• ccunning@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    If the billionaires are upset it’s a good sign you’re doing something right.

    • kautau@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Exactly. Most policies are in billionaire’s favors, since they fund lobbying groups and super pacs. They mostly stay quiet about everything because they’re getting their way behind the scenes. If they’re complaining outright, it’s an absolute win for everyone else

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Or, as is often the case with Biden, promising to do something right with the odds of actually going through with it being slim 🤷

      • Spiralvortexisalie@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Yeah feels like every weekend he has promised to make Israel cease-fire by Monday since “Genociding with Biden” became a meme and somehow hes never been called out on that huge glaring lie, in fact I am often told to quiet if I bring it up.

  • Kalysta@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Crying billionaires are a sign of society healing.

    A healthy society has zero billionaires.

    Let’s go further with these taxes.

      • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        The guillotine was mostly used after the revolution, to kill political opponents of the ruling party that took over. More of an animal farm type deal than a revolution.

    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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      8 months ago

      The rule against advocating violence that removed this post kind of makes sense, from a CYA perspective, but also feels like it’s endorsing violence against everyone else.

  • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    It’s nuts for them to rail against this because when Biden said 25% minimum, I was like, “that’s it‽”

    I get taxed at 25% already and I’m making $125k.

    25% is nowhere near enough. Anyone making over 400k individually should be taxed closer to 50%.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      there should be a 100% tax for anyone who has a billion dollars or more.

      That level of wealth is not compatible with existing in a society.

      • Zink@programming.dev
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        8 months ago

        I think the biggest problem isn’t the tax rate, but the fact that the billionaire class can circumvent the tax system entirely.

        Own billions of dollars in stock, don’t ever sell any, don’t pay any taxes on that growth. Maybe some dividends get taxed or something.

        Need pocket money though. Take out a loan for $100 million using a little bit of your stock as collateral. You don’t get taxed on taking out debt.

        • Furbag@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          People don’t realize that billionaires don’t have their billions sitting in a bank account somewhere like you or I might have our own life savings tucked away in a savings account. That would be foolish of them, obviously, the FDIC won’t insure them past a certain point, so a bank failure could cause them to lose everything.

          Every single billionaire is only a billionaire “on paper”. It’s the sum total of all their assets, both liquid and non-liquid (like stocks, but also properties, etc.). They leverage their assets as collateral for a loan, and then use that loan to buy the stuff they want or just use it to make more investments. They leverage debt in a way that we can’t even begin to fathom.

          It’s mad, but I can see the conundrum. How do you tax assets that aren’t worth anything until sold? Can you compel them to sell their assets to settle a tax bill? How do you go after rich folk who use loans to circumvent generating income through the sale of their assets without also harming regular people who need to take out loans to buy things like cars and houses?

          Rich people have gotten too good at playing the system and we seriously need to look at how we can fix things before it’s too late. Right now, the wealthy have unprecedented control over the government, but it’s still not an oligarchy yet. There’s still time, though. Someone out there has to have a solution.

          • Bob Robertson IX @discuss.tchncs.de
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            8 months ago

            How do you tax assets that aren’t worth anything until sold?

            I have to pay property taxes on my home and car each year. These are assets that I’m not selling, yet I’m still being taxed on their value. It’s amazing that they’ve figured out a way to do it for the working class but not for the ruling class.

          • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Easy, tax net worth. Tax the value of all assets owned by an individual, trust, or corporation only in excess of some large number. Perhaps exceeding 5x the median net worth.

            And only then might a corporation get tax incentives based on the number of people they employ. Because let’s be fair here, office buildings are really expensive and we don’t want to disincentivize company growth and job creation.

            • n3m37h@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              8 months ago

              Just appropriate the assets for the people. Imagine what would happen if all that income came in to your government instead of a single asshole.

        • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          What really pisses me off is liberals yelling “TAX THE RICH!!” and when you propose a wealth tax they start screaming about how unsold stocks aren’t wealth and isnt money but wait someone who has lots of stock is the richest man in the world…

          Here’s a radical idea: seize stocks and redistribute them among the citizenry. Eveyone is a stockholder! Now, who are the wealthiest?

