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I knew Bernie was a little bit crazy, but this is "sky is falling" kind of concerning.
I saw someone else give a pretty good analysis on this topic:
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I am a bit worried about this, to be honest. It feels like socialism, like when Venezuela nationalized private companies and then drove the economy into the ditch.
Governments have not proven they are able to take the money (capital) and use it more efficiently / effective to boost the economy long term vs some smart entrepreneurs who are willing to take the risk to start up companies and innovate new industries. So aside from reeking of socialism, the potential stifling of innovation concerns me.
This is not a simple topic. These billionaires don't just have all of their wealth in the form of cash laying around. They are in the form of invested capital in their businesses that they are innovating and leading. So all that "money" they have is actually being employed to pay people's salaries, do research & development, fund various ventures to seek the next innovation.
This tax would effectively force them to cash out all of that capital and put into other people's hands to fund this tax. Short term it might not be a big impact, but long term, those other shareholders / venture capital funds / investment funds will have much more say about how the companies should be run, and potentially drive the companies into the ground. If these CEOs are doing a good job at driving businesses forward, keeping more people employed, and increasing the economy in the long run, it might do more harm than good to force them to lose control of their companies.
It's similar to farmers who were forced to sell their farms to pay tax bills when the farm was passed from one generation to the next. It put a lot of farmers out of business and led to soul-less mega-corporations who ended up taking over the farming business.
We could have a lot of soul-less investment firms / venture capital firms who end up holding majority shares of these companies, stifling innovation at the cost of short term profits.
Another worry is this could drive entrepreneurs to start up businesses elsewhere in the world, to avoid this socialist tax in the future. That would hurt America, as we would lose the edge in the tech space, while other countries like India could overtake the US as the capital of technology.
So in the long run, I don't think this is a well thought out plan. It doesn't give consideration to the positive things that are being done with the "money" that have been generated and put to work by these billionaires...that money might be in the hands of the people who can use it the best right now, to continue driving business and innovation forward, in the US.
If you factor all the taxes I pay, real estate, sales, income, cell phone, local, federal, FICA, etc... my taxes total about 50%. So if they do raise it to 60% for billionaires, which they wont, I won't be too concerned about them. I really don't care, do you?
Let's keep it real, any earnings over a billion will NEVER be spent in a lifetime, it's really meaningless to them, just numbers.
It's not about caring for the billionaires, but the fact that they are the brightest and smartest people at using that money to further propel our economy / society along.
Elon is taking his billions to fund SpaceX, Tesla, and other innovative technology to improve human technology and society in the short run and long run. The other entrepreneurs are adding value to our society at a massive scale that benefits each and every one of us.
What would the US (and world be like) without these entrepreneurs who risked everything they have to change society? Would government take that relative small and petty amount (In 2019, the government spent $4.45 trillion, this would be less than 1% of 1% of that amount of money) and more effectively use it to drive the economy forward and benefit us better? That amount of money that is being used to fund innovation, R&D, and employ some of the smartest / hardest working people in the world is where it should be used.
It's like having Lebron James on your basketball team, but you tell him "hey you're hogging the ball too much, we're going to take the ball away from you 60% of the time you normally would have it, and let the bench players use it to play and shoot the ball that 60% of the time instead." That would be suicide. Why would you penalize your most productive and successful players / entrepreneurs and waste that resource in vastly lower return expenditures?
These billionaires have made a lot of us normal folks wealthy too. Our 401ks, IRAs, investment funds have risen in value because of the incredible value their companies have developed over the last decade or two. We would be shooting ourselves in the foot taking that relatively paltry (but easy to demonize and publicize) amount of money and use it in far less productive ventures.
At best we push these innovators out of the US to somewhere else, and have those other countries benefit from the technology they develop elsewhere. At worst we stifle innovation and slow the pace of technological advance to improve our lives and our future kids' lives, as well as destroy our economic potential to generate innovative businesses that add far more value to society than any other country.
You are taking your marginal rates of tax and pretending it is your average tax rate. That is not your effective tax rate. In reality you are probably paying anywhere from 15% - 25% of your income in taxes as a whole.
I care about me and my family , if not being concerned that billionaires will pay a similar tax rate to me makes me a socialist, than i guess I'm Karl Marx Jr. because I really don't give two craps.
If you care about yourself and your family, you would NOT want to live in a socialist society. Those have proven time and time again to fail.
Bernie the Socialist. Never saw a tax he didn't like. That and he sounds like someone who lost money during the pandemic. Some people love to punish success. I am for taxing millionaires more. By more I mean by removing the loopholes.
This is not socialism. This is a high tax rate on the rich who made out like bandits during the pandemic. Why people are boot licking serfs to the rich I'll never understand.
The tax rate on the uber wealthy in the 50s was 55%. This is just getting back to the good old days for a short amount of time.
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Originally Posted by blue_sky_5235
If you care about yourself and your family, you would NOT want to live in a socialist society. Those have proven time and time again to fail.
I care about me and my family , if not being concerned that billionaires will pay a similar tax rate to me makes me a socialist, than i guess I'm Karl Marx Jr. because I really don't give two craps.
Neither did Cuomo...but now that they are mass exiting fro NYNY, he's suddenly begging them to come back!
Like I said, i'm paying close to 50%, so no tears coming from me if billionaires end up paying slightly more than me.
Yes, but you’re adding in all taxes - federal, property, state, local, etc. - and Bernie is talking about 60% federal. They would still be left with all the other taxes, meaning they would end up keeping maybe 20% of their earnings.
Leftists are learning that if you tax rich people too much, they simply take up residence elsewhere. Look at NY. Cuomo is practically begging them to return, and I suspect they will lower the tax burden (over DeBlasio’s objections) to entice them back.
Neither did Cuomo...but now that they are mass exiting fro NYNY, he's suddenly begging them to come back!
Oh wow....I just wrote the exact same thing (not having read your post). De Blasio already said that if the feds don’t cough up money to rescue NYC, he will take his case to Albany to get emergency funding (from rich people of course). Think of what that sets up: Cuomo wanting to lower the taxes on the rich to get them to move back, and DeBlasio asking for a special tax assessment on rich people to bail out the city he mismanaged.
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