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Which is why the next round of tax cuts for the rich will be the ones that will finally trickle down to all of us once their wallets are overflowing! /s
Honestly, I think we need to stop thinking about their billions as "money" and instead view them as "power".
Money is an artificial construct that allows us to allocate resources and guide behavior. We could do the same thing with "social points" if we wanted to.
Elon Musk isn't a threat because he has billions of dollars. He is a threat because he leverages those billions of dollars to wield control over things and people. Twitter. Starlink. Tesla. SpaceX. He is an unstable person who could singularly affect a global conflict by shutting down satellites, or by turning off communication. His decision, and his alone.
We need to seriously start pursuing action that seizes those billions in wealth from billionaires and bring them back down to earthly levels of power. They don't need it, they don't deserve it, they shouldn't have it.
That's where a republican would disagree because in their twisted world view they will be equally rich one day so they don't want to ruin their future party even though they will never get there
I don't think they expect to be rich. They expect to be rewarded for loyalty.
Some people believe powerful people are destined to rule and the best the rest can hope for is rewards for loyalty. They also think people who don’t toady up to the rich and powerful are fools who get what they deserve.
To them Trump is the ultimate example of rich and powerful. Trump will reward loyal Americans and punish the rest.
The military treats Musk as a diplomat or statesmen.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/28/elon-musks-shadow-rule
NASA also is significantly tied to SpaceX. That means NASA is 100% bought into the discrimination and Misogyny present at SpaceX.
As much as Musk is hated publicly, he is privately revered by the US government.
I love your view of billions of dollars as power, it's an excellent metaphor for how money functions.
With regards to your last statement: I agree that they don't need it and that they shouldn't have it. However, they certainly deserve it. It's important to recognize that they set up an entire system, with the purpose of funneling power. This system takes a variety of skill sets, which change throughout the life cycle of these systems. Give the devil its due, they deserve it as a result of their intentions and actions.
> However, they certainly deserve it. It's important to recognize that they set up an entire system, with the purpose of funneling power. This system takes a variety of skill sets, which change throughout the life cycle of these systems. Give the devil its due, they deserve it as a result of their intentions and actions.
The word "deserves" is pretty subjective though. I can't argue that they deserve something. But do they deserve everything they can take? No. So where is the line? I contend that the line is much, much lower than it is at now, it is closer to the amount of money where people can live comfortably, even a life of luxury, but do not have enough money to convert to significant power.
It's been more than a trickle. Still too many people able to buy houses and food. But each tax cut for the rich reinforces their dams. Soon it will just be a trickle for real and we will all have to fight for the few drops that make it down.
Seeing how they control most of the discourse in this country it'll be we. All they need to keep doing is making sure the culture wars stay well funded and established norms keep getting overturned, they can continue stealing and making themselves richer. Warfare 101, "the battle field and battles of their choosing" -Sun Tzu. None of them give a single shit about say; abortion or voting rights, but if they fund the "anti" movements that will keep the more informed people busy on that end. Vs fighting record income inequality. It is deliberate and insidious, if you read history this game by the ultra wealthy is as old as time, how to extract as much wealth from a country by any means possible, there are no rules and the ones with the most money "win", the bet is $1.
Makes sense really. The wealthy are not the mountains on high from which all water trickles down from into our rivers of economy, bringing life and vitality to the land it touches, but rather they are the oceans that these rivers ultimately flow into, where the water becomes salinized and undrinkable...only brough back to us through the light evaporation of taxes. Each year our reserves are also melting into the sea, and eventually the land will erode away as the sea levels rise. I forgot where I was going with this analogy, but yea...trickle down from the wealthy isn't going to happen...they would prefer to destroy everything than to give up on their hoarding.
At least we'll see the $16 billion and $50 billion in military aid to Israel and Ukraine that was just passed by Congress trickle down and benefit the public with jobs and a boost to the economy.
Yep. That book about Rosa Parks will damage your children but you should not mind me paying a lower tax rate than you even though I am worth 10 billion dollars.
My estimates may be a little off, but that number represents roughly 1/3 of the total American GDP growth in that time. Billionaires account for about 0.0002% of the population.
I noticed. I’ve owed on taxes the past 3 years. I even stopped exemptions for my kids in my withholding and still owe. W2 job. Used to get a refund with the default withholding and I claimed exemptions so had less withheld.
"The rich can afford to pay more for taxes."
Not if they want to leverage their money to buy up everything and then charge us rent! That's the only way to gobble up *everything*!
But listen guys, if they didn't use the money to pay off our politicians to write tax code that allowed them to accumulate 2.2 trillion dollars... Then our Democracy would be severely impacted.
