"A WEALTH TAX IS THE PERFECT *COVID STIMULUS MEASURE": PATRIOTIC MILLIONAIRES

[appalachiablue]

'A Wealth Tax Is the Perfect COVID Stimulus Measure,' *July 10, 2020. Staff, Patriotic Millionaires.

If you think back to the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in the US in March, you might remember all the doomsday headlines about the stock market tanking to record lows and investors losing millions of dollars as a result. Three months later, those headlines have entirely disappeared, and there’s a reason for that: the stock market has recovered almost all of the losses incurred since the pandemic began, and many investors have recovered all of their losses – and even started to get richer. In other words, the stock market (and all the wealthy folks who benefit from it) is doing just fine, and many rich investors are even turning a quick buck off the greatest crisis this country has faced in a century.
For all their whining, there’s never been a better time to be a rich person in America – and never a worse time to be on the other side of that inequality gap.

That inequality gap was dangerous for all of us before the pandemic, but it could tank our entire economy for years to come now.

Luckily, a wealth tax offers the perfect solution to fight inequality and keep our economy afloat.

To understand why a wealth tax is one of the most effective stimulus measures we could take right now, it’s important to note that a whopping 84 percent of stocks are owned by the wealthiest 10 % of people in this country, or households earning over about $150,000 per year. Breaking that down even further, just over 50 % of stocks are owned by the top 1 %, or households who earn over $737,000 per year. That is trillions of dollars in almost entirely untaxed wealth owned by the very richest people, thanks to our country’s ridiculously low capital gains tax rate and our dizzying array of loopholes and special tax breaks for investors. A wealth tax on the richest individuals could rein in much of that pandemic profiteering while opening up new funding to help low-income folks who need it most in this crisis. President Trump and Republicans in Congress are already pushing back on Democratic efforts to provide any additional stimulus, saying that extending financial support for more Americans would add too much to the debt.

They’re wrong to prioritize deficit reduction over protecting millions of at-risk Americans, but if they’re dead-set on not adding to the debt, a wealth tax would be an easy way to raise trillions of dollars for economic relief programs.

That tax wouldn’t just make a serious dent in curbing our rapidly growing inequality – it would strengthen our economy by pumping billions of dollars into the pockets of low-income earners who tend to spend every dollar they have.

Consumer spending is the backbone of the American economy, and if we don’t take action to get money into the hands of folks who will spend it, we will likely face an unnecessarily dragged-out and damaging economic recovery. If preventing an economic depression isn’t reason enough, a wealth tax and increased financial support for Americans affected by the crisis would also stave off looming financial collapse for millions. As infections continue to rise, the pandemic is as threatening as ever to the economic livelihoods of the 45 % of Americans who don’t own any stock whatsoever.
Eviction courts have started back up, potentially forcing the 1 in 3 Americans who couldn’t afford their April rent onto the streets and threatening to completely wipe out Black renters. The $600 boost to unemployment is set to expire at the end of the month, forcing millions of people back onto a job market that remains as unstable and unfriendly as it was back in March. And a deadly disease disproportionately affecting low-income Black and brown families underwrites all of that financial uncertainty.

A wealth tax would be an elegant, efficient solution to a problem as complex and deeply-entrenched in our society as inequality – especially right now. Wealth taxes are designed to specifically target only the ultra-rich, so the risk of average Americans getting caught in the crosshairs of a tax increase during a recession are much lower than a host of other revenue-raising options. It also strikes at the heart of the problem...

Read More + Comments,
https://patrioticmillionaires.org/2020/07/10/a-wealth-tax-is-the-perfect-covid-stimulus-measure/

*Website, Patriotic Millionaires, https://patrioticmillionaires.org/

[KS Toronado]

1. Excellent article from the Patriotic Millionaires, wish they had ads like the Lincoln Project.

[appalachiablue]

2. Excellent idea, maybe they'll do that.

[kurtcagle]

3. Very much agree

I've also made the argument that a significant amount of that wealth has come about because companies are slashing payroll and moving as much as they can to automation, especially AI. Given that a significant proportion of that AI was created at public universities and implemented by open source developers who in turn gave back much of what they created to the community, an argument can be made that these same investors are essentially profiting off of software that they didn't write, based on research that they didn't perform, over networks that they didn't put into place and that were significantly subsidized with taxpayer funds.

I work in the AI field, but I've long recognized the potential that it has to be both appropriated and misused, especially in the arena of work. I think it may actually be time for software authors to start demanding that the legal provisions that are written into open-source software be enforced, upon threat of both a technical boycott and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of class action lawsuits.

[AmyStrange]

4. Yup, tax the ultra rich, and...

-

raise the federal minimum wage to $20.00 an hour, or more.

If this country went under, who would lose the most?
==========

[TreasonousBastard]

5. I agree, but... (there's always that damned "but")...

I have raised my tiny voice to insist that inheritances should be taxed as ordinary income. OK, even unearned income, but not a separate category like we have now.

Speaking of unearned income-- this is backwards. Why pay more taxes on income you work for than on income just dropping from the sky? Tax unearned income higher than earned, and watch management payrolls adjust like magic.

A wealth tax is inherently problematic and possibly undemocratic/unconstitutional, as attractive as it sounds. I'm sure, however, that we can some up some mechanism to distribute wealth, or at least its effects, more equitably. Possibly by moving much of that wealth into blind trusts. If we can't attach it, perhaps we can control it.

A fundamental problem is that the wealthy can afford the accountants and lawyers to come up with "solutions" that get them what they want. They influence legislatures and fight in courts with resources we can't match. They also manage to convince the groundlings that any negative effects will multiply on the hoi polloi.

And said hoi polloi buy it because their real goal is not to destroy the rich, but to become the rich. That's a long shot, of course, but destroying the rich destroys a large part of their dreams.