Higher taxes on rich people and on rich corporations. Tax churches. Americans For Tax Fairness org.
Wealth tax. Higher estate taxes. Close tax loopholes for people and for corporations.
Prohibit stock buybacks by publicly traded companies. End offshore tax avoidance.
Pay off the national debt. Create a national surplus instead of having a national debt.
Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. I will never believe a corporation is a person until Texas executes one. Fix Scotus.
The Powell memo. Automatic voter registration. End the filibuster and gerrymandering. Overturn Buckley and Citizens United. Congress without term limits is too much like a retirement home. Term Limits org . Fix The Court com.
Not to mention the Social Security tax with a cap at $180,000. or so. What a crock. Tax all of the money. That thought brings us to the idea of "earned" income vs "acquired in another way" (I don't know the appropriate term). All income should be taxed, not just earned. These things alone would make us much more solvent.
The hard part about profits that are not earned is this. If my stock value goes from $1000 to $2000, should I be taxed on that indirect income? Suppose next month it goes down to $1200. Would I get a refund? Or should I pay taxes only when I cash in that stock? (That's how it's done now.) But what about if I borrow money using that $2000 in stock as collateral? Do I pay taxes on that loan because of the increased value of my stock? Most billionaires do it that way... using their assets (financial and physical) as collateral to borrow more money for more investments.
See how convoluted it can get? I'm not saying it's the right way to do it. But how do you tease out those earnings if they aren't cashed in?
Maybe tax when you sell but still pay SS taxes? It would have to be worked out with the idea that those earnings should help pay to run the country. There are tax and law people far more competent than I to determine it. I am not as well versed as I would need to be to accomplish that task.
Me, neither... But let's remember that it's Congress that formulates these rules. And they aren't going to do anything that disadvantages themselves. We need an outside agency that create rules prohibiting Members of Congress, the president, and Cabinet members from actively participating in their financial interests while in office. In fact, there is a "blind trust" rule for presidents. But, as we know, Trump has flouted that rule many times.
Until fairly recently - I believe the cap was removed under Regean, our first dementia-addled president - the useless 1% was taxed SIGNIFICANTLY higher than now that an obese loser that plays a billionaire at parties was thrust into power after gaining 25% of the popluar vote. It was FORTY PERCENT as I recall at one point!
I lied. It was SEVENTY-FIVE percent in the early 1900s!
Not OK. Our Catholic parish addresses political issues broadly, in terms of morality and ethics -- caring for immigrants, feeding food-insecure people, working for peace, etc. But we are careful not to tell people how to vote or which party to affiliate with.
I once belonged to a parish in Florida where the pastor openly ridiculed Americans who voted for McGovern rather than Nixon.
I'm sorry but why should I feel like we need to justify taxing wealthy people... does anyone make an argument why we tax poor people.... their entitlement is appalling...what are they forfeiting to pay more taxes? No new car no shoes for baby only 2 meals a day.... the list could go on but I'm done
I'm a CA voter. I should be applauding, but I'm not. Why is this focus on a state solution instead of federal? Why is the focus on taxing wealth which is so difficult to measure instead of taxing income? It seems to me our federal Congress needs to reverse the income tax cuts in One Big Beautiful Bill and begin to restore equality in tax code. Help pls.
The Billionaires are Ripping Us ALL off and have been since Eisenhower. They have been RIGGING the Economic System in America in their favor and sticking it to the rest of us. What we MUST do is "focus on abolishing a system of economic laws, rules, and practices that funnels wealth to the top and undermines life for everyone else." Example "According to a RAND Corporation analysis, if workers shared in productivity gains of their corporate employers (as they had between 1945 and 1974), they would have earned a combined additional average of $2.5 trillion a year. Between 1975 and 2020, a total of $50 trillion in wages that should have been paid to the bottom 90 percent of households was funnel instead to the richest 1 percent - enough to pay every single working American in the bottom nine deciles an additional $1,144 a month. For every one of those forty-five years." Theses quotes are from "Burned By Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Planet" by Chuck Collins. Collins is also a member of the Patriotic Millionaires who are saying "tax me"! patrioticmillionaires.org. Do NOT support any politician who will not address this problem. And it is a HUGE problem in America. Because all the other issues are just Band Aids on a Gapping wound of Income and Wealth Inequality that are destroying the lives of ALL of us including the billionaires as you will read. Read the book and see the Personal impact on you and your family. It impacts every single part of your life. Another book that points out the Sinister Ideology behind all of this "Invisible Doctrine: The History of Neoliberalism" by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison. They also produced a documentary of the same name. (And any politician and Billionaire that whines about the future of Social Security - RAISE the CAP! "Scrap the Cap". Not doing so plays into the Billionaires whine about poor them. It is all LIES and BS! Beyond a current point of wealth - mentioned in Collin's book - the billionaires use their wealth to buy influence (a cartoon billionaire talking "I own one plane, two yachts, four houses, and five politicians) to their benefit and to the detriment of the rest of us......read about it.....because we are ALL living it right now.......if we do NOT address it!)
