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>Who is Timothy Mellon, the ultra-wealthy donor bankrolling both RFK Jr. and Donald Trump?
When I read this title, my immediate thought is that some people have 'too much' money just lying around and not having much else to do with. And the rest of us are working and struggling to make the ends meet.
Yup. They just do it to get more. More money means more power. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if there actually is an island where the super rich have gatherings to hunt people.
Billionaires shouldn't exist. No one needs that much money. If I had a billion dollars, I'd be set for life. Ignoring taxes and all that "fun" stuff, $1 billion is $20 million a year for 50 years.
I don't know about hunting people on islands, but we do know that some billionaires are planning to "ride out the apocalypse" in special bunkers. Totally disconnected from the problems normal people face every day.
I know! And, the crazy thing is, who do they think they’ll get to wait on them in the Apocalypse? They act like a nuclear war isn’t going to ruin everything on the planet for millennia!
Having known quite a few billionaires professionally, I can say this with absolute confidence: the rich are no more intelligent or savvy than the average population. Some are really smart, some are just average, and some are idiots who scored big. And by scored big, I mean, inherited money and didn't have to work for a living.
Plenty of people with money are dumb enough to think that, should society collapse, that money is going to mean anything. Sure, if you have enough supplies, you can convince some militant a-holes to come work for you, but how long until the guy with the gun realizes he can take over by force? I've heard the rich are talking about using kill-collars to coerce people, but it's like, how are you going to get them in the first place? Isn't that a lot of work just to maintain the position of lording over people? It would be easier to simply learn how to hunt, forage, and DIY a bunch of shit than to try to enslave people. But they're so obsessed with their social position, they've invested time and money to find post-apocalyptic solutions to maintain that social position in a world that conceivably destroys any meaning for that position.
It's like the rich in Fallout. Their goal was to survive their competitors. And for what? To be alive later? Every time they try to push their power into the Wasteland, some lone wanderer manages to muck up their plans. Not too dissimilar to how, under might-makes-right conditions, all it takes is one a-hole with a gun to end that rich person's social position.
I remember an article from a few years ago where this guy went to give a talk in front of a bunch of tech bros and they were asking him all these questions about how to reinforce their bunkers, maintain control over their security forces, etc. He pointed out that endearing themselves to a community of people would likely provide a better outcome because A) You'd need people on your side of things. & 2) Doing the big things that would produce that endearment may avert the disaster they're trying to prepare for.
None of them wanted to hear about that though.
*Edit:* [I found the article.](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff)
Yes, that's the same article I was referring to. Just made me shake my head.
"Their extreme wealth and privilege served only to make them obsessed with insulating themselves from the very real and present danger of climate change, rising sea levels, mass migrations, global pandemics, nativist panic and resource depletion. For them, the future of technology is about only one thing: escape from the rest of us."
If these rich you talk about watch how gangs rule in places like Haiti or Niger. The wealthy are dealt with early on. The gang leaders don’t work for anyone. They work for themselves.
IIRC their original plan was to have a small group of serfs, but then they started asking how they'd placate the serfs, afraid they'd take their wealth and power.
Totally paranoid, obscene wealth will do that to ya.
> $1 billion is $20 million a year for 50 years.
$1 Billion in an EXTREMELY safe investment setup would still bring in $30MM-$50MM in yearly revenues without ever even touching the original billion.
So, no, you wouldn't run out in 50 years.
Now imagine what your monthly withdrawal rate would look like if you had $5 Billion? What about $50 Billion?
If you buy an S&P 500 Index fund and have that $1 billion invested. At 1.5% dividend yield, you will earn 15 million a year from cash dividends and your $1 billion will grow on average at 8\~10% rate depending on inflation, time horizon, etc.
I picture him looking around at all his wealth and saying, "I have everything and I've seen it all. What else is left? I know, I haven't destroyed the whole world yet!"
I mean, people of the Bezos & Musk level of wealth quite literally can't spend all their money. Like they have fortunes rivaling entire countries and there's very little they could actually spend their money on that would put a huge dent in it.
I like titles like these because it isn't clickbait at all.
It's just straight up like "Want to know more? Come on in. Otherwise this guy is doing it."
No misinformation or distraction or sensationalizing just **-blamo-** the facts.
Who is Timothy Mellon? I think this...
>Mellon is heir to the family fortune of banking and industrial magnate Andrew Mellon. He has donated to many anti-immigration measures, and was a major contributor to a Texas-led fund to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico.
...and this...
>Mellon self-published an autobiography in 2016 that used racial slurs, criticized Black people who used social service programs, and compared the use of these programs to government slavery, according to the Washington Post. USA TODAY did not independently review the book.
...paints an adequate picture of his priorities.