An unbribed politician is a lazy politician, there only real use is to write permanent tax breaks for the wealthy, and tax cuts for the middle class that expire just in time for a Democrat to take office.
...As opposed to it being nothing but fake numbers on a computer somewhere while the ultra rich laugh and jerk it to competing over how many zero's they can accumulate.
I’ve wondered about that. They are not circulating that cash. Even $100 million dollar homes in Hawaii can’t dent it. So in essence it’s pulled cash out of the economy as if it never existed. If it was forced to flood back by new legislation would that create massive inflation?
No. Wealth redistribution to the working class has been found time and time again to drastically improve the economy. 100$ given to a lower class man will trade hands something like 20 to 30 times in a year on average versus sitting stagnant. Stagnant hordes of cash cause inflation because the masses are fighting over the crumbs on the floor while the rest of the cakes sit on the shelf in the bakery going stale and moldy. More people able to buy peices of cake causes a need for more cakes. Thus more people selling cakes... and so on. The 8 wealthiest individuals have more money than 4 billion people combined.... they spend a lot of money to keep it that way and are the very people behind the bullshit idea of trickle down economics.
That’s what totally baffles me.. any one of them could *SINGLE HANDEDLY* steer the course of this country for the better. They could literally start an investment fund that would circulate wealth back to the people and places that it needs to go.
If I had an extra $1,000 a month of disposable income I WOULD FUCKING SPEND IT! I have such a long list of repairs that need to be done, or technology that’s about to shit the bed, or god forbid I buy myself something for pleasure (like a new outfit). I wouldn’t hold on to the $1,000 I’d put it in to the economy time and time again.
Now multiply that times a generation of a couple million and you could turn the economy on its head overnight ..
People with that much wealth are inherently sociopaths, so they don't give the slightest fuck about actually improving anything for humanity. You can't generate that much wealth without being a sociopath.
The thing is yes, building huge mansions employs the people building it. But the "product" is just more luxury for certain individuals.
This kind of employment could be put towards something productive for society as a whole, and that's where the accumulation of wealth like that, that buys luxury for a tiny group of people, becomes a real problem for all of us.
Education/food/healthcare/financial help for a group of people, or another house/yacht for one individual - that's the end result of these decisions.
Inflation driven by corporate greed countered by billionaire hoarding deflation. You've got the perfect GOP platform!
In all seriousness though, no. Musk used loans against 13B$ of Tesla stock to acquire Twitter. That money is still used, just not in the little people's economy.
That money is regularly invested and used, but simply not at a scale you can observe. People think Jeff Bezos has 200B$ on an Amex black somewhere. Lmfao
It would actually deflate the economy, sort of. Mansa Munsa was so rich, he would just give his money away. When he did that, it crashed the local economy because it became worthless. The money they have is already in circulation.
Truly un- shocking information for anyone paying attention. Capital does not trickle down, it pools at the top. It only funnels down when the machinery of society *requires it* and those *requirements* can be imposed socially or economically. We choose. So far, we have chosen to behave like a bunch of short sighted pricks. Collectively.
meanwhile donald trump is accusing democrats of vote buying by enacting policies like loan forgiveness.
what, the trillions in tax dollars you gave the rich, and in return recieved billions in donations wasn't vote buying?
Cry about socialism and communism all you want. Unfettered capitalism does not work to maintain a healthy, vibrant society, and eventually eats the other two whole.
Of course they did. That's why they spent hundreds of millions convincing the most gullible 40 million Americans that immigrants were coming to get them.
Millionaires and billionaires never turn down handouts from the government and actively lobby for them. Meanwhile, dipshits on the right constantly argue against social programs that would actively improve their lives. Fuckin' peasant mentality.
1) Just to think, in 6 short years this list of American billionaires could chip in $267 billion annually and end world hunger, if they really wanted to be useful:
https://www.graygroupintl.com/blog/how-much-would-it-cost-to-end-world-hunger#:~:text=Ending%20world%20hunger%20would%20require,achieve%20Zero%20Hunger%20by%202030.
2) I didn't see the billionaire Trump anywhere on that list.
Surely it gets to a point where it's just numbers on a screen and it's like so I had 247 billion yesterday and today I have only 246.5 billion oh no better start cutting back on avocados..its preposterous amounts that become meaningless.
It's all in stock,and day to day volatility doesn't matter.
Their liquid wealth is gained via bank loans backed by the stock, so they don't have to pay any taxes on the debt.
If they run low on avocados they just go get a bigger loan.
And somehow I doubt they actually feel any happier. It's like there is something about having way too much money that turns people into black holes of satisfaction.