How dare the hoi palloi try to take my money for their pathetic needs! They should be grateful for the jobs I provide and the crumbs I leave on the table.
What should be the real job of government?
To increase the well being and prosperity of all its citizens,
or,
Manage the "herd" on behalf of the already wealthy?
Extreme wealth concentration is real. The political power that follows from it is real. The fiscal stress on California is real. And the instinct to act is entirely justified.
Where I disagree is the instrument.
The California proposal would raise roughly $100 billion once. That sounds enormous. But the roughly $2 trillion held by the 200 billionaires it targets, growing at a historical rate of 7.5%, would generate about $150 billion in new appreciation in a single year.
That is the problem in one comparison.
A one-time 5% levy on a stock that compounds at 7.5% a year is not structural reform. It is a partial clawback after the machinery of accumulation has already done its work.
And it comes with predictable costs: constitutional challenges, valuation disputes, capital flight, and the construction of a heavy administrative apparatus for a tax that is not even meant to recur.
There is a cleaner instrument. And over time, it raises more.
Start with a simple distinction: much large-scale wealth is not actively producing taxable income. It sits in appreciated assets, art, empty property, land banks, holding structures, and financial claims against which one can borrow without ever realizing a taxable gain.
That is not productive deployment. It is passive preservation and appreciation under the protection of the collective order.
Suppose a billionaire has $10 billion in net worth, of which $7 billion sits in that dormant form. Apply a 2% deemed return to that dormant portion, and you create $140 million of taxable flow. At an 80% marginal rate on exceptional flows, that yields $112 million in annual tax from one billionaire alone.
Across 200 billionaires, that is roughly $22 billion per year.
Over five years, that is $110 billion.
Not once. Recurringly.
And that is before we even leave the billionaire class. Because a deemed-return rule is not a billionaire tax. It is a rule about behavior. Wherever capital sits dormant while continuing to benefit from legal protection, monetary stability, and public infrastructure, it re-enters fiscal visibility.
That makes the politics cleaner too.
A tax aimed at a small list of ultra-rich individuals is easily framed as punishment. A rule aimed at passive extraction is easier to defend. It does not target a class by name. It targets a fiscal condition: capital that remains protected, appreciates, and stores power without producing visible taxable flow.
That is not confiscation. It is design.
Robert Reich is right to say that the emergency is real. He is right that the current system allows vast fortunes to expand while public systems weaken.
But taxing stock after it has fossilized is the wrong sequence.
The better sequence is earlier and steadier: tax exceptional flows when they arise, and impose a carrying cost on dormant assets so that passive wealth does not remain indefinitely outside the visible tax base.
That is less theatrical than a one-off wealth tax.
But it is more structural, more defensible, and more durable.
If inequality is reproduced every year, the response cannot be a one-time gesture.
For anyone interested in joining the effort, you can learn more here: https://billionairetaxnow.org/
Thanks for the info. I'll head over to sign the petition !
Higher taxes on rich people and on rich corporations. Tax churches. Americans For Tax Fairness org.
Wealth tax. Higher estate taxes. Close tax loopholes for people and for corporations.
Prohibit stock buybacks by publicly traded companies. End offshore tax avoidance.
Pay off the national debt. Create a national surplus instead of having a national debt.
Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. I will never believe a corporation is a person until Texas executes one. Fix Scotus.
The Powell memo. Automatic voter registration. End the filibuster and gerrymandering. Overturn Buckley and Citizens United. Congress without term limits is too much like a retirement home. Term Limits org . Fix The Court com.
R immigration , r Constitution ,
trickle down is a golden shower. Change my mind.
To paraphrase Judge Judy, "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's trickle-down economics."
"there's something running in my stocking..."
Not to mention the Social Security tax with a cap at $180,000. or so. What a crock. Tax all of the money. That thought brings us to the idea of "earned" income vs "acquired in another way" (I don't know the appropriate term). All income should be taxed, not just earned. These things alone would make us much more solvent.
