The US ultra-rich justify their low tax rates with three myths – all of them rubbish

Frederick Foresight · Oct 4, 2022

wildchild said:
Its always the laziest people who make the stupidest decisions who complain that someone else might have more money than them.
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Sorry, my oversight. You're just too fucking stupid to address.

wildchild · Oct 4, 2022

Frederick Foresight said:
Sorry, my oversight. You're just too fucking stupid to address.
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Ohhh we are playing the Republicans are the party of the rich and they are stupid game again. So all the rich people are the stupid ones and the losers who are out pan handling are the smart ones.

Yeah Foreskin, your assertion makes zero sense.

Frederick Foresight · Oct 4, 2022

wildchild said:
So all the rich people are the stupid ones
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I didn't say the rich were stupid. YOU are.

wildchild · Oct 4, 2022

Frederick Foresight said:
I didn't say the rich were stupid. YOU are.
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Then why did you lose?

stochastix · Oct 13, 2022

Frederick Foresight said:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/02/ultra-rich-low-tax-rates-economy-myths

This song was ahead of its time

On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office released a study of trends in the distribution of family wealth between 1989 and 2019.

Over those 30 years, the richest 1% of families increased their share of total national wealth from 27% to 34%. Families in the bottom half of the economy now hold a mere 2%.

Meanwhile, a record share of the nation’s wealth remains in the hands of the nation’s billionaires, who are also paying a lower tax rate than the average American.

How do the ultra-wealthy justify their wealth and their low tax rates? By using three myths – all of which are utter rubbish.

The first is trickle-down economics.

Billionaires (and their apologists) claim that their wealth trickles down to everyone else as they invest it and create jobs.

Really? For more than 40 years, as wealth at the top has soared, almost nothing has trickled down. Adjusted for inflation, the median wage today is barely higher than it was four decades ago.

Trump provided a giant tax cut to the wealthiest Americans, promising it would generate $4,000 increased income for everyone else. Did you receive it?

In reality, the super-wealthy don’t create jobs or raise wages. Jobs are created when average working people earn enough money to buy all the goods and services they produce, pushing companies to hire more people and pay them higher wages.

The second myth is the “free market”.

The ultra-rich claim they’re being rewarded by the impersonal market for creating and doing what people are willing to pay them for.

The wages of other Americans have stagnated, they say, because most Americans are worth less in the market now that new technologies and globalization have made their jobs redundant.

Baloney. Even if they’re being rewarded, there’s no reason why the “free market’ would reward vast multiples of what the rich were rewarded with decades ago.

The market can induce great feats of invention and entrepreneurship with lures of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars – not billions.

As to the rest of us succumbing to labor-replacing globalization and labor-saving technologies, no other advanced nation has nearly the degree of inequality found in the United States, yet all these nations have been exposed to the same forces of globalization and technological change.

In reality, the ultra-wealthy have rigged the so-called “free market” in the US for their own benefit. Billionaires’ campaign contributions have soared from a relatively modest $31m in the 2010 elections to $1.2bn in the most recent presidential cycle – a nearly 40-fold increase.

What have they got for their money? Tax cuts, freedom to bash unions and monopolize markets and government bailouts. Their pockets have been further lined by privatization and deregulation.

The third myth is that they’re superior human beings.

They portray themselves as “self-made”rugged individuals who “did it on their own” and therefore deserve their billions.

Bupkis. Six of the 10 wealthiest Americans alive today are heirs to fortunes passed on to them by wealthy ancestors.

Others had the advantages that come with wealthy parents.

Jeff Bezos’s garage-based start was funded by a quarter-million-dollar investment from his parents. Bill Gates’s mother used her business connections to help land a software deal with IBM that made Microsoft. Elon Musk came from a family that reportedly owned shares of an emerald mine in southern Africa.

Don’t fall for these three myths.

Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke.

The so-called free market has been distorted by huge campaign contributions from the ultra-rich.

Don’t lionize the ultra-rich as superior “self-made” human beings who deserve their billions. They were lucky and had connections.

In reality, there is no justification for today’s extraordinary concentration of wealth at the very top. It’s distorting our politics, rigging our markets and granting unprecedented power to a handful of people.

The last time America faced anything comparable was at the start of the 20th century.

In 1910, former president Theodore Roosevelt warned that “a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power” could destroy American democracy.

Roosevelt’s answer was to tax wealth. The estate tax was enacted in 1916, and the capital gains tax in 1922.

Since that time, both have eroded. As the rich have accumulated greater wealth, they have also amassed more political power – and have used that political power to reduce their taxes.

Teddy Roosevelt understood something about the American economy and the ultra-rich that has now re-emerged, even more extreme and more dangerous. We must understand it, too – and act.
More...

Frederick Foresight said:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/02/ultra-rich-low-tax-rates-economy-myths

On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office released a study of trends in the distribution of family wealth between 1989 and 2019.

Over those 30 years, the richest 1% of families increased their share of total national wealth from 27% to 34%. Families in the bottom half of the economy now hold a mere 2%.

Meanwhile, a record share of the nation’s wealth remains in the hands of the nation’s billionaires, who are also paying a lower tax rate than the average American.

