Bernie 100% Tax Rate

#54
#54
Firebirdparts said:
It's been proposed before, notably by Huey P. Long. I'm pretty ignorant, there may have been somebody long before him. maybe in the Roman empire for all I know. Just cap personal fortunes and if somebody gets more than $X just take it all. it's hard to do in practice, really. You need to figure out what a fortune is and how to take it. The well-known billionaires are billionaires in company stock. I don't know how typical that is.
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The old top income tax bracket was 90%, but really, that didn't have much of an effect as far as I know. What really worked, really really well, was inheritance taxes. This really did harm the "old money" people, and it was probably pretty useful in maintaining America without an entitled aristocracy.

Being an American, I truly thought that the Republicans would face a lot of failures due to getting rid of inheritance taxes. I was wrong. It doesn't seem like anybody cares. I mean, honestly, even the democrats don't care. they never say "hey we'll bring these back and it'll do this or that."

It seems like all candidates will float a stupid idea based on just getting attention, I guess. Like Mike Huckabee was just such a lovable candidate, for instance, and he came out in favor of flat tax. Why? Dull candidates would have a real shot. We're swimming in an ocean of dumbasses here. when you look out the window, it's pretty obvious that times are GREAT. People are RICH and FAT. We are SAFE. For pete's sake, talk the tiny real problems that we have, and the one big problem, the national debt.

I keep thinking that whichever party starts talking like adults to adults will win 99% of every seat in congress. Just a matter of time until somebody tries it.
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Advocating for a flat tax and advocating against inheritance taxes and/or wealth taxes seems pretty adult like to me.

Why would support a cap on wealth?
 
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#55
#55
Vol8188 said:
Advocating for a flat tax and advocating against inheritance taxes and/or wealth taxes seems pretty adult like to me.

Why would support a cap on wealth?
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Putting a cap on wealth is like removing the engine from your car and wondering why it won't move.

The accumulation of wealth is the engine of productivity in a society. The USSR found that out the hard way.

Again, the old Russian proverb: "They pretend to pay us, so we pretend to work."
 
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#56
#56
Orange_Crush said:
Putting a cap on wealth is like removing the engine from your car and wondering why it won't move.

The accumulation of wealth is the engine of productivity in a society. The USSR found that out the hard way.

Again, the old Russian proverb: "They pretend to pay us, so we pretend to work."
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It’s also typically based on a falsehood that the pie is fixed and others are poor because some are wealthy.

The truth is that the wealthiest of people typically got that way by improving the quality of life for all, including the poor
 
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#59
#59
LouderVol said:
obviously there are lots of things wrong with this, but for the people who think its a good idea here are a few things:

1. This is a wealth tax, not an income tax. NO ONE makes a billion dollars A YEAR. even if you counted every form of income. as a wealth tax it would only work once. because once you have done it they no longer have more than a billion dollars worth of stuff and this tax would hit noone. you might get the rich SOB every once and a while if there is some new merger, or something new pops up and get a first timer.
2. pretty much all of that wealth is tied up in non-tangible assets. Elon Musk doesn't have eleventy billion dollars worth of stuff. he more or less has eleventy billion dollars of credit. There is no way for the government to even seize any of that.
3. There are 802 billionaires, worth 6.22 trillion. assuming each got to keep a billion dollars the government steals less than 5.5 trillion. that's not even enough to run our country for a year. so I am not sure what this accomplishes besides just being spiteful. assuming it actually worked with some type of mass asset seizure for the total amount
4. as soon as this tax was announced all of that "credit" would disappear. and you would have the IRS trying to pin people down for money they never actually had. Kinda like Trump being a billionaire, look at the financials and he "only" has a couple hundred million. pretty much every single one of them are the same. its money/value/wealth on paper only, or now digital. yeah the super super super rich will have a billion dollars of something, but it won't be anywhere close to the 802 you are hoping to hit.
5. what assets they do have worth anywhere close to that amount would be their businesses. Bezos with Amazon, Musk with Tesla/SpaceX, Waltons with Walmart, so on and so forth. Issue here is multiple: a) they aren't sole owners, so if the government wanted to seize the company they would be hitting far more than the top guys. b) they would be seizing a company, which would immediately lose most of its projected value once it was in the hands of the government, c) it would be nationalizing businesses which leads to the last point
6. the rich would likely just shut down most of whatever is creating that value. the government seizing or nationalizing a business is a sure way to run it into the ground and ruin the value of these mega corps, which would hit the average american super fast. Imagine no-Amazon, no Walmart. that is really what this tax would do, the rich would go on living life just as they are, but we are left suffering, or worse off, with nothing to show for it.

lawyers and CPAs would be the only people to benefit from this.
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Who is John Galt?
 
#62
#62
tvolsfan said:
Dumb idea. Not as dumb as getting rid of income taxes, but still dumb.
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I’m not following. Can you explain how that is in anyway dumb?

I think not penalizing people for earning income is a great idea. Penalize consumption (sales tax) and penalize lack of statistical knowledge (lottery)
 
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#63
#63
lawgator1 said:
It is, in part.

But let's assume you are right. Where would you cut spending? Exactly where.
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I would take the government employees out of a large portion of government run entities and replace them with private companies for starters. The .gov should be an oversight body, not running day to day operations. The FAA for example should be a standards organization, not running air traffic control. Why is the TSA (.gov) scanning bags? The only issue I can see is actually letting the contracts for the work. I guess the lowest price wins, and if they don't meet the standards set they are fired.

What is the purpose of the EPA as a government entity?
The education department should be completely done away with.

Etc....
 
#64
#64
Orange_Crush said:
1. Offer a tax "just for the mega-rich" that will theoretically almost never apply.
2. American gullibility falls for it.
3. Change the threshold so that the tax affects the middle class instead.
3b. WTH?!
4. It's normalized for the next generation, when a new socialist proposed a new tax that's "just for the mega-rich" and that will theoretically almost never apply.


(See my previous post.)
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Very underrated post.
 
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#66
#66
lawgator1 said:
It is, in part.

But let's assume you are right. Where would you cut spending? Exactly where.
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Increase SS retirement age. Increase age to qualify for Medicare and increase income qualifications for Medicaid. Increase the difficulty for obtaining disability. Decrease the number of overseas American bases. One of those, Qatar can remain if their government will end all funding of Hamas.

Remove the department of education
Remove the department of agriculture Remove the department of homeland security
Remove the department of labor
 
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#70
#70
Orangeburst said:
back in the day, NB was my guy as I was driving around for work..always liked him even better than RL..I remember him talking about the PGA Championship in Atlanta and all the gorgeous ladies hanging around the hotels..lol
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Oh man he was my favorite. Started listening to him in highschool
 
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#71
#71
Orangeburst said:
back in the day, NB was my guy as I was driving around for work..always liked him even better than RL..I remember him talking about the PGA Championship in Atlanta and all the gorgeous ladies hanging around the hotels..lol
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Have you even heard Boo Got Shot?
 
#72
#72
volfanhill said:
Oh man he was my favorite. Started listening to him in highschool
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A political nerd in HS..haha..
Me too..I would read political books when I got stuffed in a locker and couldnt get out. Why I always had a mini Mag Light in my pocket protector.
 
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