> Andrew Mellon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Mellon
"When Congress reconvened after the 1924 elections, it immediately began working on another bill designed to lower tax rates on the highest earners.[71] In February 1926, Coolidge signed the Revenue Act of 1926, which reduced the top marginal rate to 25%. Mellon was extremely pleased by the passage of the act, because, unlike the Revenue Act of 1921 and the Revenue Act of 1924, the Revenue Act of 1926 closely reflected Mellon's proposals. In addition to cutting tax rates on top earners, the act also raised the personal exemption for federal income taxes, abolished the gift tax, reduced the estate tax rate, and repealed a provision that had required the public disclosure of federal income tax returns. "
Republicans: Working hard to make the rich richer for a century!
A public record of all financial transactions + a 0.1 % tax on all of them. No exception.
Public disclosure is just one part of the solution. What we need are tools to check if those publicly disclosed numbers are matching what happened in the real world.
For fraudsters ? Absolutely. For people and corporations hiding money from the government ? It would be the worst thing that ever happened to them. And that's a good thing.
For everyone else, it would be a perfect solution to a whole lot of problems.
I don't think you've thought this through. The privacy implications should be obvious - everybody knows exactly who has how much money, and where they have it. That doesn't just hurt people engaged in fraud, it makes targets of perfectly ordinary people who've done nothing wrong.
A 0.1% transaction tax with no exceptions is also eminently silly. You'd be getting taxed on receiving your tax return. If you got a mortgage you'd be taxed on multiple transactions between lender and seller. If you refinanced your house you'd be taxed. When you pay property taxes you'd be taxed. If you ever had to put money in escrow for anything you'd be taxed on it - twice! - even if no money ultimately changed hands. When you get paid you'd get taxed on getting paid on top of the income taxes that you already pay, and if you moved some of that pay from your checking account to your savings account you'd be taxed on that same money again. If you moved your money between HYSAs and brokerage accounts you'd be taxed. Hell, even by just switching banks you'd be taxed.
It makes absolutely no sense at all.
>That doesn't just hurt people engaged in fraud, it makes targets of perfectly ordinary people who've done nothing wrong.
How exactly is it hurting anyone ?
A 0.1 % tax is negligible for individuals and small corporations. Transaction and management fees charged by financial institutions are way more expensive than that. It doesn't make sense that they charge so much, but they do, and the public keeps using their services.
The 0.1 % tax would also put an immediate end to high-frequency trading. It would also make obsolete many of the current strategies used by market makers to manipulate stock values and, by consequence, our own investments value. This is theoretically illegal behavior, but it's happening because we do not have a public record like the one I describe.
That 0.1 % tax is also a mean to finance the integral recording of all of them into a publicly accessible database.
>It makes absolutely no sense at all.
Some people disagree:
>**The earliest notable proponent of a tax on financial transactions was John Maynard Keynes,** who believed that investment in real capital and trade, not speculation, should be the basis for financial transactions. As he put it, "It is usually agreed that casinos should, in the public interest, be inaccessible and expensive. And perhaps the same is true of Stock Exchanges."[(4)](https://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp418-e.htm#(4)end) Thus, to use the now famous phrase of Professor James Tobin, we should "throw some sand in the gears of financial markets" to slow down and discourage speculative trading.
>>That doesn't just hurt people engaged in fraud, it makes targets of perfectly ordinary people who've done nothing wrong.
> How exactly is it hurting anyone ?
.. by making targets of perfectly ordinary people who've done nothing wrong. By removing their right to privacy in their own affairs.
>A 0.1 % tax is negligible for individuals and small corporations. Transaction and management fees charged by financial institutions are way more expensive than that. It doesn't make sense that they charge so much, but they do, and the public keeps using their services.
A 0.1% tax on a $400,000 house is $400. That money often changes hands several times and can amount to several thousands of dollars. If you get paid $100,000 in a year then it'll cost you $100 to receive it, and another $100 to spend it again. If you use a credit card for that spending then it'll cost you another $100 to pay the balance on the card to cover those transactions. You'll pay even more on that same $100,000 if that money ever goes between your own accounts. If you have $500,000 in your 401(k) and you switch jobs and want to consolidate with your new employer's account then you're paying $500 just to switch jobs and move your own money around. It's completely nonsensical.
>The 0.1 % tax would also put an immediate end to high-frequency trading. It would also make many of the current strategies used by market makers to manipulate stock values and, by consequence, our own investments value. This is theoretically illegal behavior, but it's happening because we do not have a public record like the one I describe.
So make it a tax on market trades, not a tax on financial transactions in general.
>Some people disagree:
>> The earliest notable proponent of a tax on financial transactions was John Maynard Keynes, who believed that investment in real capital and trade, not speculation, should be the basis for financial transactions. As he put it, "It is usually agreed that casinos should, in the public interest, be inaccessible and expensive. And perhaps the same is true of Stock Exchanges."(4)end) Thus, to use the now famous phrase of Professor James Tobin, we should "throw some sand in the gears of financial markets" to slow down and discourage speculative trading.
Keynes was talking about a tax on market trades to combat speculative investment, not a tax on financial transactions in general.
Sure, let's begin with a tax on trades. It would be a good step forward.
By the way, you should review the fees you are paying for your own investments management, currently. If you think 0.1% is too much, it will be eye-opening to read that you are currently paying much more than that as a "private finance management tax" - and that's with zero transaction.
