'They can survive just fine'

[orthoclad]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/02/bernie-sanders-interview-chris-wallace-tax-rich

“Are you basically saying that once you get to $999m that the government should confiscate all the rest?” Matthews asked the US senator from Vermont, who is an independent but caucuses with Democrats and has helped them attain their current slim majority in the upper congressional chamber.
“Yeah,” Sanders replied. “You may disagree with me but, fine, I think people can make it on $999m. I think that they can survive just fine.”
Wallace had earlier mentioned how the late Sam Walton could make the giant retail chain Walmart the largest single private employer in the US thanks to his family’s net worth of about $225bn. Sanders countered that Walmart in many cases pays starvation wages to its 1.2 million employees despite how rich the Waltons are.
“Many of their workers are on Medicaid or food stamps,” Sanders said, referring to forms of government assistance for which low-income Americans can qualify. “In other words, taxpayers are subsidizing the wealthiest family in the country. Do I think that’s right? No, I don’t.”

Walmart is a good example of the damage megacorps do to the US. Jobs there were not "created"; Walmart replaced tons of local stores and small businesses with starvation-wage big box stores. Same with Amazon. Amazon does not create jobs, it replaces jobs, with working conditions that require people to pee in bottles because they don't have time for bathroom breaks. Meanwhile, the people at the head of these corps get to play with space-dildo tourism, and buying judges and politicians.

Demand for goods and services creates jobs. Capitalists just steal labor.

A belated May Day post. Happy International Labor Day!

[Warpy]

1. Funny how those billionaires never stop hearing the wolf at the door

or maybe it's just the sound of their dicks getting smaller when they find out some other billionaire has more billions than they do.

Yeah, taxes should be confiscatory at that level. Let them boast about how much they paid to support the country.

Democrats need to submit a budget bill reversing TFG's tax giveaway to his billionaire class as a counter to their vicious spending cuts. They need to let people see the difference between the parties.

Every dollar spent at the bottom has a multiplier effect as labor as added to it on its way through the economy. Every million lavished on the very top does nothing, it's largely removed from the economy except as inflationary pressure on things like the stock market.

[orthoclad]

2. I don't think of it as confiscatory

I think of it as reclaiming stolen labor.

[AZ8theist]

9. REPEAL AND REPLACE THE TRUMP TAX SCAM

I've been saying that for years now......

I used to get a refund in April. Now I have to pay. Same salary. It all changed after Trumps tax scam was enacted.

[multigraincracker]

3. Cocain and money.

More is never enough. Addictions are an illness.

[orthoclad]

4. True

[Beastly Boy]

5. A charming sentiment, but I don't understand the logic behind it.

By analogy, should the government confiscate the royalties to It’s OK to be Angry about Capitalism because the book's author can make it on his compensation as a US Senator?

[orthoclad]

6. No. Massive wealth is stolen labor.

[Beastly Boy]

7. My objection is to the government's right to confiscate the money.

Chances are overwhelming against its ability to use it to compensate the victims of stolen labor, regardless of how you define it.

Wouldn't it be more equitable to punish the perpetrators for each specific instance of stolen labor? This way at least the theft of labor as an offense can be defined in legal terms.

[BWdem4life]

8. The government has always been able to confiscate money, throughout history.

Render to Caesar what is Caesar's.

[dchill]

13. Because only the billionaire class...

... should be able to confiscate money.

[Beastly Boy]

14. Did I say that?

I don't recall commenting on the billionaire class at all. Nevertheless, the merits of your sarcasm escape me as well. How does it offer a justification to what Bernie is proposing?

I am assuming that you are against the institutions or the persons who have it in their power to confiscate money. I am too. I do not exempt government from this list. Can you explain how the government confiscating money is any more ethical than the billionaire class confiscating money? That's the part of Bernie's sentiment that I don't get.

[dchill]

15. I think it's hilarious that you think -

- just like rich conservative - that the government "confiscates" money. Tax rates are a known thing. Rich people rake in the money, but don't want to pay the taxes. THEY'RE in the wrong, not the government.

[Beastly Boy]

16. I think it's hilarious that Bernie is saying that.

“Are you basically saying that once you get to $999m that the government should confiscate all the rest?” Matthews asked the US senator from Vermont, who is an independent but caucuses with Democrats and has helped them attain their current slim majority in the upper congressional chamber.
“Yeah,” Sanders replied. “You may disagree with me but, fine, I think people can make it on $999m. I think that they can survive just fine.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/02/bernie-sanders-interview-chris-wallace-tax-rich

To me, it doesn't make sense, actually.

[dchill]

17. Okay. It does make sense to me.

[Beastly Boy]

18. Then I don't understand why you find it hilarious

when someone other than Bernie appears to you to be saying exactly the same thing.

[dchill]

19. You're not.

[Beastly Boy]

20. ??? Context, please?

[IbogaProject]

10. Money has two conflicting uses

Money can be a store of value or a medium of exchange. In reality it needs to do a balance of both. The need for high taxes on the wealthy doesn't need to be for redistribution as much as getting the money to flow through the economy better. The most rich don't spend their money very fast at all and this presents a drag on economic activity. As we've seen when the minimum wage goes up so does economic activity. When we've cut the upper tax rates over the last 40 years, each time the economy has slowed or contracted. The stupid tax breaks that Private Equity and Hedge funds plus the tax code favoring leveraged buy outs and corporate share repurchases slow our economy and makes our economic relations unequal. How can a small landlord having to pay taxes compete against private equity reinvesting without annual tax bills on their 'carried interest'? They can't. Here in NYC, NYU, Columbia U, The Catholic Church and Trinity Church are the 4 biggest landlords, the next tier are all using tax dodges to try and compete w the not taxed institutions. It is a race to the bottom. Our city is the most segregated inn the entire nation. A small landlord can't compete and that plus the FICA payroll taxes it is a one two punch against anyone digging put of the lower economic half.

[Joinfortmill]

11. True. It's an obscenity.

[Shipwack]

12. During the '50s the top tax tier was 90%...

I say we play it smart; we demand 100%, compromise on "only" 90%.

[orthoclad]

21. There weren't any billionaires then

The concentration of wealth, and the wealth disparity, is hitting historic highs.

Use the obscene income to pay for the food stamps for their workers.