Billionaires are getting richer from the pandemic. (small business, percentage, wealthiest)
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Among these "pandemic profiteers" are Zoom CEO Eric Yuan and Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, which owns Skype and Teams. Both Yuan and Ballmer are profiting off the boom in videoconferencing.
But no one has benefited as handsomely as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who has seen his wealth skyrocket by $25 billion since January 1 as homebound customers lean heavily on online shopping, grocery delivery and streaming. This wealth surge for one individual — greater than the entire GDP of Honduras — is unprecedented in the history of modern markets.
In short, while the majority of Americans lurch toward a recession worse than the crash of a decade ago, a tiny number of billionaires is set to make out like bandits.
Complicating matters, billionaires' extraordinary wealth gives them extraordinary influence over the political process, which they've used to slash their tax bills astoundingly over the last few decades. According to our data, the taxes paid by America's billionaires, measured as a percentage of their wealth, decreased by a stunning 79% between 1980 and 2018.
Given all this, it's not surprising that policy responses in times of crisis tend to reflect the priorities of the wealthiest first. Last time, in 2008, we bailed out the banks on Wall Street, but not the homeowners and small businesses on Main Street.
Yeah, we shouldn't have a system that encourages innovation. I think that writing with a quill pen and an ink well is all that anyone needs. And if your buggy is more than one horsepower, you have too much money.
The companies are performing well and conversely their share prices because more people are using/needing their products/services. This has nothing to do with bailouts or “wall st”
I'm honestly not sure what exactly your complaint is here. Bezos built a company, that company was successful, and a global crisis hit that happened to align well with the services his company provides, so the value of that company (and it's shareholders like Bezos) went up.
How did he get bailed out, or how did it come at the expense of others? He's hiring tens of thousands of workers in a time when jobs have disappeared, and paying them $17 for no-skill jobs.
Among these "pandemic profiteers" are Zoom CEO Eric Yuan and Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, which owns Skype and Teams. Both Yuan and Ballmer are profiting off the boom in videoconferencing.
But no one has benefited as handsomely as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who has seen his wealth skyrocket by $25 billion since January 1 as homebound customers lean heavily on online shopping, grocery delivery and streaming. This wealth surge for one individual — greater than the entire GDP of Honduras — is unprecedented in the history of modern markets.
In short, while the majority of Americans lurch toward a recession worse than the crash of a decade ago, a tiny number of billionaires is set to make out like bandits.
Complicating matters, billionaires' extraordinary wealth gives them extraordinary influence over the political process, which they've used to slash their tax bills astoundingly over the last few decades. According to our data, the taxes paid by America's billionaires, measured as a percentage of their wealth, decreased by a stunning 79% between 1980 and 2018.
Given all this, it's not surprising that policy responses in times of crisis tend to reflect the priorities of the wealthiest first. Last time, in 2008, we bailed out the banks on Wall Street, but not the homeowners and small businesses on Main Street.
We haven't been taxing them for decades now. Time to do so. As AOC bluntly puts it (not exactly word for word): we do not have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem from the decades long philosophy of small government = better. Raising taxes on the wealthy heavily is a start but not enough.
Every time there is a short sale a industrious man with some focus and ambition gets his wings on his way to heaven
The road to billionaire is made of such bricks
It's more accurate to say, "Billionaires are finding ways to continue to earn a profit 'DURING' the pandemic," NOT, they are getting rich FROM the Pandemic. They can do this because they have enough resources, flexibility and innovation to deal with whatever situation comes along (NOT because they are 'mercenaries robbing the poor to pay for their own luxury').
While a popular pastime in the U.S., the 'blame game,' like 'identity politics,' are the venue of whining complainers ... and solve nothing.
What on earth are you talking about, which billionaire doesn't get taxed?
I mean, most billionaires because they have loopholes called capital gains. Let's not even start at billionaires, let's start at multimillionaires.
2 sides of the equation: Individual taxes / corporate taxes
The highest bracket on the federal side is 37% currently for all income earned over 510k. It used to be throughout history as high as 91% (and many more brackets in between with various levels of taxes, not just the 6 we have now).
Capital gains taxes are much lower than income tax - hence the incentive to invest. The highest rate is 20%.
So why do the rich get richer? They pay 20% all the time since they're heavily invested vs. if you work you still have to pay 37%.
On the corporate taxes side - corporations pay nearly nothing in taxes (230B vs 1.7T in individual taxes). The entire Federal budget is mostly all individual receipts. How about actually taxing them to have corporations shoulder a larger section of the federal budget?
Better solution? Raise income taxes on the wealthy. Raise capital gains taxes on the wealthy. Raise taxes on corporations. Lower taxes on the middle class and below by increasing the standard deduction and reducing the rates we currently have now. (For example, changing the first bracket to be 5% vs 10%).
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