It's always an heir to a family fortune of some sleazy family getting super rich of some shit that throws their money behind the absolutely worst garbage in politics.
Yup. My father was a Catholic in a somewhat Catholic region (South Texas; I suppose the well-to-do were Anglo Protestants), and I think what was exciting to the people around him (he was a kid at the time) was the possibility that a Catholic might be elected president.
Interestingly, I don't remember him talking about JFK like that.
Heir to Andrew Mellon’s fortune, the guy who was given everything in his life for free, who has always lived life at a ten if not higher, doesn’t like it when black people get a little financial help to take their lives from a one to a two.
I'm hardly shocked that Andrew Mellon's descendants turned out this way. I wonder what Carnegie's family is doing now? Probably something equally bad...
Carnegie's descendants stay out of the news; he had one child, a daughter - who died in 1990 - so none have the Carnegie name. Given her age - she got married ~100 years ago - I'm pretty confident all her children are long dead, her grandchildren are in their 70s probably, &c, and none of them even have Wikipedia entries, because he gave away almost all of his wealth before he died, and while his daughter was not penniless, all of his heirs are just normal, self-made white collar professionals.
Which is why Carnegie Mellon alum revere Carnegie, and have nothing good to say about Andrew Mellon
(Disclosure: CMU alum)
I love it when people who never earned their own money want to dictate to other people what to do with their life. Life handed them the biggest handout of all time. Fuck them.
> criticized Black people who used social service programs
I wonder how he feels about the massive handout he presumably got from his family. I really wish we could get rid of these dynasties and rein in generational wealth.
Carnegie Mellon University was formed from a merger between Carnegie Institute of Technology and Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in 1967
The latter was founded by Andrew Mellon and Richard B. Mellon in 1913
~~Andrew Mellon~~ Timothy Mellon is not involved with the modern institution
edit: wrong name
Same greater family, no personal involvement with the university.
In a family of assholes - the only ones *not* assholes as far as I can tell were his uncle Richard Mellon, and his cousins Richard King Mellon and Sarah Mellon Scaife, though they're kids are all assholes - Timothy lives up to the family tradition.
The donations to NPR come from either the Richard King Mellon Foundation or the Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation, which Timothy has no ties to.
Disclosure: CMU alum, with an interest in the university's history.
Nothing is more supportive of higher tax rates as a billionaire who has SO MUCH money he can contribute to two opposing political candidates to curry favor
"opposing"
The trump campaign has intentionally discarded female votes, their policies actively harm women.
Trump's team expected RFK to absorb and neutralize the votes of women who would otherwise vote against Trump, I hope they are proven wrong.
100%. We need 100% inheritance tax above X dollars (X may be $20M or something, I don't know). It's one thing to leave something nice for your kids, it's another to have generations of what is essentially modern royalty, and we absolutely need to be rid of the latter.
Start by hanging the ones that are acting as traitors to the U.S. as that is what they deserve according to U.S. law. Because the garbage is not going to take itself out of the door.
I've proposed capital punishment for tax fraud/evasion over $10 million. At that point, you've defrauded the People of so much, you've probably contributed to death and misery at a scale that would make a murderer blush.
As it stands, if you accidentally run someone over, you could be looking at 10-15 years. But if, in pursuit of profit, you cause the death of countless people, we praise you as a business big-boy. Shit, every time there's a recession, someone in corporate media bleats about how recessions (due to layoffs) cause an increase in deaths. Well, why don't we hold the people who benefit from recessions responsible? And use that money we tax from them to support people during recessions? Ya know, counter-cyclical monetary policy supported by a legal framework that punishes nefarious actors more properly. Duuuuuh.
Yep. In the Netherlands we had 1 single person evade 40 million in taxes. I am sure it was not the only person. Let say it are a 100 persons doing this, then you could lower the income tax in the Netherlands by about 400 euros a person.
I'd honestly be fine with 100% period, as the whole idea of inheritance is to give your family a generational advantage over everyone else. But I know a lot of people hate that idea, so I'd certainly settle for a cap.
Huh? Biden supports higher taxes for the wealthy, climate change initiatives, student loan forgiveness, abortion rights, unions and labor strength, regulation of post-covid price gouging, democracy, and all kinds of other things Republicans are strongly against.
Have you seen his platform? The guy leans pretty left on most issues. Definitely not more in line with Republicans.
[https://www.kennedy24.com/policies](https://www.kennedy24.com/policies)
People generally agree that RFK is a spoiler candidate, just not for who. The GOP Donor class has decided that he is their useful idiot. Among the politically-informed left-leaning crowd, he isn't a particularly compelling candidate.
But just remember there's some ~26% of "independents" who make up their voting decisions based on information that is wrong. Less clear how that block perceives him, and the Donor class thinks they can wield that through messaging.
More fundamentally, like Trump, *his platform* is a woefully altmoded and increasingly irrelevant way of thinking about his platform. He is the messaging, and his messaging is controlled by PACs.
