AOC Calls on Cuomo to Pass Wealth Tax on Billionaires (New York: sales, how much)
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"Stephen Colbert : I HAVE TO GET INTO ONE POLICY ISSUE WITH YOU HERE
IS THAT YOU HAVE PROPOSED A 70% TAX ON RICH FOLKS.
-- I'M JUST CURIOUS, HOW WOULD THAT WORK?
WHAT IF SOME OF THE MONEY IS IN
THE CAYMAN ISLANDS?
HOW WOULD THAT WORK?
Ocasio-Cortez: IT'S NOT ON ALL OF YOUR INCOME, IT'S ON YOUR TEN MILLIONTH AND ONE DOLLAR,
YOUR DOLLARS AFTER 10 MILLION, YOUR DOLLARS ARE TAXED AT AN INCREASED RATE.
IT'S THE TAX RATE INTERPRETATION, TO ANSWER TO THE QUESTION OF
-AT WHAT LEVEL ARE WE REALLY JUST LIVING IN EXCESS AND WHAT KIND
OF SOCIETY DO WE WANT TO LIVE IN, AND DO WE WANT TO LIVE IN A
CITY -- WHERE BILLIONAIRES HAVE THEIR OWN PERSONAL UBER HELIPADS?
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to impose a tax on the state’s billionaires that would then be used to help people financially impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Fox Business Network.
AOC is part of the “Fund Excluded Workers” movement that is advocating for legislation that would tax New York’s 118 billionaires, who are worth an estimated $566.4 billion.
The proposed bill, sponsored by Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Queens, would tax the unrealized capital gains of the state’s billionaires. The wealth tax would raise about $5.5 billion in revenue, which would go toward workers not eligible for unemployment benefits or federal relief measures.
"We need you to pass a billionaire's tax, in order to make sure that we're providing for our working families,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a video released by the group on Thursday. “It's time to stop protecting billionaires, and it's time to start working for working families.”
In addition to Ocasio-Cortez and Ramos, two Assembly members, Carmen De La Rosa and Yuh-Line Niou, along with New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams are pressuring Cuomo to put the wealth tax in place.
Gov. Cuomo has historically opposed taxing the wealthy, even though he is a Democrat. He has previously argued that taxes that target the wealthy could drive them out of the state, according to Fox.
The wealth tax would help about 1.2 million New Yorkers who were not eligible to receive any aid under the CARES Act, according to a report by the Fiscal Policy Institute. Of the people excluded from the federal funding, about 801,000 are undocumented immigrants, according to the report.
The state legislature is scheduled to meet for a summer session on Monday. Since the month began, more than 178 bills have been introduced or amended.
The wealth tax likely will face opposition even with Democrats in control.
Cuomo’s budget director Robert Mujica told The New York Times that New York already has one of the highest tax rates for the rich in the country.
Last edited by jonbenson; 07-19-2020 at 11:46 AM..
I don't think that's fair. People work hard to earn their money.
While I do agree, after you get so much money. How much more do you need? And while I do think people should donate to causes with access money or (time if you don't have the money). It should be up to the individual.
A 70% tax on earnings over $10M? Hey, why not a 100% tax? Why should higher-income people keep ANY of their earnings above certain point? [this, of course, was sarcasm].
I am not joking, this is a true story: on one occasion in the past when I was defending on this forum the right of higher-income people to actually keep their hard-earned money (the subject weren't businesses grossing more than $10M, but doctors grossing $350k), I got a private message from some entitled moron woman telling me in effect that higher-earning people work hard because they enjoy working hard, and there is no reason for them to be paid more for harder work while people who don't enjoy working have to be poor. Unreal.
If hard work pays, show me a rich donkey. Life is far more complex than simply working hard..
We aren't talking about life and if its simple or complex. We are talking about earring money and being taxed.
No one says hard work pays a lot or not. But people who earn millions and billions work hard for they money the same way, I work hard for my peanuts I make. Just because someone makes a lot or a little doesn't mean they didnt work for it.
Sounds like someones angry they don't make more than they do at their job. Just remember we all make choices in life.
Last edited by 90sSitcom; 07-19-2020 at 02:25 PM..
If hard work pays, show me a rich donkey. Life is far more complex than simply working hard..
Depends what you call "hard work". One person works 9-5 flipping hamburgers, another person works all sorts of hours of day and night doing emergent surgeries, being responsible for someone's life, and having a threat of a career-ending malpractice lawsuit always hanging overhead. Who works harder, the first person or the second? I think 30 min of the second person's work are way harder than 30 years of the first person's work. Working hard isn't just a matter of "how much" one works. In my particular line of work (which was indeed in healthcare) there were some 5-minute blocks of work which were a much harder work than pretty much the entire rest of my life :-).
This only makes sense on the federal level. On the state level, it’s much too easy to skirt though it is a good idea overall as high progressive taxes on the upper brackets effectively lead to much of what made the US so competitive and an attractive place to be.
What NY legislators should be concentrating on is making an upper and lower bound federal revenue to federal spending ratio for states as that’s how NYC and NYS, and indeed, the Tri-State Area, gets hosed. The three states contribute an absolutely gargantuan amount to federal coffers, but get among the worst returns on federal spending among states in return. There is the 16th Amendment that allows federal revenue to spread irrespective of the states those revenues come from, but that was with the tacit agreement to allow SALT deductions. Those are now gone and were always a rather imperfect kludge, so it’s time to revisit this and create some upper and lower bounds.
As Margaret Thatcher said, "Keep taxing millionaires and pretty soon you run out of millionaires".
Or in the case of a state, they move. Trump did it (FL), Golisano did it(FL), I did it (TN).
Sweden has one billionaire for every 250,000 people, one of the highest rates in the world. It is also one of the world’s most unequal countries in terms of the distribution of wealth. An estimate from The Economist finds that the value of Swedish billionaires’ fortunes is equivalent to a quarter of the country’s annual gdp.
Sweden’s top personal tax rate of 57.1 percent applies to all income over 1.5 times the average national income. Yet Sweden provides and universal healthcare and free higher education. Students get a housing stipend.
In comparison, the United States levies its top personal income tax rate of 43.7 percent (federal and state combined) at 9.3 times the average U.S. income (around $500,000). Thus, a comparatively smaller share of taxpayers faces the top rate. 27% of taxpayer money in Sweden goes towards education and healthcare, whereas 5% goes to the police and military, and 42% to social security. Swedish unskilled employees are well paid while well educated Swedish employees are low-paid compared with those in competitor countries in Western Europe and the US.
US critics say that Swedes pay 56 percent — so the government takes over half of your money. This is not true — 56 percent is the marginal tax rate, i.e. what high earners pay on income over a certain amount in both state and local taxes. Only 15 percent of Swedes pay tax at this rate. It turns out the average Swede pays less than 27 percent of his or her income in direct taxes. There is no property tax but sales tax is 25%.
Last edited by jonbenson; 07-19-2020 at 02:30 PM..
If what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is proposing, that if the 118 Billionaires in New York were taxed 70% after their first 10 Million or even at some higher minimum, 50 or a 100 million.
There would still be billionaires and even if some left the state the revenue from that would probably far exceed the upcoming budget cuts of the police and other city employees and they can still have their caviar, Lamborghinis an yachts
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