It is essential not just to fund the public goods the nation needs, it is indispensable to restore a sense of fairness

From the technological Olympus of Silicon Valley to the urban canyons of Wall Street, a narrow club of vastly wealthy plutocrats sits on a ballooning share of the nation’s resources. One percent of Americans at the apex of the economy are hoarding over 31% of the nation’s total wealth, a cool $55tn in net worth.

Getting them to share with the rest of society, to fund redistribution or pay for public goods, is proving pretty much impossible. Their ability to move resources around, hide profit across jurisdictions, and minimize income to hoard wealth until they die appears to put them beyond the reach of taxation.

One recent research paper found that the country’s richest 384 oligarchs paid only 24% of their economic income in 2025, compared with 30% for the average taxpayer. And not all of them are getting top notch tax advice. Reporting by ProPublica revealed that some of the richest Americans – like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Michael Bloomberg – live largely tax free.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 days ago

    eliminating tax breaks for investment income instead of targeting wealth

    Eliminating various tax breaks for “non-income” income is certainly a good start, but when there are people able to live on their wealth rather than income, it’s not enough.

    Plus you’re forgetting a progressive tax rate. Why are we ok with different tax rates depending on income for most of us, but with the top rate at upper-middle income. You’re basically targeting doctors and lawyers as “the wealthiest”, when they also earn next to nothing compared with actual wealthy, and they work for their income. Im not saying they shouldnt have a higher rate, i’m saying we clearly need tax brackets above that

    • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
      11·
      2 days ago

      but with the top rate at upper-middle income. You’re basically targeting doctors and lawyers as “the wealthiest”, when they also earn next to nothing compared with actual wealthy

      Progressive taxation stays, its just added to investment income (capital gains deduction no more) as well. It’s enough because its $3T additional revenue before carbon taxes. Billionaires “only” own $8T or so, and a wealth tax that applies just for them would need to be 35% of wealth every single year to raise the same amount. The $16m~ wealth level (top 1%) would need a 5% wealth tax every year to raise the same amount.

      The far more important social governance objective, is distributing social revenue to people as dividends is far more helpful than raising more revenue to pay oligarchs more for more wars. The goal shouldn’t be to generate anger at a group just because they saved wealth, it should be to maximize shared prosperity.