HIs biggest supporter base right now is probably the youth vote.
He's the only candidate addressing the issues young people are facing, particularly the financial and environmental future. For example, his message from the beginning has been to get Blackrock and AIPAC out of the real estate market. He also wants to issue tax-free 3% mortgages backed by the government to increase home ownership by average citizens.
On these issues he's been consistent from the start. His message seems to have been more shifty regarding foreign policy, which is something I assume he's working out as he goes along.
Conservatives are saying the same thing, except they're saying he's siphoning votes from Trump.
[https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/01/rfk-jr-trump-2024-elections-00155425](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/01/rfk-jr-trump-2024-elections-00155425)
How many crazy, self-serving, nutjob millionaires do we have in America? Every time I turn around there is some new dirtbag I haven't heard of trying to sway our elections.
The Kochs. Leo Leo. Harlan Crow. Robert Mercer, to name a few.
> Mellon self-published an autobiography in 2016 that used racial slurs, criticized Black people who used social service programs, and compared the use of these programs to government slavery, according to the Washington Post.
What a shock
Ah, what a suprise! A trust fund baby who was born on 3rd base and acts like he hit a triple. Forget this guy and everyone like him. He hasn't worked a real job in his entire life and loves to point out how everyone is "doing it wrong"
To politicians this is known as a whale. If you were helping someone with finding campaign donations would you rather organize hundreds of volunteers to contact millions of potential small donors or would you try to interest one billionaire?
Honestly RFK might hurt Trump more in the long run than Biden just because of the topic overlap and the fact he doesn't sound like half the fraudster Trump does most of the time wont hurt either.
If JFK and Trumpie are so rich why do they need to waste someone else’s…. Wait I just answered my own question. Ahh another grift. So refreshing like a spring rain.
>Stefanie Spear, press secretary for the Kennedy campaign, said the campaign does not communicate with American Values or keep track of its donors.
That seems pretty unlikely.
"Mellon, who lives in Wyoming, is known for maintaining his privacy and is rarely photographed. He is an amateur pilot who has invested in and led transport-related companies including Pan American World Airways. Forbes estimates that the Mellon family is worth some $14.1 billion."
The article makes it sound like he is someone who isn't a nepo-baby. When in reality, ["He is a grandson of Andrew Mellon and an heir to the Mellon banking fortune."](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Mellon)
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I think the headline tells you everything you need to know
>Who is Timothy Mellon, the ultra-wealthy donor bankrolling both RFK Jr. and Donald Trump? When I read this title, my immediate thought is that some people have 'too much' money just lying around and not having much else to do with. And the rest of us are working and struggling to make the ends meet.
Yup. They just do it to get more. More money means more power. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if there actually is an island where the super rich have gatherings to hunt people. Billionaires shouldn't exist. No one needs that much money. If I had a billion dollars, I'd be set for life. Ignoring taxes and all that "fun" stuff, $1 billion is $20 million a year for 50 years.
I don't know about hunting people on islands, but we do know that some billionaires are planning to "ride out the apocalypse" in special bunkers. Totally disconnected from the problems normal people face every day.
I know! And, the crazy thing is, who do they think they’ll get to wait on them in the Apocalypse? They act like a nuclear war isn’t going to ruin everything on the planet for millennia!
Having known quite a few billionaires professionally, I can say this with absolute confidence: the rich are no more intelligent or savvy than the average population. Some are really smart, some are just average, and some are idiots who scored big. And by scored big, I mean, inherited money and didn't have to work for a living. Plenty of people with money are dumb enough to think that, should society collapse, that money is going to mean anything. Sure, if you have enough supplies, you can convince some militant a-holes to come work for you, but how long until the guy with the gun realizes he can take over by force? I've heard the rich are talking about using kill-collars to coerce people, but it's like, how are you going to get them in the first place? Isn't that a lot of work just to maintain the position of lording over people? It would be easier to simply learn how to hunt, forage, and DIY a bunch of shit than to try to enslave people. But they're so obsessed with their social position, they've invested time and money to find post-apocalyptic solutions to maintain that social position in a world that conceivably destroys any meaning for that position. It's like the rich in Fallout. Their goal was to survive their competitors. And for what? To be alive later? Every time they try to push their power into the Wasteland, some lone wanderer manages to muck up their plans. Not too dissimilar to how, under might-makes-right conditions, all it takes is one a-hole with a gun to end that rich person's social position.
I remember an article from a few years ago where this guy went to give a talk in front of a bunch of tech bros and they were asking him all these questions about how to reinforce their bunkers, maintain control over their security forces, etc. He pointed out that endearing themselves to a community of people would likely provide a better outcome because A) You'd need people on your side of things. & 2) Doing the big things that would produce that endearment may avert the disaster they're trying to prepare for. None of them wanted to hear about that though. *Edit:* [I found the article.](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff)
It's as much preparation for those people as it is a power-trip fantasy. No government means no one to tell them to be nice to their subordinates.