How do the ultra-wealthy justify their wealth and their low tax rates? By using three myths – all of which are utter rubbish.

The first is trickle-down economics.

Billionaires (and their apologists) claim that their wealth trickles down to everyone else as they invest it and create jobs.

Really? For more than 40 years, as wealth at the top has soared, almost nothing has trickled down. Adjusted for inflation, the median wage today is barely higher than it was four decades ago.

Trump provided a giant tax cut to the wealthiest Americans, promising it would generate $4,000 increased income for everyone else. Did you receive it?

In reality, the super-wealthy don’t create jobs or raise wages. Jobs are created when average working people earn enough money to buy all the goods and services they produce, pushing companies to hire more people and pay them higher wages.

The second myth is the “free market”.

The ultra-rich claim they’re being rewarded by the impersonal market for creating and doing what people are willing to pay them for.

The wages of other Americans have stagnated, they say, because most Americans are worth less in the market now that new technologies and globalization have made their jobs redundant.

Baloney. Even if they’re being rewarded, there’s no reason why the “free market’ would reward vast multiples of what the rich were rewarded with decades ago.

The market can induce great feats of invention and entrepreneurship with lures of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars – not billions.

As to the rest of us succumbing to labor-replacing globalization and labor-saving technologies, no other advanced nation has nearly the degree of inequality found in the United States, yet all these nations have been exposed to the same forces of globalization and technological change.

In reality, the ultra-wealthy have rigged the so-called “free market” in the US for their own benefit. Billionaires’ campaign contributions have soared from a relatively modest $31m in the 2010 elections to $1.2bn in the most recent presidential cycle – a nearly 40-fold increase.

What have they got for their money? Tax cuts, freedom to bash unions and monopolize markets and government bailouts. Their pockets have been further lined by privatization and deregulation.

The third myth is that they’re superior human beings.

They portray themselves as “self-made”rugged individuals who “did it on their own” and therefore deserve their billions.

Bupkis. Six of the 10 wealthiest Americans alive today are heirs to fortunes passed on to them by wealthy ancestors.

Others had the advantages that come with wealthy parents.

Jeff Bezos’s garage-based start was funded by a quarter-million-dollar investment from his parents. Bill Gates’s mother used her business connections to help land a software deal with IBM that made Microsoft. Elon Musk came from a family that reportedly owned shares of an emerald mine in southern Africa.

Don’t fall for these three myths.

Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke.

The so-called free market has been distorted by huge campaign contributions from the ultra-rich.

Don’t lionize the ultra-rich as superior “self-made” human beings who deserve their billions. They were lucky and had connections.

In reality, there is no justification for today’s extraordinary concentration of wealth at the very top. It’s distorting our politics, rigging our markets and granting unprecedented power to a handful of people.

The last time America faced anything comparable was at the start of the 20th century.

In 1910, former president Theodore Roosevelt warned that “a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power” could destroy American democracy.

Roosevelt’s answer was to tax wealth. The estate tax was enacted in 1916, and the capital gains tax in 1922.

Since that time, both have eroded. As the rich have accumulated greater wealth, they have also amassed more political power – and have used that political power to reduce their taxes.

Teddy Roosevelt understood something about the American economy and the ultra-rich that has now re-emerged, even more extreme and more dangerous. We must understand it, too – and act.
More...

smallfil · Oct 13, 2022

wildchild said:
Ohhh we are playing the Republicans are the party of the rich and they are stupid game again. So all the rich people are the stupid ones and the losers who are out pan handling are the smart ones.

Yeah Foreskin, your assertion makes zero sense.
More...

There are more extreme liberal billionaires the likes of Zuckerberg, Bezos, Gates, Buffet on the left and all claim they are for the poor yet, continue to use their tax loopholes to enrich themselves and avoid a lot of taxes. Turnips are the poor Joe Biden voters who still think he is the best thing since, sliced bread.

Ricter · Oct 13, 2022

smallfil said:
There are more extreme liberal billionaires the likes of Zuckerberg, Bezos, Gates, Buffet on the left and all claim they are for the poor yet, continue to use their tax loopholes to enrich themselves and avoid a lot of taxes. Turnips are the poor Joe Biden voters who still think he is the best thing since, sliced bread.
More...

Re Biden, we're mainly relieved the Stray Orange Hair on the Nation's Sleeve (credit, George Will) is gone.

stochastix · Oct 13, 2022

Ricter said:
Re Biden, we're mainly relieved the Stray Orange Hair on the Nation's Sleeve (credit, George Will) is gone.
More...

Indeed, not a Biden fan but so glad that raging dumpster fire is out

El OchoCinco · Oct 13, 2022

Biden just a place holder for both sides to regroup and lose the fucktards and try to put together someone less disgusting.... I dont think it will happen so 2024 is just going to be a continuation of the trump - biden pit our country has slid into politically.

Either Biden runs or Kackling Kamala but is Biden simply going to step down? Beyond those two, it is a deep shit show.

trump is going to fuck it up for the GOP and deSantis keeps trying to out trump trump instead of just keeping his head down. GOP seems no better than 2016.

These are not the candidates we need but probably what we deserve since we have boiled down to MTG and AOC having voices.