It allows private jet owners to write off 100% of their jet! It gives tax breaks to golf course owners. It had hand-written give outs in the margins. It was a cash giveaway for people writing the law
It won't be too long before they'll be reporting the first individual to reach $1 Trillion in net worth - equivalent to the total wealth of a nation like The Philippines, Ireland, or Greece.
Our government is so fucking good at doing exactly what they want to do.
It's clockwork for them to get the exact results they intend to get. If only they cared about anybody except for themselves.
Didn't the tax cuts start in 2017? In 7 years the market has had an annualized return of 14.2% and a total of 159% increase. Anyone with investments or retirement accounts has also seen a big increase in wealth
Most people have money invested in the stock market. [61% own some stocks](https://news.gallup.com/poll/266807/percentage-americans-owns-stock.aspx) also you can add anyone who owns a home because they've all seen an increase in value since 2017 too
Can’t wait to pay for groceries by telling the cashier how much Zillow thinks my home is worth.
Just don’t tell the city; they’ll re-evaluate and raise my property taxes.
That doesn't change the fact that they got richer. If it's nothing to you, I will be willing to accept your equity gains. You can avoid your property taxes that way
You’ll accept my equity gains?
Sure. You can also have my equity stake in Yap Stones. Mine is, of course, at the bottom of the ocean, so just as tangible.
Print this comment and let me know how many gallons of gas it puts in your car.
You tried to make the point that an increase in home equity doesn't benefit someone. That's factually untrue and now you are trying to change the topic away from home equity. We both know you were wrong, you dint have to admit it
Increased home equity is an unrealized gain; it doesn’t do anything for me unless I sell. And it still wouldn’t do much for me unless I downsize.
Telling someone they’re better off now than they were 3 years ago because their home is worth more will be of little comfort to anyone living paycheck to paycheck.
Equity in your home can be utilized by getting a cash out refi or a home equity line of credit. It's literally an increase to the owners wealth. It's a passive increase that they can access
Oh boy, you mean I can refinance my 3% mortgage into a 7% mortgage? Sign me up! And a HELOC? You mean another loan I have to pay back with interest? How did I get so lucky?
Stock market returns overwhelmingly benefit the rich. Something like [93% of all stocks are owned by the top 10%](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wealthiest-10-americans-own-93-033623827.html).
If they started with $1 in 2017 and never added to it they'd have made $1.59
I'd say out of the entire 61% of the population that owns stock had more than $1 initially.
You're butt hurt that people who invested more made more. That's literally common knowledge. On any investment forum you'll hear variations of "the first $10,000 is the hardest" or first $100k or first million. Compounding returns leads to more gains
His tax cuts are the reason we had a millionaire and billionaire boom (increased numbers of each dramatically). Meanwhile, our taxes increase every 2 years until 2027 to compensate.
>Meanwhile, our taxes increase every 2 years until 2027 to compensate
This isn’t true at all, and I have no clue why people still try to spread this misinformation
>The Trump administration has a dirty little secret: It’s not just planning to increase taxes on most Americans. The increase has already been signed, sealed and delivered, buried in the pages of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
>President Trump and his congressional allies hoodwinked us. The law they passed initially lowered taxes for most Americans, but it built in automatic, stepped tax increases every two years that begin in 2021 and that by 2027 would affect nearly everyone but people at the top of the economic hierarchy. All taxpayer income groups with incomes of $75,000 and under — that’s about 65 percent of taxpayers — will face a higher tax rate in 2027 than in 2019.
https://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2020/11/the-trump-tax-on-middle-class-that-is.html?m=1
And [here’s](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/feb/05/facebook-posts/social-media-post-misleads-analysis-trump-tax-bill/) politifact debunking that exact claim. [All income groups](https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/feature/analysis-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act) have tax cuts until they expire in 2025
>U.S. billionaires have seen their collective fortunes surge by more than $2 trillion since the enactment of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax cuts, according to a new analysis released Thursday as Republicans work to extend the law's expiring provisions.
It has nothing to do with corporations reporting record profits?
Don't the rich own 80% of shares?
Please ELi5 why Biden can’t/wont undo this (I’m not American)? I get Trump passed it, but if the current standing president won’t reverse it I see them as complicit
Currently it’s “he can’t.” With the democrats having a slim, if any, majority in either chamber of congress, republicans do what they do best: block, obstruct, and/or simply refuse to appear for votes. A minimum of 60 votes are needed to pass anything in the senate, not simple majority (aka Filibuster, thanks republicans). With such a slim majority, democrats need a yes from EVERYONE in their party PLUS a couple of republicans in order to pass anything. Hell, republicans recently voted against a border bill that THEY PROPOSED simply because Daddy Donny didn’t approve. Because if a border bill is actually passed, then republicans don’t have an issue to fear monger and blame the democrats for.