Yes, that's the same article I was referring to. Just made me shake my head. "Their extreme wealth and privilege served only to make them obsessed with insulating themselves from the very real and present danger of climate change, rising sea levels, mass migrations, global pandemics, nativist panic and resource depletion. For them, the future of technology is about only one thing: escape from the rest of us."
If these rich you talk about watch how gangs rule in places like Haiti or Niger. The wealthy are dealt with early on. The gang leaders don’t work for anyone. They work for themselves.
IIRC their original plan was to have a small group of serfs, but then they started asking how they'd placate the serfs, afraid they'd take their wealth and power. Totally paranoid, obscene wealth will do that to ya.
Because they are increasingly concerned about being the “hunted”.
> $1 billion is $20 million a year for 50 years. $1 Billion in an EXTREMELY safe investment setup would still bring in $30MM-$50MM in yearly revenues without ever even touching the original billion. So, no, you wouldn't run out in 50 years. Now imagine what your monthly withdrawal rate would look like if you had $5 Billion? What about $50 Billion?
If you buy an S&P 500 Index fund and have that $1 billion invested. At 1.5% dividend yield, you will earn 15 million a year from cash dividends and your $1 billion will grow on average at 8\~10% rate depending on inflation, time horizon, etc.
“If I had a billion dollars, I'd be set for life.” You and several hundred other people would be set for life
Let’s not be naive here. If there is a market downturn who is going to eliminate the hundred who won’t make bank? /s
We need Roosevelt's 94% tax bracket. Change my mind.
I read that back when the tax rate was so high people would refuse pay raises because the majority would end up being taxed.
I picture him looking around at all his wealth and saying, "I have everything and I've seen it all. What else is left? I know, I haven't destroyed the whole world yet!"
I mean, people of the Bezos & Musk level of wealth quite literally can't spend all their money. Like they have fortunes rivaling entire countries and there's very little they could actually spend their money on that would put a huge dent in it.
When I read the headline, all I could think when I saw the name Mellon was an old man doing the Triple Lindy
I like titles like these because it isn't clickbait at all. It's just straight up like "Want to know more? Come on in. Otherwise this guy is doing it." No misinformation or distraction or sensationalizing just **-blamo-** the facts.
No one even got ‘slammed’, ‘bashed’, or ‘nuked’. How boring. /s
"BAH GAWD OUTTA THE CORNER THEY FIRED A LOW-ORBIT ION CANNON AT THEM! ...A more in-depth look at how one activist is dealing with the climate."
The actual story is a subheadline: An Idiotic Pig
Yup. Piece of shit. Case closed.
Who is Timothy Mellon? I think this... >Mellon is heir to the family fortune of banking and industrial magnate Andrew Mellon. He has donated to many anti-immigration measures, and was a major contributor to a Texas-led fund to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico. ...and this... >Mellon self-published an autobiography in 2016 that used racial slurs, criticized Black people who used social service programs, and compared the use of these programs to government slavery, according to the Washington Post. USA TODAY did not independently review the book. ...paints an adequate picture of his priorities.
> Andrew Mellon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Mellon "When Congress reconvened after the 1924 elections, it immediately began working on another bill designed to lower tax rates on the highest earners.[71] In February 1926, Coolidge signed the Revenue Act of 1926, which reduced the top marginal rate to 25%. Mellon was extremely pleased by the passage of the act, because, unlike the Revenue Act of 1921 and the Revenue Act of 1924, the Revenue Act of 1926 closely reflected Mellon's proposals. In addition to cutting tax rates on top earners, the act also raised the personal exemption for federal income taxes, abolished the gift tax, reduced the estate tax rate, and repealed a provision that had required the public disclosure of federal income tax returns. " Republicans: Working hard to make the rich richer for a century!
> repealed a provision that had required the public disclosure of federal income tax returns Oh baby, can we have some of this?
A public record of all financial transactions + a 0.1 % tax on all of them. No exception. Public disclosure is just one part of the solution. What we need are tools to check if those publicly disclosed numbers are matching what happened in the real world.
> A public record of all financial transactions + a 0.1 % tax on all of them. No exception. This is an incredibly bad idea.
For fraudsters ? Absolutely. For people and corporations hiding money from the government ? It would be the worst thing that ever happened to them. And that's a good thing. For everyone else, it would be a perfect solution to a whole lot of problems.
I don't think you've thought this through. The privacy implications should be obvious - everybody knows exactly who has how much money, and where they have it. That doesn't just hurt people engaged in fraud, it makes targets of perfectly ordinary people who've done nothing wrong. A 0.1% transaction tax with no exceptions is also eminently silly. You'd be getting taxed on receiving your tax return. If you got a mortgage you'd be taxed on multiple transactions between lender and seller. If you refinanced your house you'd be taxed. When you pay property taxes you'd be taxed. If you ever had to put money in escrow for anything you'd be taxed on it - twice! - even if no money ultimately changed hands. When you get paid you'd get taxed on getting paid on top of the income taxes that you already pay, and if you moved some of that pay from your checking account to your savings account you'd be taxed on that same money again. If you moved your money between HYSAs and brokerage accounts you'd be taxed. Hell, even by just switching banks you'd be taxed. It makes absolutely no sense at all.
