpacing inflation.

Since 2008, the number of billionaires in the world has doubled, according to a report published last week by the anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam. In just the last year, billionaires raked in an astonishing $2.5 billion each day.

In 1982, the first year Forbes debuted its list of the 400 richest Americans, there were about a dozen billionaires. The richest man in the U.S. back then was an 85-year-old shipping magnate with an estimated worth of $2 billion, or $5.2 billion in today’s dollars.

"We do not need billionaires. The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past."
--Marshall Steinbaum, Roosevelt Institute​

Nowadays, Forbes’ list is entirely billionaires. The richest is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, worth $160 billion.

More: Should Billionaires Even Exist?

I agree! Billionaires aren't cool anymore! The playing field is tilted like the Titanic before it went down. There is no logical reason for so few to have so much. What do you think?

So, what you're really saying is, should we get government to confiscate and redistribute wealth from private individuals?

.

Indirectly, by leveling the playing field. The fat cats have gamed the system. From the OP:

There is a raft of policies in place that help America crank out billionaires: lax antitrust laws and regulations; strong intellectual property protections; low tax rates; government-funded research. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (No. 2 on Forbes’ list in 2018) couldn’t have amassed a fortune, for example, without strict copyright and patent protections on his software, Steinbaum pointed out.

The late Steve Jobs, widely regarded as an absolute genius who deserved every last dollar, used a boatload of government-funded technology to help create his defining device, the iPhone. Google also benefited from government-funded research, argues Mariana Mazzucato in a piece in the Harvard Business Review.

“Over the years. U.S. taxpayers have been very good to Apple,” she writes, adding that in return, the Cupertino, California, computer maker and other tech companies have done everything they can to get out of paying taxes and paying it forward.

Most entrepreneurs like to argue that they’ve achieved great wealth in spite of the government, not with its help.

Lakhota your identity as paid political propagandist working for the DNC is confirmed.

Do you ever post your own ideas on this forum?

No, you do not, that would be a breach of contract.

The OP affects everyone - regardless of party affiliation. It's not about politics - it's about social justice for everyone.

You don't fool anyone. You're a Communist. If you could get away with it, you'd have me and everyone like me arrested, tortured, and shot.

Not till he got your wallet.

 

[deannalw]

Does anyone believe that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos should be worth $160 billion?

That's 160,000 million.

Yup.

God bless America!

 

[Lakhota]

The plan is to tax people with an income above $10million at a rate of 70%.
The top marginal tax rate has been at least 70%, (and up to 90%) for most of the 20th century.
In the Golden Age, when America really was great, the wealthy paid 90%-94%. 1946-1963.

Thank you.

 

[Bootney Lee Farnsworth]

Does anyone believe that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos should be worth $160 billion?

That's 160,000 million.

Whether we think he should be is irrelevant. He is. It appears to be just, based no the market and WILD success of his company, Amazon.

But, I get it.

Envy is a leftist virtue.

You want to steal from him because you are a sad, jealous piece of motherfucking shit.

GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY COUNTRY YOU COMMIE BASTARD!!!

 

[Auld Phart]

Does anyone believe that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos should be worth $160 billion?

That's 160,000 million.

Naw

He should have donated his time and energy, and not asked for a salary, or a paycheck.

 

[Yarddog]

You know what’s not cool anymore? Billionaires.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren believe some Americans have too much money, and they’re not alone.

Their very existence is now the subject of political debate, sparked most recently by tax-the-rich proposals from two prominent politicians.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposed placing a 2 percent tax on wealth over $50 million and 3 percent on assets over $1 billion. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she wants to increase the marginal tax rate on those earning more than $10 million a year.

Their ideas went viral, starting a mainstream conversation about inequality and wealth.

This kind of talk has always existed among a certain group of hard-core progressives and left-leaning economists, but heading into next year’s presidential election, the idea that the super-rich should pay their fair share is gaining real momentum.

Marshall Steinbaum, a research director at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, has advocated taxing the rich at higher rates for years. “We do not need billionaires,” Steinbaum told HuffPost. “The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past.”

For Steinbaum, higher taxes on the wealthy would mean freeing up more money for everyone else. If you think of the economy as a pie, right now, billionaires are getting just about all of it, while we’re all left splitting just one slice.

If you raise taxes on the richest, their incentive to grab at every morsel declines. The theory is they’ll fight a little less hard to depress everyone else’s wages if they know that every extra million is going to get taxed away. A high-paid CEO has less incentive to keep workers’ wages low so he can get a bigger payday.

Billionaires were once a rare breed. In the past few decades, as the U.S. has slashed tax rates, their numbers have exploded, far outpacing inflation.

Since 2008, the number of billionaires in the world has doubled, according to a report published last week by the anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam. In just the last year, billionaires raked in an astonishing $2.5 billion each day.

In 1982, the first year Forbes debuted its list of the 400 richest Americans, there were about a dozen billionaires. The richest man in the U.S. back then was an 85-year-old shipping magnate with an estimated worth of $2 billion, or $5.2 billion in today’s dollars.

"We do not need billionaires. The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past."
--Marshall Steinbaum, Roosevelt Institute​

Nowadays, Forbes’ list is entirely billionaires. The richest is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, worth $160 billion.

More: Should Billionaires Even Exist?

I agree! Billionaires aren't cool anymore! The playing field is tilted like the Titanic before it went down. There is no logical reason for so few to have so much. What do you think?

You know what? the number of millionaires has also been increasing..... Which probably means the economy is doing good. I'm also sure every day there are new millionaires who happen to be people of color as well. So confronted with this problem of the economy doing well, Democrats have to turn it on its head and make it into a bad thing.
If you want to get rid of the billionaires, then your also going to at the same time hurt other up and coming rich people and your going to prevent other people who are leaving poverty from achieving wealth and a better life.

This is a stupid thread. Are you seriously a Marxist?
There is no logical reason for so few to have so much. What do you think?[/QUOTE]

Marxists/ Communists .. have always felt this way. They go after people they consider to have to much and look what they create..... death, destruction, and ruined societies. Yet , they feel they need to be the ones in control, telling others who has too much, and how much is too much. They tend to be hateful, petty, childish and greedy, vindictive people without a sense of humor on top of it all

So should billionaires exist? yes of course. If someone starts a business that is successful and they can create jobs, leave them alone unless they are breaking laws.

 

[Oddball]

The plan is to tax people with an income above $10million at a rate of 70%.
The top marginal tax rate has been at least 70%, (and up to 90%) for most of the 20th century.
In the Golden Age, when America really was great, the wealthy paid 90%-94%. 1946-1963.

Almost nobody paid that rate, moron.

Beside that, Murica had the only functioning modern industrial economy on the planet during that time period.