          Edit: and there it is right below me

        • BeautifulMind ♾️@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I think the biggest problem isn’t the tax rate, but the fact that the billionaire class can circumvent the tax system entirely

          That’s only possible because they’re allowed to buy influence in the system to make it allow for that. In reality, the other threats (they’ll take their wealth to other countries and leave us poor) are bluffing; most of their wealth isn’t portable. Also in reality, most of the policies they demand (and get) aren’t democratically popular, they’re only viable because they spend so much collective money on propaganda and think tanks to get people thinking the money will trickle down or that without them as ‘job creators’ all will be spoiled or lost.

          It’s bullshit, and it only works because we let it work. Apparently we need to move in hundred-year cycles between letting the titans of industry squeeze everyone dry before we remember to assert public power to prevent that

      • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Taxing the rich is great and all, but it still doesn’t solve the issue of gov spending being completely and utterly shit. We spend more on healthcare per individual than any other nation on the planet. We don’t even need to tax the rich right now and we could have single payer. The idea that taxing the rich is needed to pay for services and safety nets is silly. We’re the wealthiest nation on the planet, we can already afford all of the things our citizens need, we just have a gov who doesn’t know how to properly spend the money it already has.

        • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Oh, its you again.

          Showing up yet again to reply to imaginary comments instead of the topic at hand.

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
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          8 months ago

          You mean like the price caps on medication so Medicare can save the government money? Or like the increase in IRS funding so they can focus on the previously “too difficult” task of navigating the web of interactions the wealthy use to avoid paying the taxes they already owe?

          They’re trying that too, but it’s not just about taking money from the ultra rich just for our healthcare, it’s like others have stated: it’s about fairness to all. 25% of a billion doesn’t mean the same to them as ~25% of ~60k means to us. Yeah it’s a much larger dollar amount, but they aren’t nearly as affected as we are from what we currently pay and we still do it and are ok with it.

          • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I’m talking about using the money we already have for medical care, we don’t have to increase taxes on anyone, we’re already able to provide healthcare for everyone. Trying to tax the rich is a whole other deal.

        • eclipse@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Raising tax revenue and funding some variation of single payer health care or socialised medicine are not mutually exclusive.

    • Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone
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      8 months ago

      Huh, in Australia you would be taxed 37 percent and anything over $180k is 45%

      So I’m sure closer to 50% coulr come down

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        8 months ago

        The US has a similar graduated system (32% for incomes over $192k for single fillers, plus whatever your state income tax is), but billionaires have access to a lot of loopholes that prevent their wealth from being counted that way.

    • yeehaw@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Where I’m at it’s like anything over 95k is close to 50%. 25? Must be nice.

      • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It is in most places outside the US. But it is still the same problem: regardless how high the official rate is, there are way to many loopholes to avoid paying them. It does not help if the tax rate is 80, 90, or even 99% if they get around paying it altogether.

    • Furedadmins@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      400k is rich in some areas but certainly not everywhere, that’s way too sharp of a curve. Someone making 400k is already taxed at 35% federally plus whatever state and local so probably close to 50. The real issue is that after 500k the rates don’t change where it should be increasing logarithmically. But really after a certain point there are way too many things that the rich do to reduce their tax burden that just aren’t available to everyone else, that 100k or 400k person is in reality paying a much higher percentage than someone making a million a year much less billionaires.

  • SarcasticMan@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Don’t like it? Fuck you. Your greed is unconscionable and your hoarding of wealth is amoral and disgusting. In conclusion, fuck you.

  • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Billionaires can suck my dick and fuck right off into the sun. This shit has GOT to fucking stop! 100% tax on anything over $200M, and I am being real generous with that.

  • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 months ago

    “I don’t agree with the idea of just singling out people because of how much they have or don’t have,”

    That’s literally how income tax works, you ignorant slut.

    • derf82@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      The ones being singled out are poor people and the middle class. The rich get preferential rates, deductions that only apply to them, the ability to have armies of accountants and lawyers to limit their liability, and are far less likely to be audited.