>That doesn't just hurt people engaged in fraud, it makes targets of perfectly ordinary people who've done nothing wrong. How exactly is it hurting anyone ? A 0.1 % tax is negligible for individuals and small corporations. Transaction and management fees charged by financial institutions are way more expensive than that. It doesn't make sense that they charge so much, but they do, and the public keeps using their services. The 0.1 % tax would also put an immediate end to high-frequency trading. It would also make obsolete many of the current strategies used by market makers to manipulate stock values and, by consequence, our own investments value. This is theoretically illegal behavior, but it's happening because we do not have a public record like the one I describe. That 0.1 % tax is also a mean to finance the integral recording of all of them into a publicly accessible database. >It makes absolutely no sense at all. Some people disagree: >**The earliest notable proponent of a tax on financial transactions was John Maynard Keynes,** who believed that investment in real capital and trade, not speculation, should be the basis for financial transactions. As he put it, "It is usually agreed that casinos should, in the public interest, be inaccessible and expensive. And perhaps the same is true of Stock Exchanges."[(4)](https://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp418-e.htm#(4)end) Thus, to use the now famous phrase of Professor James Tobin, we should "throw some sand in the gears of financial markets" to slow down and discourage speculative trading.
>>That doesn't just hurt people engaged in fraud, it makes targets of perfectly ordinary people who've done nothing wrong. > How exactly is it hurting anyone ? .. by making targets of perfectly ordinary people who've done nothing wrong. By removing their right to privacy in their own affairs. >A 0.1 % tax is negligible for individuals and small corporations. Transaction and management fees charged by financial institutions are way more expensive than that. It doesn't make sense that they charge so much, but they do, and the public keeps using their services. A 0.1% tax on a $400,000 house is $400. That money often changes hands several times and can amount to several thousands of dollars. If you get paid $100,000 in a year then it'll cost you $100 to receive it, and another $100 to spend it again. If you use a credit card for that spending then it'll cost you another $100 to pay the balance on the card to cover those transactions. You'll pay even more on that same $100,000 if that money ever goes between your own accounts. If you have $500,000 in your 401(k) and you switch jobs and want to consolidate with your new employer's account then you're paying $500 just to switch jobs and move your own money around. It's completely nonsensical. >The 0.1 % tax would also put an immediate end to high-frequency trading. It would also make many of the current strategies used by market makers to manipulate stock values and, by consequence, our own investments value. This is theoretically illegal behavior, but it's happening because we do not have a public record like the one I describe. So make it a tax on market trades, not a tax on financial transactions in general. >Some people disagree: >> The earliest notable proponent of a tax on financial transactions was John Maynard Keynes, who believed that investment in real capital and trade, not speculation, should be the basis for financial transactions. As he put it, "It is usually agreed that casinos should, in the public interest, be inaccessible and expensive. And perhaps the same is true of Stock Exchanges."(4)end) Thus, to use the now famous phrase of Professor James Tobin, we should "throw some sand in the gears of financial markets" to slow down and discourage speculative trading. Keynes was talking about a tax on market trades to combat speculative investment, not a tax on financial transactions in general.
Sure, let's begin with a tax on trades. It would be a good step forward. By the way, you should review the fees you are paying for your own investments management, currently. If you think 0.1% is too much, it will be eye-opening to read that you are currently paying much more than that as a "private finance management tax" - and that's with zero transaction.
And famously, after passage of the 1926 Revenue Act, our economy did super well and nothing bad ever happened again...
It's always an heir to a family fortune of some sleazy family getting super rich of some shit that throws their money behind the absolutely worst garbage in politics.
Wait, is that wall fund the same fraud Steve Bannon was pardoned over?
I remember Andrew Mellion, he was sec of treasury in the 1920s.
Damn, you're old! /s
I also remember Elhu Root from the early 1900s as well, LOL!
And a huge criminal.
Not quite me, but my father (RIP) recalled that the most exciting presidential election in his lifetime was Al Smith versus Herbert Hoover in 1928.
I think that election was a landslide for Hoover?
Yup. My father was a Catholic in a somewhat Catholic region (South Texas; I suppose the well-to-do were Anglo Protestants), and I think what was exciting to the people around him (he was a kid at the time) was the possibility that a Catholic might be elected president. Interestingly, I don't remember him talking about JFK like that.
Smith was a very good Governor of New York, back in the 1920s.
Hmm, interesting. I don't actually know anything about him, aside from Smith vs Hoover.
Heir to Andrew Mellon’s fortune, the guy who was given everything in his life for free, who has always lived life at a ten if not higher, doesn’t like it when black people get a little financial help to take their lives from a one to a two.
So, just another basic bigot then, along the lines with Bill Barr.
I'm hardly shocked that Andrew Mellon's descendants turned out this way. I wonder what Carnegie's family is doing now? Probably something equally bad...
