Abolish the Billionaire Class

[queentonic]

Published on
Tuesday, July 02, 2019
by
RobertReich.org
Abolish the Billionaires!

The cost to our democracy of billionaires with enough wealth and power to dictate the rules of capitalism for their own benefit is incalculable

America now has more billionaires than at any time in history, while most Americans are struggling to make ends meet. With such staggering inequality, it’s fair to ask: should we abolish billionaires?

...

About 60 percent of all the wealth in America today is inherited.

That’s because, under U.S. tax law – which is itself largely a product of lobbying by the wealthy – the capital gains of one generation are wiped out when those assets are transferred to the next, and the estate tax is so tiny that only 0.2 percent of estates were even subject to it in 2017.

America is creating a new aristocracy of people who never worked a day in their lives.

Let’s abolish billionaires by changing the way the economy is organized.

Billionaires themselves aren’t the problem. The real failure is in how our economy is organized.

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https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/07/02/abolish-billionaires

[TreasonousBastard]

1. I have always believed that estate taxes should be largely abolished and substituted...

with an income tax on the heirs.

And, of course, unearned income should be taxed higher than it is. The argument against that is that such an increase would reduce investment, but that could be dealt with.

The underlying problem is that the wealthy have far more resources to change the laws and find loopholes than the rest of us do.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

2. Raise tax on "unearned" income?

You mean, like pensions, social security, IRA distributions, that sort of thing?

I hope not. Unless we can get single-payer health care, then go ahead and raise my taxes.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. That, too, and interest, but the big money is in capital gains, stock buybacks, coupon clipping...

and other such goodies for the wealthy and trust fund kids who can just sit back and live off the work of others, occasionally bothering to look at reports from their money managers.

"Unearned" income is defined by the IRS as pretty much anything that isn't wages. Here's a list from The Motley Fool:

Unearned income is a less obvious concept. If earned income is mainly the result you engaging in an activity in order to earn money, then unearned income generally comes to you without your having performed services for it. Here are some examples of unearned income according to the IRS:

Interest income
Dividend income
Capital gains and capital gain distributions
Retirement income (e.g. from pensions, annuities, and IRA or 401k withdrawals)
Social Security benefits (only a portion is taxable)
Unemployment benefits
Alimony
Child support
Some distributions from trusts
Gambling winnings
Forgiven debts

One could argue with some of these things that they are actually earned since they were paid for out of wages, but then things like IRAs involved tax deductions, so it gets complicated.

[moondust]

3. Inheritance cap?

Could be hard to implement since fat cats could probably split it up before they die/bequeath, and maybe use offshore accounts to avoid the cap and taxes. I think Elizabeth Warren has addressed to some extent taxing offshore accounts.

"a new aristocracy of people who never worked a day in their lives" will be running things because they've got all the money--even though they may not know how to tie their own shoes because they bribed and their lawyers threatened their way through life and they didn't have to learn anything. (See: Donald Trump) Civilizational collapse.