Not that I’m particularly against that - quite the opposite, in fact. But I’m wondering if anyone sees, or had seen a path to social and climate recovery/progress that could occur without first eradicating the class of people who most enjoy the present status quo.
All it is necessary to do is to abolish all other forms of taxation until the weight of taxation rests upon the value of land irrespective of improvements, and take the ground-rent for the public benefit.
~ Henry George, Social ProblemsYes, you’re supposed to eat them too. This helps reduce world hunger.
In all seriousness, we’ve dealt with this problem before. We had a time we call the era of the robber barons if you want to read a little about it.
Make it illegal to even have that much money, since literally no one needs that much, and take it from them. No idea what that would look like though. Whatever theoretically is done their wealth should be redistributed to the people that made it for them. Workers need to own the means of production.
Tax all billionaires more?
The problem isn’t the exact rate, it is their ability to pay for tax experts so they can avoid having most of their wealth taxed at all. This is why Biden wanted to beef up the IRS and sic them on billionaires. Scrutinize the cracks they slip through.
That’s part of the problem; but, increasing tax rates (income, capital gains, depreciation recapture, 1031 exchanges etc) is needed even more than enforcement of existing. You’d be surprised how much of what the rich do to reduce their tax burden is perfectly legal and IRS enforcement would just be an annoyance.
Demand money be removed from politics and follow through to make it happen. Make laws that no longer favor the rich.
It’ll never happen, but it’s what it would take.
Think globally act locally y’all
I’ll add that we can now remove the tax exempt status for religious organizations. Only problem is it puts more money in the hands of the government so they mismanage that as well.
I wish we could get full transparency of where literally every dollar is spent. We shouldn’t have to ask for that.
I mean, take all their money so that they’re no longer billionaires.
I think it’s possible they might have an opinion on that subject, perhaps loosely phrased as “over my dead body”
Well, then they’ll have consented, then. Ethical conundrum solved!
THE TEST IS OVER
The problem with some of them is that they can do whatever they want for just a little more money and they do it all the time, thats why regulation is a must if the people is what matters, CMV
Well, there may be a solution, but it does involve eugenics and wars about those eugenics and we’ll have to wait another 40 years for things to actually start to get better, but then we get to boldly go places. Also Irish reunification.
Tiocfaidh ár lá
This post is as bad as the stuff on exploding heads. I have an idea, let’s not plan on murdering people based on their gender, class, race, or any other circumstance.
So what you’re saying is, you believe there is a solution?
Can your share a general outline, at least?
No, I haven’t thought about actively preventing the mass murder of people who have more than me.
This nihilistic worldview, expressed by you and the others commenting and downvoting me will kill more than the 1 percenters.
It’s not people who have more than you, it’s people who have more than everyone else combined! At one point (not sure of current numbers) SEVEN people had more wealth between tham than the poorest fifty percent.
That’s 7 people vs 350 000 000 000 people.
Are any of those seven people really more than fifty billion times more valuable than a homeless child in Delhi?
So we should kill them?
But to answer your question, of course they are not intrinsically more valuable than any other human. Their lives are worth exactly the same as any others. They’re the same as those fighting in Ukraine. They’re the same as the migrants that died on that ship trying to get to a better life.
This question is flawed. We should be looking at how best to raise the standard of living across the world.
Tax them into millionaires.
Nice try CIA/FBI
We’re not having the CIA do it for you you coward
Raise taxes on people making billions of dollars a year. Redo the tax code to make it impossible for them to avoid paying a fair share.
Also while were at it, I’d be in favor of a maximum allowed compensation (for hot shots) based off the salary of rank and file employees.
Raise taxes on people making billions of dollars a year.
I believe higher taxation on the wealthy is necessary, but how do we actually implement that?
Our tax code is base upon “realized gains”. Most of these billionaires aren’t actually getting deposits into their checking accounts for a billion dollars a year. Most their wealth and their gains come in the value of their assets increasing (stock is one example of an asset). The tax code does tax them when they sell the stock to get money to deposit in their checking accounts, and the billionaires do that, but just not with very much money. Certainly nothing even close to a billion dollars in a single year.
So how do you tax them? Do you tax them on the value of their assets? If the value of their assets goes down, do you give the tax money back? All of these questions and more would need to be answered for a coherent tax code that could be enforced. I don’t have the answers, but I’m very open to those that do.
When I get stock from work, I have to pay tax on the value at the time as if it was just regular cash coming in (even if i don’t immediately sell). It gets added into my W2. It’s really annoying since it leads to a bigger tax bill come tax season … why doesn’t that happen for them?
While I know this is silly and would never work, I can’t help but fantasize about giving anyone that makes a billion dollars a beautiful fancy trophy…
And then forbid them from making a dollar more until they spend it all.
Yes, and it’s simple and effective - Tax them and limit the huge transfers of intergenerational wealth. When the US had a robust taxation system with high marginal rates for the highest income levels, we also had the strongest and most robust middle class. It powered the “American Dream.” Having individuals hoard billions of dollars and build familial dynasties isn’t good for society as a whole.
In my opinion, it all begins with ending the system of legalized political bribery, getting dark money out of politics, and making politicians accountable to citizens again.Japan solved the overpaid corporate culture nonsense. Australia has the most wealth equality, without the parasitic billionaire problem. The solutions have existed for a long time.
The real issue in the USA is the lack of effective legislation. There is no political accountability. This is all due to a two party system. All it takes to fix the USA is outlawing gerrymandering, rejecting the electoral college, and institute tiered voting where everyone votes for the candidates based upon their preferred priority order. Popular votes is the only Democratic method. Representative republics are a corruption of democracy that was a necessity with the travel and communication limitations of 300 years ago but not now. Voting for candidates by priority would make party affiliation nearly meaningless and force accountability and substance because the difference between candidates would drastically decrease. It would eliminate the polarized nonsense that all the billionaires want. It isn’t about the ridiculous nonsense, it is about ensuring very little productive legislation is possible. No laws means do anything you want. The US has a tenth of the laws and protections of any other western country.
You don’t have to eradicate all of them, just each year have the richest person in the world executed. Only one. Watch all these billionaires race to give their money away and put it into philanthropic endeavours.
Of course, if any of them are found to be evading or hiding the true extent of their wealth, execution. And money invested in their own organisations/businesses would also of course be counted as theirs.