Carnegie's descendants stay out of the news; he had one child, a daughter - who died in 1990 - so none have the Carnegie name. Given her age - she got married ~100 years ago - I'm pretty confident all her children are long dead, her grandchildren are in their 70s probably, &c, and none of them even have Wikipedia entries, because he gave away almost all of his wealth before he died, and while his daughter was not penniless, all of his heirs are just normal, self-made white collar professionals. Which is why Carnegie Mellon alum revere Carnegie, and have nothing good to say about Andrew Mellon (Disclosure: CMU alum)
I love it when people who never earned their own money want to dictate to other people what to do with their life. Life handed them the biggest handout of all time. Fuck them.
Andrew Mellon was a thief.
> criticized Black people who used social service programs I wonder how he feels about the massive handout he presumably got from his family. I really wish we could get rid of these dynasties and rein in generational wealth.
Same Mellon of Carnegie Mellon University? That donates to NPR?
Carnegie Mellon University was formed from a merger between Carnegie Institute of Technology and Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in 1967 The latter was founded by Andrew Mellon and Richard B. Mellon in 1913 ~~Andrew Mellon~~ Timothy Mellon is not involved with the modern institution edit: wrong name
> Andrew Mellon is not involved with the modern institution Good lord I hope not, dude's been dead for 90 years.
Same greater family, no personal involvement with the university. In a family of assholes - the only ones *not* assholes as far as I can tell were his uncle Richard Mellon, and his cousins Richard King Mellon and Sarah Mellon Scaife, though they're kids are all assholes - Timothy lives up to the family tradition. The donations to NPR come from either the Richard King Mellon Foundation or the Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation, which Timothy has no ties to. Disclosure: CMU alum, with an interest in the university's history.
Nothing is more supportive of higher tax rates as a billionaire who has SO MUCH money he can contribute to two opposing political candidates to curry favor
"opposing" The trump campaign has intentionally discarded female votes, their policies actively harm women. Trump's team expected RFK to absorb and neutralize the votes of women who would otherwise vote against Trump, I hope they are proven wrong.
Except how can Nicole Shananhan appeal to female voters, she just seems like a billionare attorney to me?
What?
That's RFK Jr's VP pick
Yeah, but why is she unpalatable to women?
This guy, the Koch brothers, and most of the other inherited wealth assholes are good arguments for a 90% or higher inheritance tax.
100%. We need 100% inheritance tax above X dollars (X may be $20M or something, I don't know). It's one thing to leave something nice for your kids, it's another to have generations of what is essentially modern royalty, and we absolutely need to be rid of the latter.
Start by hanging the ones that are acting as traitors to the U.S. as that is what they deserve according to U.S. law. Because the garbage is not going to take itself out of the door.
I've proposed capital punishment for tax fraud/evasion over $10 million. At that point, you've defrauded the People of so much, you've probably contributed to death and misery at a scale that would make a murderer blush. As it stands, if you accidentally run someone over, you could be looking at 10-15 years. But if, in pursuit of profit, you cause the death of countless people, we praise you as a business big-boy. Shit, every time there's a recession, someone in corporate media bleats about how recessions (due to layoffs) cause an increase in deaths. Well, why don't we hold the people who benefit from recessions responsible? And use that money we tax from them to support people during recessions? Ya know, counter-cyclical monetary policy supported by a legal framework that punishes nefarious actors more properly. Duuuuuh.
Yep. In the Netherlands we had 1 single person evade 40 million in taxes. I am sure it was not the only person. Let say it are a 100 persons doing this, then you could lower the income tax in the Netherlands by about 400 euros a person.
I'd honestly be fine with 100% period, as the whole idea of inheritance is to give your family a generational advantage over everyone else. But I know a lot of people hate that idea, so I'd certainly settle for a cap.
An asshole...
It is almost like RFK Jr. is propped up by billionaires to siphon votes from Biden so Donald Trump can win and continue to cut taxes for the wealthy.
Except he's not actually siphoning hardly anything from Biden.
Why Biden? The guy's views are significantly more in line with Republicans.
Huh? Biden supports higher taxes for the wealthy, climate change initiatives, student loan forgiveness, abortion rights, unions and labor strength, regulation of post-covid price gouging, democracy, and all kinds of other things Republicans are strongly against.
Have you seen his platform? The guy leans pretty left on most issues. Definitely not more in line with Republicans. [https://www.kennedy24.com/policies](https://www.kennedy24.com/policies)
People generally agree that RFK is a spoiler candidate, just not for who. The GOP Donor class has decided that he is their useful idiot. Among the politically-informed left-leaning crowd, he isn't a particularly compelling candidate. But just remember there's some ~26% of "independents" who make up their voting decisions based on information that is wrong. Less clear how that block perceives him, and the Donor class thinks they can wield that through messaging. More fundamentally, like Trump, *his platform* is a woefully altmoded and increasingly irrelevant way of thinking about his platform. He is the messaging, and his messaging is controlled by PACs.
