How much is that in Soy Lattes?
Posted on 07/06/2018 10:32:16 AM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes thinks the government should give cash handouts to people with the lowest incomes in order to fight income inequality. And he thinks the money should come from higher taxes on wealthy individuals and even big tech companies, like Facebook.
Hughes, 34, was one of Facebook’s co-founders, along with Mark Zuckerberg and three of their Harvard classmates, in 2004. He was Facebook’s spokesperson for the company’s first three years, before leaving to finish his Harvard degree and then to work on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign as a media strategist.
He says he's made "half a billion dollars for three years of work" based on the value of his initial stock in Facebook, and his "lucky break" is exactly what's wrong with America today.
“That is indicative of a fundamental unfairness in our economy. Income inequality in our country has not been this bad since the Great Depression. And even though we’re reading the headlines that unemployment is at 3.9 percent and the stock market is at record highs, what’s actually happening is that the median incomes in our country haven’t budged in nearly 40 years. At the same time stories like mine create an illusion of economic opportunity," he told Techcrunch contributors Adriana Stan and Tom Goodwin on their "Interesting People in Interesting Times" podcast.
Hughes, author of “Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn," is not necessarily a believer in the idea of universal basic income (UBI) — championed by entrepreneur Andrew Yang and also supported by billionaires such as Richard Branson and even Facebook’s Zuckerberg — which would see a standard cash payment handed out to all citizens no matter their employment status. UBI “is infeasible in America today,” Hughes explained on the podcast, because making payments to everyone in the U.S. is an “unaffordable” proposition.
However, Hughes believes a reconfigured U.S. tax code could effectively transfer money from wealthy people like himself to those in need, from the unemployed to American workers struggling to make ends meet. He says on the podcast that the "most urgent thing we can do" is roll back tax code changes that lowered rates on corporations and the 1 percent and instead give a $500 monthly tax credit to every working American who currently earns less than $50,000 per year to create an “income floor” — a minimum amount of money that people earn.
The plan would cost roughly $290 billion a year in total, Hughes said in April. He proposed that the government pay for the handouts by imposing a 50 percent tax rate on both income and capital gains for any Americans who earn more than $250,000 per year. (Individuals who earn more than $200,000 per year currently have their income taxed at 35 percent, based on the latest tax overhaul.)
By giving low-income workers $500 a month, Hughes contends, you would guarantee they would not earn less than $6,000 per year. “That’s not enough money to live on. That's not enough money to put up your feet and, like, watch video games — the fear of a lot of folks out there. But it is a massive amount of money in the lives of many working people in our country,” he said on the podcast.
Hughes also proposed further changes to the U.S. tax code that could generate enough money to guarantee an income floor for working Americans. “You could tax data and distribute a check to everybody,” he said, which would see the government tax companies on the data they collect from customers, which is often sold to third parties such as marketers and advertisers.
From social media platforms, like Facebook, to e-commerce giants, like Amazon, large companies collect reams of data on their users and customers that can be put to use in myriad ways — either sold to third parties or used to improve the companies’ own services. “We all create immense amounts of data,” Hughes said. “Not just your Facebook post, but your phones know where you are physically, your Fitbit knows your heart rate, your calendar knows where you’re going to be.”
If those companies are making billions of dollars in profits, in part thanks to data collection, Hughes argues, then “there is an opportunity to say: Our collective data is powering these profits, we should all share a little bit in the upside.”
“You could ask these companies to pay a small tax into a sovereign wealth fund and have that be distributed as a data dividend,” Hughes said on the podcast. “A check to every single citizen as a recognition of the value they’re creating.”
Gawd, communists are stupid.
How much is that in Soy Lattes?
Exactly, totally, 100-percent bass-ackwards. Being rich is not a bad thing. What's bad is not showing others how to repeat your success. What's stupid is not realizing that rich people, like your boss, create jobs for people like you, who through either hard work, luck, or a combination of both, also become rich.
Taking money from the rich and giving it to others without effort kills incentives to do better. Not knowing this simply proves that a Harvard education apparently gives short shrift to economics as one field of study. Otherwise you'd know that history is strewn with the wreckage of attempts at Socialism, with Venezuela currently on the top of the heap. Why add the US to that pile?
He made 1/2 billion in three years- So give it back to all of their subscribers, or their stockholders, or to the government, or to the ‘guy’ on the street, or give it to me. None of the above will fee guilty for having his wealth.
The fiscal and economic idiocy and ignorance is so typical. I don’t doubt he means it but the new Socialist Billionaire class of Americans are morons.
What’s funny is that the benefit, just like food stamps, welfare, and Medicaid, will still not be considered “income.”
So giving them $500 or $1,000,000 a month will still make their income $0.
And,of course,he’ll donate to the Treasury all but $5 million of his net worth and all but $750,000 of his yearly income to help fund this plan.
If they're going to start giving money away to people, where do I sign up, so I can quit my job and lay around all day complaining and protesting about how bad I have it?
Income inequality
What about Stupid and Ignorance Inequality?
Better idea : lets start by REDISTRIBUTING HIS WEALTH - 99% of it immediately. He could do it himself if he really wanted to...
Yes typical Libtard - very generous with OTHER people’s money
You first. Nobody is stopping you big shot.
I’d really wish president trump would enlarge a tax form. Stand in front of the media and point to the block that says extra voluntary taxes paid. Call out anyone who wants to pay more can do so in this block. Add that the proceeds will go towards the national debt. Let’s see if we can pay that bugger off. Whose with me???? It would be interesting to see the total every April.
“Tax the rich,
feed the poor,
‘till there are
no rich no more.”
Ten Years After (I think?)
Communism at it’s best. F Facebook!
“If those companies are making billions of dollars in profits, in part thanks to data collection, Hughes argues, then “there is an opportunity to say: Our collective data is powering these profits, we should all share a little bit in the upside.”
I’m actually sort of with him on that. On the other hand, we are getting those services for free (google search, google maps, etc.) - so without those companies being able to make money off of them by selling MY data, then they would need to charge me for it.
So - I’m either paying with a dollar bill, or with my data. The day may come when we all wished we had just opted out of the data collection and paid Mr. Internet $50 a month to use their services. (Of course, they would still have all of our data).
Let him give people $500 a month.
These type people will soon become extinct largely due to their own elitist ignorance......
Why stop at 50 percent? Take all their earnings above the national average earnings.
>>What is RICH.....20K 40K what is the number??<<
The liberal answer is “anyone who makes more than me.” Except for the liberal multimillionaire politicians (which is the bulk of them). Then it is “anyone not one of my constituents.”
Another mega-rich trying to keep the masses poor and oppressed and dependent on him.
These guys are pathological.
The way to fix income inequality is to give them opportunity.
Help them on the first step of the ladder. For example stop this craziness about a $15 minimum wage which is destroying opportunity for those that needed it the most.
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