TAX BILLIONAIRES NET WORTH? WHY NOT.
DEB’S BORN AGAIN PROGRESSIVES DO NOT THINK TAX AND ARE POORLY INFORMED ABOUT HOW REGULATIONS CURB GREED & CONTROL CAPITALISM — MERELY PROPOSING A 90% BRACKET IS TO SEEK HEADLINES FROM THE IGNORANT MEDIA. Decades ago there was a surplus profit tax, and up to a tax on “unearned income” ie, specifically on dividends which were not deductible by corporations. So all kinds of exec comp schemes were devised to get around this.
The root cause ot economic unfairness is SOCIOPATHIC GREED, the kind of greed that does not care about victims. In 1820 Brits discovered the greed unleashed by Adam Smith’s Capitalism and his “invisible hand” – interpreted as markets self regulate, meaning greed should be unfettered – had to be regulated – controlled, so the Brits initiated a “modest” labor law to protect women and children.
Today economic unfairness is rampant due to the fact that sociopathic greed has been totally deregulated and not taxed fairly. This is a global problem, ask the rioting French.
IT IS TIME TO CONSIDER A SURPLUS NET WORTH TAX ON BILLIONAIRES, AND MAYBE A MERE 1/2 A BILLIONAIRE. FURTHER THERE IS NO RATIONAL OR LOGICAL WAY TO NOT IMPOSE HIGHER INCOME TAX ON ADJUSTED GROSS INCOMES IN EXCESS OF $500,000. NEXT MAKE CORP DIVIDENDS DEDUCTIBLE TO THE CORP WHICH WOULD INCREASE YIELDS TO SHARE HOLDERS & FORCE CORPS TO GIVE UP THEIR PRIMARY FINANCIAL EXCUSE TO NOT SHARE, AND RETURN TO TAX UNEARNED DIVIDEND INCOME ABOVE AN ARBITRARY LEVEL OF $500,000 (or whatever) AT 80%.
The only way to control sociopathic greed in the financial arena (the kind of greed that does not care about victims, including country) is with teeth – strong regulations (Glass Steagall combined with the 1956 BHC Act – repackaged into McCain-Warren 21st Century Glass) with tough enforcement provisions; regulate key industries like big oil, big pharma and health carriers which would curb runaway unfettered Capitalism from going awry; and restore the “best salary leveL” for the top 5 corp execs in public corporations – which would not allow any public corp to pay exec salaries in excess of 40 times the average employee comp in their industry with a cap of $3M (arbitrary, but 3xs the cap 30 years ago) and this would help raise employee compensation. [See, Chapter 18: Executive Compensation, Reasonable or Disgusting: Tax Laws Promote Bonuses Not Dividends; No Enforcement of IRS Sec. 162(m) “How We Got Swindled…”]
Measures like this worked fine decades ago, but sociopathic greed, which since the late 80s I have characterized as “financial darwinism” i.e., “survival of richest” — began to take control and America shifted from real investment to financial [See, “Economics Explained” Heilbroner & Thurow”]. Real creates capital formation and jobs, financial creates higher income and massive net worth for the already rich.
It’s time to establish a NEW DOCTRINE OF FAIRNESS – WHICH MUST BE BASED ON A MACRO FOUNDATION NOT MICRO (not just about global warming or health ins). And this cannot happen until we defeat the GOP WAR AGAINST THE PUBLIC GOOD – SO IN 2020 WE NEED TO ELECT A BRUTALLY CANDID WARRIOR WITH UNSWERVING INTEGRITY, PROFOUND MACRO KNOWLEDGE WHO WILL NOT MERELY PANDER FOR VOTES BUT LEAD AMERICA WITH WISDOM AND THE COURAGE TO BE REAL.