Millionaires who want to pay higher taxes

[southernhybrid]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/12/nyregion/millionaires-tax.html

A millionaire walks into the State Capitol and says, “Raise my taxes.”

Please.

This was no joke: The millionaire was Morris Pearl, a former BlackRock executive who is the chairman of Patriotic Millionaires, a group dedicated to pushing for higher taxes on businesses and the ultrarich.

Testifying on Tuesday at a state budget hearing, Mr. Pearl asked a bipartisan group of about half a dozen legislators to create a new “multimillionaire’s tax” on households earning more than $5 million a year in order to fund new affordable housing, infrastructure and schools.

“I’m a person of some means. I could live wherever I want,” said Mr. Pearl, a former managing director at BlackRock. “I could live in Kansas, if I wanted to live in a state with low taxes and low services. But I don’t.”

There is a group of about 200 very wealthy people that want to pay higher taxes. I remember when Warren Buffet used to say that his taxes should be much higher than they are, but this is the first time I've seen something that could become a movement of very wealthy people who realize they don't mind paying a lot more taxes as they would still be able to live very lavish lifestyles.

I do think there should be higher taxes on income over a certain amount. I'm wondering if more very wealthy people would agree that their taxes should be higher, if this would make it more acceptable to lawmakers to raise taxes on the upper percent.

So far, the governor doesn't like the idea, as he fears it will make more wealthy people leave New York, but having grown up just outside of that city, I know how damn much New Yorkers love that city and I doubt having to pay higher taxes will result in very wealthy people leaving. Regardless, I like the idea of those at the top trying to lead the way for people like them to pay more in taxes. The man leading the movement claims that he could easily move to a low tax state, but he loves New York. While, I assumed his is primarily about state and local taxes, it certainly could include federal taxes as well. I think this is a good idea and I hope those leading this movement will be able to get more in their class to join them.

 

[southernhybrid]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/12/business/rich-people-against-tax-cut.html?module=inline

But Mr. Prince has found camaraderie among an ad hoc group of wealthy individuals known as the Patriotic Millionaires. Founded in 2010 by Morris Pearl, a former BlackRock executive, the loose-knit group advocates higher taxes on businesses and the wealthy. In recent years, they have met with legislators in Washington and various state capitals, testified before Congress and endorsed candidates who endorse higher taxes on the rich.

“We’re very concerned about this huge inequality thing,” said Mr. Pearl. “And the tax cut was designed to make the rich richer.”

Now retired, Mr. Pearl is frustrated that his income from investments is not taxed at a higher rate. “I don’t work at all, but I’m making more money than most people who do work, and I’m paying less taxes than they do,” he said. “It’s a pretty good deal if you can get it, but it’s not good for the country.”

That quote is from the article that was linked to the first one I posted.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Nothing is stopping them from just cutting a check to the government.

 

[Trausti]

Nothing is stopping them from just cutting a check to the government.

But then how do you virtue signal?

 

[laughing dog]

Nothing is stopping them from just cutting a check to the government.

But then how do you virtue signal?

Charity is virtue signalling. Duh.

 

[David Jeffrey Spetch]

Considering the political insanity manifestations of leftist lies and deceptions being forced upon the citizens of New York right now, it wouldn't surprise me if the ulterior motive would be to want to get rich people to leave.

 

[laughing dog]

Considering the political insanity manifestations of leftist lies and deceptions being forced upon the citizens of New York right now, it wouldn't surprise me if the ulterior motive would be to want to get rich people to leave.

View attachment 20147

Now that is a perfect example of virtue signaling that posters like Trausti can appreciate.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Considering the political insanity manifestations of leftist lies and deceptions being forced upon the citizens of New York right now, it wouldn't surprise me if the ulterior motive would be to want to get rich people to leave.

View attachment 20147

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot???

 

[PyramidHead]

Considering the political insanity manifestations of leftist lies and deceptions being forced upon the citizens of New York right now, it wouldn't surprise me if the ulterior motive would be to want to get rich people to leave.

View attachment 20147

Did you just quote yourself with graphics? How old are you?

 

[PyramidHead]

Nothing is stopping them from just cutting a check to the government.

Right, but they aren't asking that only they pay the higher taxes. It only makes a difference if everybody has to do it.

You see a burning building across the street, and you know you and all your neighbors on this side of the street have a lot of water to spare. But it won't make any difference if you just dump your water on the fire. It would only make sense if the rest of your neighbors also dumped theirs at the same time as you. Everybody's extra water is needed to make it worth anybody individually contributing theirs.

(also you stole the water from poor and middle class workers and they are the ones in the burning house across the street)

 

[ronburgundy]

Nothing is stopping them from just cutting a check to the government.

But then how do you virtue signal?

No, it's about ensuring that all of the rich (most of whom lack virtues) have to pay to reduce to the harms of the capitalist system that made them rich. Also, he didn't say he simply wanted government to have more $ to do as they please, but he wanted that $ used to benefit the poor, which means he wants higher taxes on the rich as part of a budget that is tied to more funding of programs for the poor. Pretty obvious and simple, but doesn't stop rabid right wing dogmatist without any ethics from deliberately missing the point.

 

[ruby sparks]

The man is not well.