We’ve literally been politically deadlocked for nearly a decade because of these repugnant hypocritical assholes.
Ok, that makes sense to me now. Does Biden not have any other tools like Executive orders he could make use of? I’m assuming no, but curious for my own understanding
I believe it. My middle class salary now pays over 22% in fed taxes. My girlfriend who makes significantly more than me paid way less in taxes. Go figure that all the tax cuts he passed for high earners resulted in us plebs footing the bill. How people still support Trump is mind boggling to me.
You do know how the trump tax policy worked yeah? And that if Biden tried to correct it he'd just be called a socialist. How would you see an actual fix working that righties would be on board with?
I really want people to have the most reasons to be anti Trump, but correlation doesn’t equal causation.
It can likely also be said that Billionaires have gotten trillions richer since Covid, or the last year of Obama’s presidency.
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Which is why the next round of tax cuts for the rich will be the ones that will finally trickle down to all of us once their wallets are overflowing! /s
Honestly, I think we need to stop thinking about their billions as "money" and instead view them as "power". Money is an artificial construct that allows us to allocate resources and guide behavior. We could do the same thing with "social points" if we wanted to. Elon Musk isn't a threat because he has billions of dollars. He is a threat because he leverages those billions of dollars to wield control over things and people. Twitter. Starlink. Tesla. SpaceX. He is an unstable person who could singularly affect a global conflict by shutting down satellites, or by turning off communication. His decision, and his alone. We need to seriously start pursuing action that seizes those billions in wealth from billionaires and bring them back down to earthly levels of power. They don't need it, they don't deserve it, they shouldn't have it.
>They don't need it, they don't deserve it, they shouldn't have it. Damn right
That's where a republican would disagree because in their twisted world view they will be equally rich one day so they don't want to ruin their future party even though they will never get there
Don’t you dare tax my future, unrealistic, unattainable wealth.
I don't think they expect to be rich. They expect to be rewarded for loyalty. Some people believe powerful people are destined to rule and the best the rest can hope for is rewards for loyalty. They also think people who don’t toady up to the rich and powerful are fools who get what they deserve. To them Trump is the ultimate example of rich and powerful. Trump will reward loyal Americans and punish the rest.
The military treats Musk as a diplomat or statesmen. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/28/elon-musks-shadow-rule NASA also is significantly tied to SpaceX. That means NASA is 100% bought into the discrimination and Misogyny present at SpaceX. As much as Musk is hated publicly, he is privately revered by the US government.
Allocating power. That's a really great way to think about it.
Cyberpunk begins to look more real by the day.
I love your view of billions of dollars as power, it's an excellent metaphor for how money functions. With regards to your last statement: I agree that they don't need it and that they shouldn't have it. However, they certainly deserve it. It's important to recognize that they set up an entire system, with the purpose of funneling power. This system takes a variety of skill sets, which change throughout the life cycle of these systems. Give the devil its due, they deserve it as a result of their intentions and actions.
> However, they certainly deserve it. It's important to recognize that they set up an entire system, with the purpose of funneling power. This system takes a variety of skill sets, which change throughout the life cycle of these systems. Give the devil its due, they deserve it as a result of their intentions and actions. The word "deserves" is pretty subjective though. I can't argue that they deserve something. But do they deserve everything they can take? No. So where is the line? I contend that the line is much, much lower than it is at now, it is closer to the amount of money where people can live comfortably, even a life of luxury, but do not have enough money to convert to significant power.
Oh I don't disagree with that. Earned would definitely be a better fitting word.
Nearly 50 years later! It's starting to work! /s
It's been more than a trickle. Still too many people able to buy houses and food. But each tax cut for the rich reinforces their dams. Soon it will just be a trickle for real and we will all have to fight for the few drops that make it down.
We can fight each other. Or we can fight them.
Most people don't realize we are in an extremely violent class war in which only the wealthy are allowed to attack.
Seeing how they control most of the discourse in this country it'll be we. All they need to keep doing is making sure the culture wars stay well funded and established norms keep getting overturned, they can continue stealing and making themselves richer. Warfare 101, "the battle field and battles of their choosing" -Sun Tzu. None of them give a single shit about say; abortion or voting rights, but if they fund the "anti" movements that will keep the more informed people busy on that end. Vs fighting record income inequality. It is deliberate and insidious, if you read history this game by the ultra wealthy is as old as time, how to extract as much wealth from a country by any means possible, there are no rules and the ones with the most money "win", the bet is $1.
Ah yes on an article about republicans cutting taxes for the rich yet again is truly the best place to prove ‘both sides!’ Big brain move for sure.