      It SHOULD be that all income within different brackets should be taxed the same. The rich only pay more because they have more. We all should be taxed 50% on income over $500,000, it’s just that most of us don’t have any income over that.

    • Patches@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      He best start believing in being singled out to pay more taxes because the alternative is being singled out to have his head cut off.

      The old old money knew this. Why do the nuveau rich not?

    • Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I wonder if he feels the same about healthcare, housing, food, and clean water. Regardless of how much shit he has, he can live in the same apartment with the same public water and food deserts and a doctor that isn’t on his personal staff.

  • htrayl@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    You have to leave incentives for people who are the ones who are going to create the jobs for all those people trying to climb the ladder.

    Oh my god, FUCK OFF

    • Fades@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      b-b-but, nobody will want to do good work if they don’t have the extremely weak opportunity to enrich themselves by taking advantage of other’s labor!!!

    • iAmTheTot@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      Granted, I only skimmed the tweet articles, but I didn’t see any names shared between them.

      It’s almost like one subset of billionaires say one thing and that another subset said another thing.

  • spider@lemmy.nz
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    8 months ago

    “You’re trying to take away the incentives for people to work hard,” [Catsimatidis] said.

    The working class is referred to as such for a reason.

    He should stop pretending to be one of them.

    • matlag@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      Let’s be real: who would work hard to make ONLY millions instead of billions? Most people would obviously rather stay poor.

    • eskimofry@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Also, said billionaire should stop gaslighting everyone. Most people I know will try to find better work if their basic needs are fulfilled. Nobody except a billionaire wants hand outs.

      • spider@lemmy.nz
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        8 months ago

        Nobody except a billionaire wants hand outs.

        …and gets them, usually on demand.

  • pastabatman@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Biden claimed in his State of the Union address that the 25 percent minimum tax on the ultra-rich will raise $500 billion over 10 years. “Imagine what that could do for America,” he said.

    Maybe I’m not good at comprehending numbers at this scale but does this seem kind of low to anyone else? I mean, that’s a lot of money in absolute terms but the government spent $6.3 trillion in FY 2023 alone.

    We should still do it obviously. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good and all that.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      No, it sounds correct. Taxing billionaires’ income is fine, but the real money would come from actually taxing corporations more.

      See, they only have income in certain circumstances, so the amount raised from an income tax would not be very high. You can raise corporate taxes by a little bit and get much more.

      That way the income is taxed before it gets to anyone. It doesn’t matter if they have a billion dollars. Plus it encourages investment in the company (wages, new products, better quality, etc.) because business costs are tax write-offs.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I’m surprised it’s that high. The reason their effective rate goes down, is getting money by ways that are either special cases in the tax code or aren’t “income”. Until you fix those, wealthy people will still have the lowest tax rate.

      …although apparently the tax rate for long term capital gains is already 20% for the wealthy. I didn’t know that

    • Hapankaali@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      $500 billion is a sizable chunk of that $6.3 trillion, and it’s still only a 25% tax rate, and then only the “ultra-rich.”

      If one considers something more reasonable, like a 70% tax of income over $100,000, then you’re talking about more substantial amounts to really start catching up to top economies.

      • Kbobabob@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        500 billion over 10 years is not a sizeable chunk of a single year total.

        They spend more than that a year on “defense”.

    • AbsentBird@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      I don’t get the desire to violently dispose of billionaires; it’s a status defined by wealth, we just gotta take their money and they stop being billionaires. Problem solved, right?

      • cheesepotatoes@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Well there is the issue that to become a billionaire one must exploit and abuse tens, hundreds, thousands of people? Not to mention second order effects from their actions like bankrolling politicians that strip workers rights or safety standards for example, which impacts millions of people. Some people want to see some justice I suppose.

        • AbsentBird@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          Some people just inherit it. Still unjust, and should be taken away, but is it worth killing over? There’s bad people at every level of wealth, I don’t see how slaughtering the wealthy makes any more sense than the death penalty for anyone else. We need to take away their money and help them to be better people. Recovery from the disease of greed is possible and necessary.

  • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    Apparently it’s not just Billionaires who hate this, but also Russian trolls pretending to be leftists. Who would have guessed the two would be allied?!