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfOuJmAzSmo[/YOUTUBE]

 

[southernhybrid]

https://phys.org/news/2018-02-gates-billionaires-significantly-taxes.html

The Microsoft co-founder, the world's second richest man after Amazon's Jeff Bezos, was critical of a recent US tax overhaul that slashed corporate taxes and lowered the top bracket for individual income.
"I've paid more taxes, over $10 billion, than anyone else, but the government should require the people in my position to pay significantly higher taxes," he said in an interview Sunday with CNN.

I think it would be fantastic if the ultra rich lead the way to help our tax code become more progressive.

 

[Gun Nut]

Considering the political insanity manifestations of leftist lies and deceptions being forced upon the citizens of New York right now, it wouldn't surprise me if the ulterior motive would be to want to get rich people to leave.

View attachment 20147

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot???

What's not to understand? He loves everyone so much he wants them to appreciate how much they should hate Muslims and Homosexuals.
Change is bad... because it's different than how it is now. how it is now is familiar, and comfortable. Change is hard. Hard is bad.

I get it. People aren't just born with emotional maturity and the ability to think about history, motivation, and empathy. You have to learn those things... and learning is change.

 

[southernhybrid]

The Patriotic Millionaires have a website that explains more about why they want to pay higher taxes.

https://patrioticmillionaires.org/our-values/

The Patriotic Millionaires believe the country will be more stable and more prosperous when all of its citizens are authentically engaged in the governance process, rather than ceding control to a small number of self-interested actors.

We believe that the trend of growing economic inequality is both bad for society and bad for business. We believe revenue models that rely on human misery should be exorcised from our economy. We believe the government should mandate a livable wage for all working Americans, rather than relying on “the market” which has failed to realize that goal over 240 years of American history. We believe a national “living wage” law will ensure a stable level of aggregate demand, which will fuel our economy more broadly, ushering in a new era of prosperity for all Americans, including rich ones.

We believe our nation’s social and economic progress requires significant and constant public investment, and that the wealthy, who benefit the most from our country’s assets and institutions, should naturally and gladly pay the greatest share of whatever taxes are needed to support that investment.

Most Americans regardless of political party, support this philosophical framework. Political power currently lies primarily with those who don’t. The task ahead is difficult but relatively straightforward. We must grow the political power of those committed to this framework, and diminish the political power of those who are not committed to this framework.

I hope this group will use their political power to help lesson the severe wealth inequality that the country currently suffers from. I do find it funny that some of the posters here, who are obviously not among the ultra wealthy, would disparage this movement.

 

[southernhybrid]

And, since wealth inequality is at the highest its been since just before the start of the Great Depression, it may not be that this group has formed for altruistic reasons. But, who cares? They realize that it's in the country's best interests for their taxes to be raised. That's very smart.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-been-almost-a-100-years-since-the-americas-1-had-so-much-wealth-2019-02-11

New research says America’s ultra-rich haven’t held as much of the country’s wealth since the Jazz Age, those freewheeling times before the country’s finances shattered. “U.S. wealth concentration seems to have returned to levels last seen during the Roaring Twenties,” wrote Gabriel Zucman, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Zucman said all the research on the issue also points to large wealth concentrations in China and Russia in recent decades. The same thing is happening in France and the U.K., but at a “more moderate rise,” the paper said.

In 1929 — before Wall Street’s crash unleashed the Great Depression — the top 0.1% richest adults’ share of total household wealth was close to 25%, according to Zucman’s paper, which was distributed by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Those rates plunged in the early 1930s and continued dropping to below 10% in the late 1970s, findings show. Rates have been on the rebound since the early 1980s, and are currently close to 20%.

Nobody's claiming that we're on the verge of another great depression but there have been many hints that the economy isn't nearly as strong as certain politicians and conservative pundits are claiming.

 

[dismal]

Nothing is stopping them from just cutting a check to the government.

Right, but they aren't asking that only they pay the higher taxes. It only makes a difference if everybody has to do it.

Well, no, if everyone who thought taxes should go up paid what they thought they should pay the government would get a crapton more money.

How would that not make a difference?

Are you claiming the government would just piss it away?

 

[scombrid]

Nothing is stopping them from just cutting a check to the government.

Should all taxes be voluntary then? You only pay based on your perception of the value of the services that you receive?

There is a reason that contributions that benefit everybody generally have to be mandatory for all concerned. Free rider. There are plenty of examples of taxes and regulations that are generally agreed upon by a majority as necessary but for which there has to be a mandatory component.

 

[scombrid]

I've seen a claim that the top 10% wealthiest people pay 60% of the taxes. But the disparity is that they control >90% of the wealth. As their proportion of national wealth increases and their tax burden relative to that wealth decreases, the common pie to pay for the military, roads, air traffic control, weather surveillance and forecasting, hydrometeorological predictions, waterway maintenance, shrinks. We see it now where taxes and fees are pushed down the economic heap in the form of higher SaLT, tolls, higher fees for use of common park space, etc... The roads are falling apart and they want the $10/hr house keeper that has to live 60 miles outside the city because the pay doesn't support living near the job to pay to fix the pot holes that are busting up the shitty car.

 

[PyramidHead]

Nothing is stopping them from just cutting a check to the government.

Right, but they aren't asking that only they pay the higher taxes. It only makes a difference if everybody has to do it.

Well, no, if everyone who thought taxes should go up paid what they thought they should pay the government would get a crapton more money.

How would that not make a difference?

Are you claiming the government would just piss it away?

Nope, I'm claiming that it only works if everyone has to do it, regardless of whether or not they want to. Kind of like how laws apply to everybody, even those who want to break them.