"When we say 'tax the rich', we mean multiple-yacht rich. For-profit prison rich."

[EndGOPPropaganda]

When we say “tax the rich,” we mean nesting-doll yacht rich. For-profit prison rich. Betsy DeVos, student-loan-shark rich.

Trick-the-country-into-war rich. Subsidizing-workforce-w-food-stamps rich.

Because THAT kind of rich is simply not good for society, & it’s like 10 people.

Link to tweet

I love this woman. So well said!!

The WHOLE POINT of the modern GOP public relations, media, and propaganda effort is exactly this: to get Americans to confuse member-of-Congress rich with multiple-yacht, Betsy DeVos rich.

Betsy DeVos is worth TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND TIMES what a member of Congress makes in a year. Same with Rupert Murdoch. Same with the Koches. Two hundred thousand times more! They could buy _every_ Lexus sold in the entire country last year with their wealth. Every Lexus in America in 2018. Think of that.
Members of congress can buy one or two.

"That kind of wealth is not good for society, and it's like ten people". EXACTLY! (more like ~1,000 households out of the 100 million households in America, or 0.001%, but she's basically right on.)

[Loki Liesmith]

1. Yeah but there isn't enough money in that population

To do all the things we want.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

3. There are two issues: American billionaires distorting our politics, and funding programs

Let's use this thread to talk ONLY about the first problem - how billionaires like DeVos and Murdoch have completely taken over the GOP, lie to America daily, run propaganda like Fox, and keep Trump in office.

If you care about getting Trump out, this is the CRITICAL problem. Without Fox, Trump would be gone by now. And Rupert Murdoch is the billionaire who uses Fox to lie to us to keep Trump in power.

And Murdoch desperately wants you to confuse your local lawyer or doctor who drives a Lexus with him. It's a totally different ball of wax. A different ZIP code.

Before we fix anything, we first have to define the problem: the rightwing billionaires that use propaganda to distort American politics.

[brewens]

4. Not all of the things we want, but bumping their taxes up sure wouldn't hurt. I wonder how

much of a difference it would have made if we had taxed all those worth over half a billion more over the last 30 years? They would still be filthy rich, but it would have to have made a big difference in the debt.

[oldsoftie]

11. Not really. The debt would still be huge.

Look at the numbers; there just arent THAT many people in this group. And of the ones that ARE, not all their wealth is even in the US. Using trump as an example, he has golf courses in other countries. We cant tax those.
As i've posted elsewhere numerous times, if we look to Europe & Canada and their programs that we want, we must also look at how they FUND those programs.
But thats where the discussion always ends. Because nobody wants to do whats needed, only point the finger at the "rich"

[Bradical79]

6. It's not the only problem to fix

Talking about how to fund programs in their entirety is a more comprehensive and complicated discusion.

[warmfeet]

14. Yep.

And what, exactly, is your point with this remark?

Is it for injustice to remain injustice because one policy change cannot fix everything in one fell swoop?

This is a repuke talking point. I do not use it myself, since I am not a repuke.

[Loki Liesmith]

16. Sure you are

[ck4829]

23. Unfortunately, too many people fall for the "Rich are demigods and we need to just leave them alone"

We should just abolish the concept of "being rich", hoarding is a disease, yet change it to money and it becomes something to be admired. Let's help heal these sick people instead of enabling their sickness.

[PETRUS]

28. Two things:

1) That's not the point. Not at all.

2) Money isn't a resource - it's a method of rationing and control. Whether or not we can "do all the things we want" depends on the availability of actual resources, skills/knowledge and labor - and whether people with power will allow it.

[Loki Liesmith]

29. Lol two more things

1). It’s the point to me. I don’t care about making some kind of statement or extracting vengeance on my financial “oppressors”. I just could not give one teeny, tiny fuck about that. I care about concrete policy achievements not grand (but ultimately symbolic) gestures.

2). Money is absolutely a resource. It is THE resource, as it represents every other resource. Imagineering socialist utopias where shit gets done because we clap for Tinkerbell hard enough just is not worth my time.

[LanternWaste]

30. Thankfully, no one is arguing it would fund "everything we want..."

[Loki Liesmith]

31. Then it's disingenuous.

“We just want to raise taxes on the super rich”

No, that’s not all we want to do. We also want (and need) to significantly raise taxes on the upper middle class.

Let’s be real: this is a policy necessity and we should be up front about it.

[malaise]

2. Get thee to the greatest page

This is one rich post - I love it.
AOC is both serious and funny.

[Bradical79]

5. Mostly

I do want to raise taxes on other people too.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. She makes a good point.

The folks we proles might think of as rich, really aren't. Those people who live in McMansions in gated communities and drive BMWs and send the kids to prep schools and have cleaning ladies and landscapers aren't that kind of rich. Most of them are professionals - lawyers, executives, doctors, etc. - who work for somebody else, and as long as you're working for somebody else you're as much a part of the proletariat as a waitress or a janitor.

