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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/3/2172881/-What-Happens-When-You-Tax-Billionaires-at-90-Percent>
"“Succession” is over, but spoiled, entitled billionaire man-children are still
very much with us, running social media companies, owning newspapers and
television networks, and funding politicians and judges who then keep their
taxes low and regulations minimal.
America’s billionaires (and soon to be trillionaires) pay an average of around
3.1 percent as their functional income tax rate; as a result, America is the
most unequal developed society in the world. The last time severe poverty and
extravagant wealth coexisted in such extremes as today in this country was
during the 1920s and 1930s.
Today we read about roving gangs doing smash-and-grab operations against
retailers like Nordstroms and Home Depot; in Red states our schools are falling
apart, defunded to pay for vouchers to all-white “Christian” academies; gun
violence plagues our nation with particularly high homicide rates in rural Red
states; and homelessness stalks city-dwellers at every turn.
The last time we saw the consequences of such inequality was during the
Republican “Roaring ‘20s” 100 years ago, when Warren Harding dropped the top
income tax rate from 91 percent to 25 percent, the morbidly rich openly bought
our politicians, and gangs whose names are still known today roamed the country
robbing and killing with impunity.
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal put an end to all that, and we need to repeat
his example today.
FDR raised the top income tax bracket from 25 to 90 percent. Wealthy people in
America screamed and yelled, claiming it would crash the economy, but instead
that top tax rate kicked off the first middle class to encompass more than half
a nation’s population in world history."
Via Kevin O'Brien.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
