Posted on 01/19/2019 12:30:00 PM PST by BlackFemaleArmyColonel
Earlier this month, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went on national television and said that the United States should tax incomes above $10 million at a 70 percent rate.
In response, some centrist pundits pronounced the Democratic Party dead by political suicide: National Journal reporter Josh Kraushaar argued that, while congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s profane call for Trump’s impeachment was getting more attention, Ocasio-Cortez “calling for a 70 percent tax rate on the nation’s most-watched news show a whole lot more politically damaging for Ds.”
There was never much evidence for this assessment. In public opinion polls, raising taxes on the rich consistently ranks as one of the most popular ideas in American politics. Moreover, political-science research suggests that the American people’s resentment of the wealthy is bitter and deep — and, in the not-too-distant past, Democrats succeeded in leveraging such resentment for political gain.
Meanwhile, as far as plans for class war go, Ocasio-Cortez’s was more “Jimmy Carter” than “Jacobin.” As recently as 1980, the U.S. taxed all incomes above $216,000 (or $658,213 in today’s dollars) at 70 percent rate. And recent research on optimal taxation has suggested that the ideal top marginal rate might be closer to 80 percent.
These facts led certain bloggers to describe the congresswoman’s idea as a “moderate policy.” And now, a new poll has confirmed that such bloggers are, in fact, profoundly wise.
Over the weekend, pollsters from the Hill–HarrisX asked voters, “Would you favor or oppose a tax proposal that would apply a 70% rate to the 10 millionth dollar and beyond for individuals making $10 million a year or more in reportable income?” — and 59 percent said yes.
(Excerpt) Read more at nymag.com ...
None of them think they are in the 70% bracket
When it comes to robbing Peter to pay Paul, you can always depend on Paul’s vote
Insane, ignorant, and/or gullible.
If AOC was really about leveling the playing field, she wouldn’t be touting a confiscatory income tax hike.
AOC would be supporting a WEALTH TAX.
But that’s not what AOC is doing, is she.
And yet another poll showed 95% approve of a 95% tax rate for all income from the film industry - Hollywood.
Yeah in New York where morons live
Outside nyc. 25percent max buy this crap
I'm not surprised at all by this poll. The country has changed. Many FReepers still see America as a place where the family gathers around the TV on Sunday night, holds hands in prayer, and watches the Andy Griffith Show together.
It's not that country anymore.
There's a lot of AOCs out there and they're more than happy to vote themselves the fruits of your labor. It's not a particularly novel idea. It's been tried many times before. The results are never what the proponents expected.
First cut all benefits before raising any tax.
Are you serious? Class warfare has been popular since the Founding.
The poor and unequal must be made to pay their fair share of taxes
No point to it anyway. The truly rich will either have special loopholes or accountants will come up wirh something. So, as usual, what’s left of the middle class will get creamed.
Now, it’s more like Lonesome Roades!
In the 1930’s, a majority of Americans wanted black people sent to Africa and Jews sent back to Europe. Good thing we have a Constitution and a Republic. Of course, if we keep sending commies to Congress, it won’t matter.
Wealthy people should be taxed on consumption at a uniform rate set for all consumers including social security recipients with uniform tax floors built in.
AOC is not deserving of even 5 minutes of attention a month but the underlying anti-rich sentiment may be completely understandable and enduring.
The anti-rich sentiment is understandable but highly susceptible to misplacement. It is understandable because of new beneficiaries having received loot in the trillions, yes trillions with a T, from grand larceny conducted against the American middle-class during the mortgage meltdown of only 10 years ago. The level of criminality is disgusting and deserving of the harshest penalties.
But justice will not arrive in the expected way, ever. The crimes are too convoluted, too intractable, too exhausting and costly to pin down and be digested by the general public. All that the public can be expected to understand is the pain and hurt that they or those close to them experienced during the crisis. They have moved on but still wince at the memories of that time.
Michael Lewis, author and screenwriter of the film “The Big Short” captured part of the criminal insanity behind the greatest heist in history but most moviegoers came away wadded up in hypertechnical convoluted episodes that only financially aware persons and white-collar criminals could absorb.
It was the near perfect crime.
But it’s not over.
But it does explain why Americans today, even conservatives, are pissed off at a new generation of rich that came about not because of forging new industries or technologies or even of inherited old money wealth, but because of grand voodoo larceny.
Another reason these criminals have walked away scot-free is that Americans are ashamed. They are ashamed they took the money. the refi, the benefits of the scam. Equity loans with low teaser rates are like financial meth, highly addictive and mesmerizing to addicts and victims of a financial system let loose by the repeal of Glass-Steagall which Bill Clinton signed and speared by Phil Graham. It is absolutely sickening what these people did.