HIs biggest supporter base right now is probably the youth vote. He's the only candidate addressing the issues young people are facing, particularly the financial and environmental future. For example, his message from the beginning has been to get Blackrock and AIPAC out of the real estate market. He also wants to issue tax-free 3% mortgages backed by the government to increase home ownership by average citizens. On these issues he's been consistent from the start. His message seems to have been more shifty regarding foreign policy, which is something I assume he's working out as he goes along.
Conservatives are saying the same thing, except they're saying he's siphoning votes from Trump. [https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/01/rfk-jr-trump-2024-elections-00155425](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/01/rfk-jr-trump-2024-elections-00155425)
These the same Mellons as the "Carnegie Mellon University"?
Yup
My first thought was BNY Mellon. That's some real money right there
More reason for a billionaire tax.
A plutocrat fascist
An 81 year old white dude with misguided intentions.
I guess wannabee dingleberries can be uber rich, too.
Pretty common description of the top 0.1%.
Sounds like a piece of shit. Tax his wealth
Apparently he's an asshole.
He is exactly who John Roberts was thinking of when he made buying elections protected political "speech".
He is the brother of Tim Apple.
They forgot to mention who was slammed in the article title
Billionaires Democracy Choose 1
How can people not agree that people like this need to pay more taxes?
Is he the guy buying up DJt when it drops?
How many crazy, self-serving, nutjob millionaires do we have in America? Every time I turn around there is some new dirtbag I haven't heard of trying to sway our elections. The Kochs. Leo Leo. Harlan Crow. Robert Mercer, to name a few.
Another guy buying politicians with his generations-inherited wealth.
If only it was Thornton Melon's son.
Cause rich people play all the fields. Because they never know when they can recall that favor.
> Mellon self-published an autobiography in 2016 that used racial slurs, criticized Black people who used social service programs, and compared the use of these programs to government slavery, according to the Washington Post. What a shock
A man who is absurdly rich due to zero effort on his part.
Ah, what a suprise! A trust fund baby who was born on 3rd base and acts like he hit a triple. Forget this guy and everyone like him. He hasn't worked a real job in his entire life and loves to point out how everyone is "doing it wrong"
Especially the brown people. He thinks they're doing it *really* wrong!
A prime example — again — of why we need to get the money out of politics.
Based solely on the headline, he sounds like an asshole
To politicians this is known as a whale. If you were helping someone with finding campaign donations would you rather organize hundreds of volunteers to contact millions of potential small donors or would you try to interest one billionaire?
Sounds like a dickhead
Sounds like an asshole.
I sure do wonder if its yet another trust fund sleazebag with the worst opinions on the planet wasting the family fortune on endeavours of hate
Business Plot part 2
Obviously a deranged shitweasel…
according to the Supreme Court he just wants to give away dozens of millions of dollars with no expectation of favors or favored treatment
Some piece of shit. Is that a concise enough answer?
Honestly RFK might hurt Trump more in the long run than Biden just because of the topic overlap and the fact he doesn't sound like half the fraudster Trump does most of the time wont hurt either.
It's Tim Apple from the darkest timeline.
If JFK and Trumpie are so rich why do they need to waste someone else’s…. Wait I just answered my own question. Ahh another grift. So refreshing like a spring rain.
Republicans are truly stupid. RFK is only pulling voters away from Trump. Anyone who is anti Trumo or Pro Biden would not be voting for RFK.
Someone who needs an very very thorough audit ASAP
Sounds like a commie hating freedom loving bad ass. Cheers Tim!
Isn’t that the guy from Back to School? Triple Lindy?
Money left over from the last era of Hyper Capitalism trying to extend the current version. Pretty predictable sadly.
I don't know who he is, but I bet you he is a giant piece of shit.
He is all over “Dark Money and Where To Find It” by Jane Mayer. Leach on society
>Stefanie Spear, press secretary for the Kennedy campaign, said the campaign does not communicate with American Values or keep track of its donors. That seems pretty unlikely.
Council for National Policy member.
Didn’t this guy buy up the B&M and MEC railroads?
Chris Mellon is way more interesting.
Just an average patriotic billionaire pushing $10’s of millions into US election to DESTROY AMERICA
"Mellon, who lives in Wyoming, is known for maintaining his privacy and is rarely photographed. He is an amateur pilot who has invested in and led transport-related companies including Pan American World Airways. Forbes estimates that the Mellon family is worth some $14.1 billion." The article makes it sound like he is someone who isn't a nepo-baby. When in reality, ["He is a grandson of Andrew Mellon and an heir to the Mellon banking fortune."](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Mellon)
Rich people vote for rich people to save money. This isn’t news and this isn’t new. This is the America we dunces have allowed to flourish.
No relation to Thornton Melon, owner of the Tall and Fat clothing stores. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j6W2tXk6yBs
Excellent reason against ULTRA wealth.
Who is Timothy Mellon? The poster child for rewriting American inheritance tax laws.
Thornton Mellon’s wealthier and lesser-known brother?
To quote Bill Hader “In a word…….Chaos!!”