Jeff Bezos makes some $2,537 every second of the day.

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

[BGBD]

1. Left and right wing populism

Both have their boogeyman.

[Uncle Joe]

3. There is a major difference between

systemic and personal boogeymen.

[LanternWaste]

4. It used to be millions.

That doesn't play to the crowd anymore, so we limit it to billionaires and above. Year gets old pretty fast.

'natch.

[Uncle Joe]

5. The way our nation and the world in general is headed in regards to

oligarchic autocrats domination over everyone else I suspect it will be trillionaires before the century is over and perhaps a dozen people will own all the properties on the Monopoly board.

If that happens Trump would be just a minor warm up act of what's to follow.

[betsuni]

10. Yes. There was even an "Anti-Endorsement" enemies list of 13 "oligarchs," billionaires, CEOs,

Wall Streeters, etc., who would supposedly "do everything in their power" and stop at nothing to thwart the brave populist who "has the guts" to take them on and save The People. Quoting FDR, of course, as if FDR was an anti-capitalist democratic socialist populist. LOL. Hilarious.

[kcr]

12. You are never going to be that rich

Not even close. Just a reminder.

[BGBD]

15. So?

If I'm rich or broke, that doesn't change that I don't want to eat them.

Want to tax him more? Make the case, but leave out this moral superior bs

[Blue Owl]

2. And pays NOTHING in taxes from what I've heard

[Yavin4]

6. Because he doesn't have any income.

It's all based on the rising value of his assets, i.e. shares of Amazon, his homes, etc. He borrows money against them and uses it to fund his lifestyle.

[Uncle Joe]

7. Well I would suggest that our tax code needs to be updated.

This article is global but the U.S. leads the world in wealth inequality and at some point that becomes unsustainable.

(snip)







Wealth distribution pyramid

In 2013, Credit Suisse prepared a wealth pyramid infographic (shown right). Personal assets were calculated in net worth, meaning wealth would be negated by having any mortgages.[9] It has a large base of low wealth holders, alongside upper tiers occupied by progressively fewer people. In 2013 Credit-suisse estimate that 3.2 billion individuals – more than two thirds of adults in the world – have wealth below US$10,000. A further one billion (adult population) fall within the 10,000 – US$100,000 range. While the average wealth holding is modest in the base and middle segments of the pyramid, their total wealth amounts to US$40 trillion, underlining the potential for novel consumer products and innovative financial services targeted at this often neglected segment.[10]

The pyramid shows that:

half of the world's net wealth belongs to the top 1%,
top 10% of adults hold 85%, while the bottom 90% hold the remaining 15% of the world's total wealth,
top 30% of adults hold 97% of the total wealth.

(snip)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_wealth

[malaise]

9. THIS

Hi there Uncle Joe

[Uncle Joe]

13. ...

malaise

[Calculating]

8. Not only does he pay nothing in taxes

But he gets paid a credit by our government for having kids. There's a war going on between the wealthy and everyone else, and only one side is fighting right now.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

11. No one should be allowed to be that rich

Because in America
Money equals power.

Wealthy people are a burden on all of us.

And past a certain point the wealthy become parasites.

[WarGamer]

14. And yet...

No one wants to take it away from him.

Some speak about taxing Amazon, which makes Jeff laugh... he'll just jack up prices and lower expenses to maintain profit an Amazon.

Or shareholders, including teachers, cops and librarians will pay for them...

Take Jeff's cash. Wealth Tax now.

Annually.

[Blue_true]

16. That is a grotesquely wrong analysis.

Bezos book worth may change that much, but his actual earnings are likely a very small fraction of that. Bezos may be worth $150 billion on book worth, but let him try to sell out and get that much.

The concept of taxing change in asset values is flawed. Having a true progressive tax on income and closing loopholes that allow rich people to hide income are much sounder approaches.