What’s so bad about loans with low teaser rates? Nothing.
What’s so bad about morphine? Nothing, in a hospital setting.
The Clintons, the Obamas, the Grahams, the Bernakes, the Bushies, the sophisticates at financial think-tanks operating on grants with Ivy League ties, are no better than the scummiest class of used-car salesmen and that is probably an insult to used-car salesmen.
And therein lies the angst and disgust with the web of financial con artists orbiting central banks.
And yet, the criminals love AOC, they are so relieved to see her on the stage, why?
Because she’s a nutcase even to the high school dropout segment. And there she is saying “Tax the Rich!” like an old crazy uncle jumping up and down screaming stop the world because he wants off.
Ask yourself as a conservative, do you like Netflix? Sure you do, why not? But what if you were told Netflix gave Susan Rice a cushy seat on their Board even though she has not a wit of business acumen? Or that they gave Barack Obama a 65 million dollar deal for his memoirs? Likely your sentiment would change. You might even be pissed at Netflix as you should be.
Such is the anti-rich sentiment of the America people today. But yet a beloved and great President is a billionaire many times over. So obviously, it’s not the rich that stink, it’s the getting screwed over without justice that stinks and the feeling that one allowed oneself to be shot up with the financial meth to begin with. The participants feel guilty and screwed over at the same time.
And all of that could have been avoided if the political establishment had not allowed repeal of Glass-Steagall, a repeal package that had no support from the electorate because they didn’t know what the hell it meant. And even following that setup, the lack of enforcement by GW Bush and Barack Obama let the screwing over continue unabated. The criminals were allowed to get away with the crime and no one could articulate what they had done nor explain why the American middle class was not to blame.
I can sell practically any lonely old grandmother a pallet of shi-ite (on her credit) if I control the appraisal and underwriting, and walk away and never be prosecuted if I am clever enough to make her feel guilty by what she agreed to. And that is what the new enriched financial sharks have done to the middle class. And if I ask granny what she thinks about what I did, well put your pacemaker on standby, she hates me, she thinks not only should I be taxed at 100% but I should be burned at the stake. Then along comes the AOC moron, and I laugh with glee. I laugh because I say “is that all you got?”. You get the picture.
And my loot is safe, transferred offshore in numbered tax-free anonymous accounts.
Did I get rich from sleazy mortgage ‘products’? Nah.
I got rich because I took thousands of those sleazy mortgages, wrote securities boilerplate covers, wrapped it in sleazy default swaps (called that to evade insurance regulations), bundled up as a ‘security’ instrument, bribed a bond rating service to rate the instruments at AAA and sell to morons. When the music stopped, and everything crashed, I am gone baby, out of the reach of the law, and the law is too stupid to catch me because they are dizzy and confused at what happened. I stole it all fair and square and ain’t nobody can get me now.
When GW Bush was in the Oval Office, he told his financial investigators to stand down because going after the central bank minions would bring his economy down and he along with it. What a p*ssy!
Oh, what a perfect crime it is.
Yeah, they got away with it.
And AOC is a gift that slaps poor grannies everywhere for being pissed off for life. There is no way a 70% tax rate will ever be imposed again because it’s about getting even and getting even that way is like holding a gun to your head and pulling the trigger.
So will there be justice? Ask it this way, is there justice? Does justice exist?
The answer is yes, but not where you think it will be, not the courts, and certainly not Congress which is a bought and paid for body acting at the behest of the criminals.
Justice will come from technology.
It will come from a historical revolution of electronic decentralization that is now percolating up into the general awareness of American society.
Think of it this way, in the future, every time you make a purchase or make any transaction, you stick it to an a-hole that stole trillions and blamed you for it. You will be smiling every day.
It’s coming.
Mass prosperity requires economic progress,which requires a pro-capitalistic political program, which requires rationality, natural rights, including private property rights, capital accumulation, and technological progress and advances.
The total abolition of the personal and corporate income taxes and of the inheritance tax is an essential feature of a pro-capitalist political program. It is required by the individual’s right to his own property. In addition, progress toward the abolition of these taxes helps to create the conditions required for economic progress, by increasing economic incentives, and the ability to save, both of which serve to promote capital accumulation, and thus a rising productivity of labor and rising average real wage rates.
It sounds nice but there’s not enough money to squeeze out of the rich. Besides, the wealthy will simply use tax loopholes or sell their business and viola, the government takes in less revenue and the job market suffers. Genius!
So, tax the fecal matter out of the wealthy man.
Enjoy the unemployment line.
When inflation really kicks in, we all gonna be payin 70%. :)
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