The hard part about profits that are not earned is this. If my stock value goes from $1000 to $2000, should I be taxed on that indirect income? Suppose next month it goes down to $1200. Would I get a refund? Or should I pay taxes only when I cash in that stock? (That's how it's done now.) But what about if I borrow money using that $2000 in stock as collateral? Do I pay taxes on that loan because of the increased value of my stock? Most billionaires do it that way... using their assets (financial and physical) as collateral to borrow more money for more investments.
See how convoluted it can get? I'm not saying it's the right way to do it. But how do you tease out those earnings if they aren't cashed in?
Maybe tax when you sell but still pay SS taxes? It would have to be worked out with the idea that those earnings should help pay to run the country. There are tax and law people far more competent than I to determine it. I am not as well versed as I would need to be to accomplish that task.
Me, neither... But let's remember that it's Congress that formulates these rules. And they aren't going to do anything that disadvantages themselves. We need an outside agency that create rules prohibiting Members of Congress, the president, and Cabinet members from actively participating in their financial interests while in office. In fact, there is a "blind trust" rule for presidents. But, as we know, Trump has flouted that rule many times.
I totally agree. It has become too "lucrative" for too many in office. Needs to stop.
Until fairly recently - I believe the cap was removed under Regean, our first dementia-addled president - the useless 1% was taxed SIGNIFICANTLY higher than now that an obese loser that plays a billionaire at parties was thrust into power after gaining 25% of the popluar vote. It was FORTY PERCENT as I recall at one point!
I lied. It was SEVENTY-FIVE percent in the early 1900s!
https://www.socialsecurityintelligence.com/the-history-of-the-social-security-earnings-limit/
I found this SS cap history. I didn't see where it was ever lifted.
Added: Raise the Social Security tax cap on high earning people.
Good point. Adding to the list.
Absolutely right John.
Except for those churches that provide community support.
Any churches that engage in politics lose their tax exemption.
Does that include the Pope admonishing Trump and Vance for their immoral and unethical ways?
Morality and politics are separate Donna.
Morality? Well, it depends on how you define it... But not ethics. That definitely should be part of the package.
My neighbors received what their church called “educational materials,” which were clearly political.
Not OK. Our Catholic parish addresses political issues broadly, in terms of morality and ethics -- caring for immigrants, feeding food-insecure people, working for peace, etc. But we are careful not to tell people how to vote or which party to affiliate with.
I once belonged to a parish in Florida where the pastor openly ridiculed Americans who voted for McGovern rather than Nixon.
I view what the Pope said as moral leadership, which I also believe is needed and appropriate. As a faith leader, he should admonish warmongering.
This is fair and they really won't miss it.
I'm sorry but why should I feel like we need to justify taxing wealthy people... does anyone make an argument why we tax poor people.... their entitlement is appalling...what are they forfeiting to pay more taxes? No new car no shoes for baby only 2 meals a day.... the list could go on but I'm done
The wealthy love socialism. They get it through the tax system.
Good point.
I couldn’t agree more!
I'm a CA voter. I should be applauding, but I'm not. Why is this focus on a state solution instead of federal? Why is the focus on taxing wealth which is so difficult to measure instead of taxing income? It seems to me our federal Congress needs to reverse the income tax cuts in One Big Beautiful Bill and begin to restore equality in tax code. Help pls.
Duly shared.
The Billionaires are Ripping Us ALL off and have been since Eisenhower. They have been RIGGING the Economic System in America in their favor and sticking it to the rest of us. What we MUST do is "focus on abolishing a system of economic laws, rules, and practices that funnels wealth to the top and undermines life for everyone else." Example "According to a RAND Corporation analysis, if workers shared in productivity gains of their corporate employers (as they had between 1945 and 1974), they would have earned a combined additional average of $2.5 trillion a year. Between 1975 and 2020, a total of $50 trillion in wages that should have been paid to the bottom 90 percent of households was funnel instead to the richest 1 percent - enough to pay every single working American in the bottom nine deciles an additional $1,144 a month. For every one of those forty-five years." Theses quotes are from "Burned By Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Planet" by Chuck Collins. Collins is also a member of the Patriotic Millionaires who are saying "tax me"! patrioticmillionaires.org. Do NOT support any politician who will not address this problem. And it is a HUGE problem in America. Because all the other issues are just Band Aids on a Gapping wound of Income and Wealth Inequality that are destroying the lives of ALL of us including the billionaires as you will read. Read the book and see the Personal impact on you and your family. It impacts every single part of your life. Another book that points out the Sinister Ideology behind all of this "Invisible Doctrine: The History of Neoliberalism" by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison. They also produced a documentary of the same name. (And any politician and Billionaire that whines about the future of Social Security - RAISE the CAP! "Scrap the Cap". Not doing so plays into the Billionaires whine about poor them. It is all LIES and BS! Beyond a current point of wealth - mentioned in Collin's book - the billionaires use their wealth to buy influence (a cartoon billionaire talking "I own one plane, two yachts, four houses, and five politicians) to their benefit and to the detriment of the rest of us......read about it.....because we are ALL living it right now.......if we do NOT address it!)