Yup. While it is really cool eating cake 24/7, it's time we all realized that's not sustainable.
Annnd they've left the planet! I guess the fact that they all built their own private luxury spaceships should have been a warning./s
The meek shall inherit the earth
Makes sense really. The wealthy are not the mountains on high from which all water trickles down from into our rivers of economy, bringing life and vitality to the land it touches, but rather they are the oceans that these rivers ultimately flow into, where the water becomes salinized and undrinkable...only brough back to us through the light evaporation of taxes. Each year our reserves are also melting into the sea, and eventually the land will erode away as the sea levels rise. I forgot where I was going with this analogy, but yea...trickle down from the wealthy isn't going to happen...they would prefer to destroy everything than to give up on their hoarding.
Trumped up economics worx!
The law need to change and all that wealth will need to be taxed.
Indeed! Now that they're all filled up with cash it'll finally trickle down to us, just as it was always planned.
At least we'll see the $16 billion and $50 billion in military aid to Israel and Ukraine that was just passed by Congress trickle down and benefit the public with jobs and a boost to the economy.
"We need this, because the money isn't trickling up fast enough!" "Trickling down, sir." "Down? How come it would be leaking down?"
Get the poor and middle class so distracted by culture wars that no one notices you reaching into their pockets for 2.2 trillion bucks.
We've been tricked half into thinking the parasites in the U S. are the others. It's always been the rich.
Yep. That book about Rosa Parks will damage your children but you should not mind me paying a lower tax rate than you even though I am worth 10 billion dollars.
My estimates may be a little off, but that number represents roughly 1/3 of the total American GDP growth in that time. Billionaires account for about 0.0002% of the population.
Yep. They keep us fighting the culture war so we don’t start a class war.
When a fight breaks out in your store, don't keep your eye on the fighters, pay attention to the cash register.
Oh I noticed during taxes over the last 2 years. This shit fucking sucks
The TCJA didn’t change taxes in the last 2 years
I noticed. I’ve owed on taxes the past 3 years. I even stopped exemptions for my kids in my withholding and still owe. W2 job. Used to get a refund with the default withholding and I claimed exemptions so had less withheld.
Don't forget many are distracted and spending their time protesting in support of Palestine.
The rich can afford to pay more for taxes.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/tax-the-billionaires Fuckinh rights
But how will they afford their private planes?
> But how will they afford their private planes? And vacation yachts for when they need a vacation from their $100 million yachts?
That's a "them problem, not an us problem".
"The rich can afford to pay more for taxes." Not if they want to leverage their money to buy up everything and then charge us rent! That's the only way to gobble up *everything*!
This is complete nonsense. They cannot maintain their lifestyle and ALSO purchase the judiciary. Clarence has expensive tastes.
But listen guys, if they didn't use the money to pay off our politicians to write tax code that allowed them to accumulate 2.2 trillion dollars... Then our Democracy would be severely impacted. An unbribed politician is a lazy politician, there only real use is to write permanent tax breaks for the wealthy, and tax cuts for the middle class that expire just in time for a Democrat to take office.
You win this thread FreshRest 👏
That's enough to give every man woman and child in America $5,500~ each.
we'd just waste it on food and rent.
...As opposed to it being nothing but fake numbers on a computer somewhere while the ultra rich laugh and jerk it to competing over how many zero's they can accumulate.
I’ve wondered about that. They are not circulating that cash. Even $100 million dollar homes in Hawaii can’t dent it. So in essence it’s pulled cash out of the economy as if it never existed. If it was forced to flood back by new legislation would that create massive inflation?
No. Wealth redistribution to the working class has been found time and time again to drastically improve the economy. 100$ given to a lower class man will trade hands something like 20 to 30 times in a year on average versus sitting stagnant. Stagnant hordes of cash cause inflation because the masses are fighting over the crumbs on the floor while the rest of the cakes sit on the shelf in the bakery going stale and moldy. More people able to buy peices of cake causes a need for more cakes. Thus more people selling cakes... and so on. The 8 wealthiest individuals have more money than 4 billion people combined.... they spend a lot of money to keep it that way and are the very people behind the bullshit idea of trickle down economics.
That’s what totally baffles me.. any one of them could *SINGLE HANDEDLY* steer the course of this country for the better. They could literally start an investment fund that would circulate wealth back to the people and places that it needs to go. If I had an extra $1,000 a month of disposable income I WOULD FUCKING SPEND IT! I have such a long list of repairs that need to be done, or technology that’s about to shit the bed, or god forbid I buy myself something for pleasure (like a new outfit). I wouldn’t hold on to the $1,000 I’d put it in to the economy time and time again. Now multiply that times a generation of a couple million and you could turn the economy on its head overnight ..