Truly rich people don't work, or at least they don't have to unless they want to. They don't have to drive their BMWs; somebody else drives them in a Rolls or a Bentley. They don't fly first class; they own the airplane. They don't have a cabin up north or a vacation cottage by the sea; they have multiple homes that are not mere cottages or cabins. Some of them, like Bill Gates, donate a lot of money to charity, but many others are just parasites. Those are the ones that need to be taxed in proportion to the wealth they are sucking away from the rest of the world.

[Mr.Bill]

8. I describe it as

so rich that if half your money disappeared tomorrow it would make no difference in your lifestyle.

[Ferrets are Cool]

9. I didn't come up with this, but always thought this was apt

The rich have mansions...the Wealthy have butlers to answer the doors in their mansions.

[zentrum]

10. AOC 2028! For sure.

[PatrickforO]

12. I like her more every day.

She speaks truth to power and makes everyone in the establishment feel uncomfortable. And, when they try and put her down, she argues right back, effectively.

We're lucky to have her, and America needs her!

[IronLionZion]

13. Let's do it and see what happens

It's got to be better than what Trump has promised.

[hughee99]

15. So she means like "Oprah rich" or "John Kerry rich", not Donald Trump rich,

Because he’s not worth nearly as much as he claims.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

17. Koch rich. DeVos rich. Adelson rich. Please don't associate good people with this

There are a small number of progressive billionaires that want to help people:
Gates, Oprah, Buffett are amongst them.

But the VAST majority of billionaires fund rightwing causes to hurt you and me.

AOC is talking about the rightwinger majority. Don’t cite the few liberals when talking about billionaires who harm America. It distorts thenfiscussion.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/american-billionaires-are-overwhelmingly-conservative-new-study-finds/

[hughee99]

22. So she's not really talking about wealth, but ideology?

They’re all subject to the same rules now, and they’d all be affected by the changes.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

24. You are pushing Republican talking points.

Is it not clear that the majority of billionaires are Republicans who are aiming to harm our country to enrich themselves? Warren Buffett asked for his taxes to go up. Yes, a wealth tax on all of them would be good.

What’s unclear about that?

[hughee99]

25. So the idea that there are very wealthy people who

Support Democrats is a “republican talking point”?

Frankly, “the rich aren’t paying their fair share” is a fine argument, as long as you don’t have to follow it up with, “but just the rich that don’t support our party”.

And based on the donations over the last few election cycles, 1%ers giving to republicans is not that much larger than the same group’s donations to the Dems.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

32. My post was clear.

And you twisted my words.

Yes, please stop pushing the Republican talking point that Oprah and Kerry are billionaires we should be focused on.

[hughee99]

33. So here's what you wrote in the OP.

“Betsy DeVos is worth TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND TIMES what a member of Congress makes in a year. Same with Rupert Murdoch. Same with the Koches. Two hundred thousand times more! They could buy _every_ Lexus sold in the entire country last year with their wealth. Every Lexus in America in 2018. Think of that.
Members of congress can buy one or two.

"That kind of wealth is not good for society, and it's like ten people". EXACTLY! (more like ~1,000 households out of the 100 million households in America, or 0.001%, but she's basically right on.)”

If “that kind of wealth is not good for society”, then anyone with that kind of wealth is part of the problem, since how many lexuses you can buy doesn’t depend on your political leanings.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

34. Please read this book. It's a longer explanation.

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo29143391.html
Review:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/30/billionaire-stealth-politics-america-100-richest-what-they-want

If you want, you can also read Piketty's book.

(Hint: allowing people to buy bazookas isn't good for society either, though not everyone given the chance to buy one will choose to do so.)

[hughee99]

35. If owning a bazooka in and of itself is a problem, then anyone that

Owns a bazooka is part of the problem.

You are saying in the OP the problem is that some people HAVE this much money, but you are arguing like your issue is how they use that money.

[uponit7771]

18. MAGA Cultist think you're talking about double wide rich

[EndGOPPropaganda]

20. Yes! That's exactly what the GOP wants them to think.

Which is why Fox tries to make its viewers jealous of Hollywood rich people and lawyers and politicians.

To deflect working class anger away from the “Koch rich” people who control the GOP. Like Rupert Murdoch.

[sarabelle]

19. I mean remove, eliminate the tax write-offs and other breaks the rich get for owning yachts.

They now receive more write-offs than the 98% who can no longer get write-off for their full home taxes and interest.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

21. Wealth tax.

Getting rid of the yacht tax loophole would be good. But people like the Koches, worth 80-160 billion, depending on how well they hide their wealth offshore, should pay a flat percentage of their total wealth each year. A wealth tax would be much much more effective then discussing each items tax separately.

[Nuggets]

26. I just want individual investors to pay

the statutory rate for all income earned, not 15%.
Corporations as well.

[calimary]

27. NOW we're talking! Messaging! Messaging is The Ballgame.

Doesn’t matter what good ideas or policies you put forward if you have no effective serving platter from which to serve them.

MESSAGING. That’s the platter that delivers.