“Collins is also a member of the Patriotic Millionaires who are saying "tax me"! patrioticmillionaires.org.”
So why doesn’t he just hand over as much as he feels like, as a donation to the US Treasury?
George Monbiot …
🤣😅😂😅🤣😅😂😅🤣😅😂😅🤣😅😂😂🤣😅😂😅🤣😅😂😅🤣😅😂😅🤣😅😂😅🤣😅
Actually check out the history of Chuck Collins - he GAVE UP an inheritance..... Read the book and see what is happening to you and yours........
His choice.
I encourage you to read the books.......
How dare the hoi palloi try to take my money for their pathetic needs! They should be grateful for the jobs I provide and the crumbs I leave on the table.
What should be the real job of government?
To increase the well being and prosperity of all its citizens,
or,
Manage the "herd" on behalf of the already wealthy?
Republican wealth tax. Republicans get money middle class pays in taxes.
Mission statement of the Republican Party:
Manipulate the stupid to protect the wealthy.
“Manipulate the stupid to protect the wealthy.”
That might explain why there’s never been a proper investigation into Autopen family’s nuclear-level grift…
If your dream comes true and djt leaves, how happy are you with Vince? From unpredictable psychopath to the devil incarnate.
Vance. As in Devil Incarnate.
Trump; "One for them two for us. "it's an easy concept.
The right diagnosis, the wrong instrument
You arevright about the problem.
Extreme wealth concentration is real. The political power that follows from it is real. The fiscal stress on California is real. And the instinct to act is entirely justified.
Where I disagree is the instrument.
The California proposal would raise roughly $100 billion once. That sounds enormous. But the roughly $2 trillion held by the 200 billionaires it targets, growing at a historical rate of 7.5%, would generate about $150 billion in new appreciation in a single year.
That is the problem in one comparison.
A one-time 5% levy on a stock that compounds at 7.5% a year is not structural reform. It is a partial clawback after the machinery of accumulation has already done its work.
And it comes with predictable costs: constitutional challenges, valuation disputes, capital flight, and the construction of a heavy administrative apparatus for a tax that is not even meant to recur.
There is a cleaner instrument. And over time, it raises more.
Start with a simple distinction: much large-scale wealth is not actively producing taxable income. It sits in appreciated assets, art, empty property, land banks, holding structures, and financial claims against which one can borrow without ever realizing a taxable gain.
That is not productive deployment. It is passive preservation and appreciation under the protection of the collective order.
Suppose a billionaire has $10 billion in net worth, of which $7 billion sits in that dormant form. Apply a 2% deemed return to that dormant portion, and you create $140 million of taxable flow. At an 80% marginal rate on exceptional flows, that yields $112 million in annual tax from one billionaire alone.
Across 200 billionaires, that is roughly $22 billion per year.
Over five years, that is $110 billion.
Not once. Recurringly.
And that is before we even leave the billionaire class. Because a deemed-return rule is not a billionaire tax. It is a rule about behavior. Wherever capital sits dormant while continuing to benefit from legal protection, monetary stability, and public infrastructure, it re-enters fiscal visibility.
That makes the politics cleaner too.
A tax aimed at a small list of ultra-rich individuals is easily framed as punishment. A rule aimed at passive extraction is easier to defend. It does not target a class by name. It targets a fiscal condition: capital that remains protected, appreciates, and stores power without producing visible taxable flow.
That is not confiscation. It is design.
Robert Reich is right to say that the emergency is real. He is right that the current system allows vast fortunes to expand while public systems weaken.
But taxing stock after it has fossilized is the wrong sequence.
The better sequence is earlier and steadier: tax exceptional flows when they arise, and impose a carrying cost on dormant assets so that passive wealth does not remain indefinitely outside the visible tax base.
That is less theatrical than a one-off wealth tax.
But it is more structural, more defensible, and more durable.
If inequality is reproduced every year, the response cannot be a one-time gesture.
It has to be an architecture.
Flows are where value forms.
That is where taxation should begin.
Action is our middle name!