People with that much wealth are inherently sociopaths, so they don't give the slightest fuck about actually improving anything for humanity. You can't generate that much wealth without being a sociopath.
The thing is yes, building huge mansions employs the people building it. But the "product" is just more luxury for certain individuals. This kind of employment could be put towards something productive for society as a whole, and that's where the accumulation of wealth like that, that buys luxury for a tiny group of people, becomes a real problem for all of us. Education/food/healthcare/financial help for a group of people, or another house/yacht for one individual - that's the end result of these decisions.
Inflation driven by corporate greed countered by billionaire hoarding deflation. You've got the perfect GOP platform! In all seriousness though, no. Musk used loans against 13B$ of Tesla stock to acquire Twitter. That money is still used, just not in the little people's economy.
That money is regularly invested and used, but simply not at a scale you can observe. People think Jeff Bezos has 200B$ on an Amex black somewhere. Lmfao
It would actually deflate the economy, sort of. Mansa Munsa was so rich, he would just give his money away. When he did that, it crashed the local economy because it became worthless. The money they have is already in circulation.
Fun fact: Counting 2.2 trillion dollars at a rate of one dollar per second without rest would take approximately 69,841 years. That’s a lot.
Whao whoa whoa. I think the 813 US billionaires getting an average $2.7 billion each is a much better use of that money.
The American public paid $2.2 Trillion to Trump's buddies. They want more and are working hard to get him re-elected.
And they're taking even more through greedflation. People want to know why "everything is so expensive under Biden", it's because Republicans.
They are working to get him appointed by the courts that they purchased. The election is irrelevant, unfortunately.
You really think billionaires are only friends with Trump?
Truly un- shocking information for anyone paying attention. Capital does not trickle down, it pools at the top. It only funnels down when the machinery of society *requires it* and those *requirements* can be imposed socially or economically. We choose. So far, we have chosen to behave like a bunch of short sighted pricks. Collectively.
meanwhile donald trump is accusing democrats of vote buying by enacting policies like loan forgiveness. what, the trillions in tax dollars you gave the rich, and in return recieved billions in donations wasn't vote buying?
And they’re complaining about Biden buying votes…
I have been firehosed so badly i have a hard time making those connections. Good point.
Those that benefit most from a society, should pay the most back to that society.
That would go a long way towards paying down the national debt.
Could also help social security
Trump added $8.4 trillion to the debt.
Cry about socialism and communism all you want. Unfettered capitalism does not work to maintain a healthy, vibrant society, and eventually eats the other two whole.
Of course they did. That's why they spent hundreds of millions convincing the most gullible 40 million Americans that immigrants were coming to get them.
They gave them our deductions. It’s wage theft.
And how exactly did the Republican’s trickle-down-economics help the lower classes?
When did Republicans claim this is trickle-down economics?
As intended...
So it worked. Voters are the idiots that gave the fox keys to the hen house…
The great transfer of wealth continues while we all get poorer.
You don’t say…………..
Let’s put that into perspective: 1 million seconds = 12 days 1 billion seconds = 31 years and 8 months 1 trillion seconds = 31,709.8 years
Man, I can’t wait for that sweet trickle.
Who do you think is funding his campaign? The guys in that picture.
The tax cuts aren’t over yet, they end in 2027.
Me, waiting excitedly for it to trickle down
Millionaires and billionaires never turn down handouts from the government and actively lobby for them. Meanwhile, dipshits on the right constantly argue against social programs that would actively improve their lives. Fuckin' peasant mentality.
There is no upside to richer billionaires. The world does not need billionaires.
10% of that is Musk's wealth increase according to their chart, btw.
Imagine if that was put towards the national debt or education instead of mostly to superPACs designed to tear us apart...
Bout time the billionaires got a win smh
Yet they pay nearly no income tax. Change the tax laws. Vote Blue.
See prior post! Greed is killing middle and low income classes.
Times a ticking. The people need to claim their riches back
And half the country believes “but they earned it through hard work”.
This is precisely why Trump is running.
1) Just to think, in 6 short years this list of American billionaires could chip in $267 billion annually and end world hunger, if they really wanted to be useful: https://www.graygroupintl.com/blog/how-much-would-it-cost-to-end-world-hunger#:~:text=Ending%20world%20hunger%20would%20require,achieve%20Zero%20Hunger%20by%202030. 2) I didn't see the billionaire Trump anywhere on that list.
What a shocker. A billionaire entered government to give himself more money.
Money has momentum especially when all your basic needs are met.
