Discussion: If the billionaires paid for everything

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Then we'd have enough money to solve all the problems.

This is a talking point recently, espoused by the new left I would say.

High tax rates have been employed in the past. What are all of your thoughts?

[Kendrakirai]

I dunno, a lot of them already feel entitled to everything, actually paying for it might reinforce that.

I think actually closing all those loopholes and making them have to *actually* pay their true and proper taxes would be a good start. Then we can see how things go from there.

[clearspira]

The American Dream: work your whole life, finally make it, and then have most of your fortune taken by the feckless, the idle, the wasters, and the lazy.

God I miss the eighties.

[Antiboyscout]

Oh sure, let's destroy the economy, why not?
I see no problem with the government forcing people like Jeff Bezos to sell off all their stocks in a one time sale to pay for a continuous government program. That won't cause a panic, and you won't run out of money ether. Obviously.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

All interesting points for consideration.

[Deledrius]

The American Dream: work your whole life, finally make it, and then have most of your fortune taken by the feckless, the idle, the wasters, and the lazy.

God I miss the eighties.

As opposed to: work your whole life, never make it, have what little you have taken by those who never worked a day in their lives because they were born right and get to dictate the shape of yours?

Seriously, "the feckless, the idle, the wasters, and the lazy" describes the elite 1% pretty well.

I mean, sure, while we're exaggerating things to obfuscate reality...

The American Dream is a lie. Your version is no more real than the one we're fed elsewhere.

[Darth Wedgius]

Statistically, millionaires work more hours a day than the rest of us. They're hardly lazy, idle wasters.

A more serious problem with this is that billionaires often don't have a billion dollars. They're often worth a billion dollars, and that's not the same thing.

If you have stock shares worth a billion dollars, you can't sell all that stock and expect that stock to still be worth a billion dollars. The law of supply and demand strongly suggests that price of that stock will go down. If you have a mansion, you can't give everyone a little bit of mansion.

[Madner Kami]

Ignoring overtime and late-night/weekend bonuses, I earn roughly 2250€ per month. 48% of that goes straight to the state and various social security programs. I am fine with that, except for one detail: The rich pay less per year, than I pay per month. Close the loopholes and actually punish clear attempts of evasion and fraud appropriately and things are golden.

[Darth Wedgius]

The top 1% actually paid about 37% of all income tax in 2016.

[Rocketboy1313]

Oh good, another board where people can throw out statistics without citation and someone think that proves a point.

I am going to go the entirely philosophical route and say,

It is the job of society to create wealth (Not money, wealth). It does so by creating economies and social systems that allow participants to move resources (labor, capital) to where they are demanded. It is not in the best interest of wealth creation to have an exceptionally small number of individuals controlling exceptionally large, politically powerful, and ever present super producers.

While not literal monopolies, these industries are behaving like monopolies and they will have a chilling effect on innovation. The operations being created by these mega producers are poorly regulated and this lack of regulation is a self sustaining system, as these companies exert tremendous control over news, social media, and the cultural zeitgeist.

Conversely, the government only seems to enjoy spending money on the military, the constant build up of weaponry is a wealth destroyer. Building planes and ships that end up in bone yards is not a a good use of money, these items do not support the common welfare.

Using the government's ability to tax and regulate to break up these mega companies and cutting military spending will allow for more wealth creation by routing the funds toward things that promote a common good (infrastructure, social programs, education, natural resource preservation/cultivation).

It is my belief that we are currently in a massive economic bubble, a market failure of such magnitude that we are incapable of properly perceiving it. In much the way I cannot see the whole of the United States while standing in front of the Capital Building.

We are living in a gilded age.