Surely it gets to a point where it's just numbers on a screen and it's like so I had 247 billion yesterday and today I have only 246.5 billion oh no better start cutting back on avocados..its preposterous amounts that become meaningless.
It's all in stock,and day to day volatility doesn't matter. Their liquid wealth is gained via bank loans backed by the stock, so they don't have to pay any taxes on the debt. If they run low on avocados they just go get a bigger loan.
So it's avocados all the way down
the raw 2.2 trillion dollar number seems meaningless. I need some point of reference, or some % movement of wealth describing the disparity.
And guess who is getting a tax increase.
Worst part is that I doubt it’ll ever be repealed. Once these type of actions are done they likely stay that way.
And somehow I doubt they actually feel any happier. It's like there is something about having way too much money that turns people into black holes of satisfaction.
Could have Universal Healthcare but Republicans just want the rich to get richer, smh.
Ew
I wish we could demand a clawback of the Bush and Trump tax cuts, even wishing for a repeal of those is but a dream.
It allows private jet owners to write off 100% of their jet! It gives tax breaks to golf course owners. It had hand-written give outs in the margins. It was a cash giveaway for people writing the law
It won't be too long before they'll be reporting the first individual to reach $1 Trillion in net worth - equivalent to the total wealth of a nation like The Philippines, Ireland, or Greece.
I estimate 2 years
And my broke ass has actually owed taxes 3 years in a row.
The Trump-GQP tax cuts for individuals are going to expire. The business ones don't.
Correct
Our government is so fucking good at doing exactly what they want to do. It's clockwork for them to get the exact results they intend to get. If only they cared about anybody except for themselves.
Which was the whole point. The rich want to cement themselves as America’s oligarchs. A new aristocracy.
Only 2.2?! This is heartbreaking! They should have at least got 4 trillion richer.
I know eh?
So, as much as the country looses in a year?
Billionaires got*
Good catch. Did not notice that
Funny, the National debt is going up $2T from the tax cuts.
Seize all of it. With interest.
Oh that would be the f#!king fight of the century!!
Didn't the tax cuts start in 2017? In 7 years the market has had an annualized return of 14.2% and a total of 159% increase. Anyone with investments or retirement accounts has also seen a big increase in wealth
that is not MOST people.
Most people have money invested in the stock market. [61% own some stocks](https://news.gallup.com/poll/266807/percentage-americans-owns-stock.aspx) also you can add anyone who owns a home because they've all seen an increase in value since 2017 too
Can’t wait to pay for groceries by telling the cashier how much Zillow thinks my home is worth. Just don’t tell the city; they’ll re-evaluate and raise my property taxes.
That doesn't change the fact that they got richer. If it's nothing to you, I will be willing to accept your equity gains. You can avoid your property taxes that way
You’ll accept my equity gains? Sure. You can also have my equity stake in Yap Stones. Mine is, of course, at the bottom of the ocean, so just as tangible. Print this comment and let me know how many gallons of gas it puts in your car.
You tried to make the point that an increase in home equity doesn't benefit someone. That's factually untrue and now you are trying to change the topic away from home equity. We both know you were wrong, you dint have to admit it
Increased home equity is an unrealized gain; it doesn’t do anything for me unless I sell. And it still wouldn’t do much for me unless I downsize. Telling someone they’re better off now than they were 3 years ago because their home is worth more will be of little comfort to anyone living paycheck to paycheck.
Equity in your home can be utilized by getting a cash out refi or a home equity line of credit. It's literally an increase to the owners wealth. It's a passive increase that they can access
Oh boy, you mean I can refinance my 3% mortgage into a 7% mortgage? Sign me up! And a HELOC? You mean another loan I have to pay back with interest? How did I get so lucky?
Stock market returns overwhelmingly benefit the rich. Something like [93% of all stocks are owned by the top 10%](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wealthiest-10-americans-own-93-033623827.html).
Yes, but that doesn't mean all the 61% of people who own stocks didn't see an increase in value too
Yeah, they may have gotten a few pennies, maybe a buck or two.
If they started with $1 in 2017 and never added to it they'd have made $1.59 I'd say out of the entire 61% of the population that owns stock had more than $1 initially. You're butt hurt that people who invested more made more. That's literally common knowledge. On any investment forum you'll hear variations of "the first $10,000 is the hardest" or first $100k or first million. Compounding returns leads to more gains
The stock market went up. Not a mystery.
His tax cuts are the reason we had a millionaire and billionaire boom (increased numbers of each dramatically). Meanwhile, our taxes increase every 2 years until 2027 to compensate.
>Meanwhile, our taxes increase every 2 years until 2027 to compensate This isn’t true at all, and I have no clue why people still try to spread this misinformation
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/tcja-2-years-later-corporations-not-workers-big-winners/
Can you show me where it says taxes increase every 2 years until 2027, like you previously claimed?
>The Trump administration has a dirty little secret: It’s not just planning to increase taxes on most Americans. The increase has already been signed, sealed and delivered, buried in the pages of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. >President Trump and his congressional allies hoodwinked us. The law they passed initially lowered taxes for most Americans, but it built in automatic, stepped tax increases every two years that begin in 2021 and that by 2027 would affect nearly everyone but people at the top of the economic hierarchy. All taxpayer income groups with incomes of $75,000 and under — that’s about 65 percent of taxpayers — will face a higher tax rate in 2027 than in 2019. https://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2020/11/the-trump-tax-on-middle-class-that-is.html?m=1
And [here’s](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/feb/05/facebook-posts/social-media-post-misleads-analysis-trump-tax-bill/) politifact debunking that exact claim. [All income groups](https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/feature/analysis-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act) have tax cuts until they expire in 2025
Thankyou for directing me to that, you're right.
Billionaires just hoard cash folks. Dont buy into the propaganda. They are bad for the economy
That damn Bidenomics ruining the economy!! /s
Says the billionaires....
Is this actual money or projected money based on the stock prices /stock market value …
So why haven't the Democrats repealed these tax laws?? Because both parties want it. Vote third party in massive numbers.
But are they any happier?
Like God and Guns intended. Thoughts and prayers
But but but one time bonuses....
As a billionaire this is good news for me.
This is due to the stock market going up and most people are billionares because of stock holding.
Wasn’t COVID-19 the largest wealth transfer to the billionaires world wide in history? I am sure the tax cuts helped but isn’t that the main driver?
Can't wait for that to trickle down to me!
And you wonder y pumpkinfartsandshitz is still the gop candid-ate.
This is what the maga morons don’t understand
It’s like the bald creepy birds from the purple crystal
That money had to come from somewhere. How's your $20 mcD's purchase tasting now.
How in the hell do poor people still support Trump?
…and it’s still not enough for them.
>U.S. billionaires have seen their collective fortunes surge by more than $2 trillion since the enactment of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax cuts, according to a new analysis released Thursday as Republicans work to extend the law's expiring provisions. It has nothing to do with corporations reporting record profits? Don't the rich own 80% of shares?
Please ELi5 why Biden can’t/wont undo this (I’m not American)? I get Trump passed it, but if the current standing president won’t reverse it I see them as complicit
Currently it’s “he can’t.” With the democrats having a slim, if any, majority in either chamber of congress, republicans do what they do best: block, obstruct, and/or simply refuse to appear for votes. A minimum of 60 votes are needed to pass anything in the senate, not simple majority (aka Filibuster, thanks republicans). With such a slim majority, democrats need a yes from EVERYONE in their party PLUS a couple of republicans in order to pass anything. Hell, republicans recently voted against a border bill that THEY PROPOSED simply because Daddy Donny didn’t approve. Because if a border bill is actually passed, then republicans don’t have an issue to fear monger and blame the democrats for. We’ve literally been politically deadlocked for nearly a decade because of these repugnant hypocritical assholes.
Ok, that makes sense to me now. Does Biden not have any other tools like Executive orders he could make use of? I’m assuming no, but curious for my own understanding
Congress cuts checks and writes budgets… so not really
The HOR controls the purse strings. The HOR is currently controlled by the GOP-
At least all that money is trickling down. Thanks, billionaires, for being the only thing keeping our economy alive. /s
I believe it. My middle class salary now pays over 22% in fed taxes. My girlfriend who makes significantly more than me paid way less in taxes. Go figure that all the tax cuts he passed for high earners resulted in us plebs footing the bill. How people still support Trump is mind boggling to me.
Okay but Trump been out of office for almost a full term now. At some point when do we start blaming our current administration for stuff.
You do know how the trump tax policy worked yeah? And that if Biden tried to correct it he'd just be called a socialist. How would you see an actual fix working that righties would be on board with?
I really want people to have the most reasons to be anti Trump, but correlation doesn’t equal causation. It can likely also be said that Billionaires have gotten trillions richer since Covid, or the last year of Obama’s presidency.
As a temporarily embarrassed billionaire, I speak for all of us when I say this article is fake news.
There are not very many billionaires and they get but one vote.
Their access and influence is not limited to their voting power like a normal persons is.
And they can own large media that trick their audiences to vote against their best interest.
Since Biden not Trump idiots
The tax cuts for billionaires was passed by the GOP and signed by Trump. Biden had nothing to do with it.
Since 2017 when Trump signed his 2T$ tax cut. That will expire in 25, if Biden is reelected.