What a radical idea
Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025
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In the Fifties Ike taxed the super rich at 92%, but they didn’t actually pay it. They could either pay that money to Uncle Sam or invest that money into their companies, which they did. What happened? The national economy flourished, American industry dominated the world and middle class boomed. That would happen again if we taxed the rich like Ike did. It would also bring back jobs and factories from overseas. Win win!
Our tax rate for the highest bracket (everyone over $200k/yr, IIRC) hasn’t been over 40% since Carter.
We used to, then we started electing more Republicans.
Germany is taxing shit. Germany is a tax haven for the rich and the AFD will make it worse for everyone but the rich.
Sweden doesn’t have a wealth tax, so this is purely the tax on income. That is pretty comparable to what highest earners pay in federal/state/local tax in the places most live (NYC/LA/SF). You have Texas and Florida as relative tax shelters, but California alone has almost as many as those two. When you factor in NY/IL/MD/VA (places other billionaires are residents), they are not paying any less than their Swedish counterparts. The people who get screwed more in Europe are high earners with lower wealth. It is harder to earn your way to multi-millionaire status in Europe. The incentive structure is also pretty clear. Europe has a longer history of wealthy families who wouldn’t want their money going to government instead of their children.
I have one thing in common with trump… I can recognize things a lot of other people don’t.
Like, billionaires have a shitload of money. Have you ever thought about that? I think I’m the only one who knows that. As a matter of fact, I came up with the word “billionaire” when I was a kid. My dad was telling me about millionaires, and I said “What about people with a BILLION dollars? Are they BILLIONaires??” Nobody else ever thought of that.
Anyway, these “billionaires” can basically pay anybody, even politicians, to do ANYTHING. Think about that. Actually PAY people to do anything they want. Even illegal, unconstitutional stuff. Even if it’s a sin. I just realized this a couple of days ago.
Mind blown yet?? I pull curtains like this back all the time.
All the billionaires have to do is convince really stupid people that “they’re a few ss checks away from vast wealth”. That, or equally stupid and pathetic people that overestimate what they’ll receive when their “relative” dies.
Britain discovered billions in annual loopholes recently. Before that they were informed of billions in annual tax evasion. Have they done anything about any of that, or are they still telling working people they have to shut down services?
Not picking on Brits: Billionaires everywhere get away with this, but they are the most recent public example.
And I’ll bet they’re still billionaires.
Our Oligarchy doesn’t let us….
Should have taxed the Confederate billionaires after the Civil War.
Wait, what? Since when is Germany taxing billionaires? Vermögensteuer (wealth tax) is not collected in Germany, since 1996 or 1997. The 47.475% is the nominal maximum tax rate – and no one is paying it. Realistically it is around 26% ([Source](https://www.wiwo.de/finanzen/geldanlage/vermoegensverteilung-studie-beweist-superreiche-zahlen-weniger-steuern-als-der-mittelstand/29764214.html)). And no one has exact numbers, that’s just what public sources show.
This is not even accurate at all. Dumb.
**Sweden does not tax billionaires at all**. “The highest marginal tax on income is in the region of 55%, but in order to pay that sort of tax net, you need to have a salary of some $300,000 per month.”
US does the same thing, they tax income marginally. Sweden has a flat tax rate of 30% for capital gains.
What we should be discussing is a higher bracket for capital gains taxes…
[https://sweden.se/life/society/taxes-in-sweden](https://sweden.se/life/society/taxes-in-sweden)
As a Swede, we don’t.
We tax income from work. Our taxes on dividends etc. are actually quite low.
So we have low inequality when it comes to income from wages. But we don’t have low inequality. Instead, if sensible estimates are used for the very largest fortunes, our wealth inequality makes us [the third member of a quartet whose other members are the US, Russia and the Netherlands, where the US is actually *behind* us.]
Guillotine is hungry
Every once in a while (to keep the people happy), we pretend to tax the billionaires at 40% for a few years, instead of pretending to tax them at the current 37%
If only we voted in the party running on changing that.
Dutch tax is high for everyone not just the super rich. Also shit is expensive AF here.
Maybe they don’t elect their millionaires and billionaires
This video about Sweden’s tax system will pop this balloon slightly. It’s still better, but they’ve had insidious manipulation to the tax code over the years.
https://youtu.be/vxpq-xMo4-M?si=bFDFpcWG9Dx6wALR
The numbers shown here are maximum income tax rates.
The 49.5% tax rate (“Hoog tarief”) in the Netherlands is more of a cover for behind the scenes accountant shenanigans. You pay it on income over €75,000 (and before any Americans start whining about how low this is, things are substantially cheaper than in the states, excepting house prices and petrol (lol)). On paper, it would seem like the ultra wealthy are (metaphorically) chased down the street by a bat-wielding Belastingdienst and that their dues are taken without resistance.
In reality, the Netherlands is a notorious tax haven for corporations, so we just have the problem shifted elsewhere. There are some *extremely* wealthy individuals in the Netherlands, they’re just very proficient at keeping that money in forms and mechanisms (and most importantly *organisations*) that minimise what portion of it comes into contact with that 49.5% Hoog tarief.
As a German, this is a fucking lie. The only thing we excessively tax is fucking work. Billionaires don’t work. They just own. And regarding that, we are a tax haven.
In other words you care about your people?
If we eat a couple billionaires the rest will get the message pretty quick.
I’m not even sure if we’re allowed to discuss taxing billionaires anymore.
Billionaires in the Netherlands pay less tax in proportion to their income than they do in either the US or France, according to new research from the EU Tax Observatory.
The agency’s new Global Tax Evasion Report 2024 outlines areas where action has been taken to fight against tax evasion. For example, the report says, the introduction of an automatic exchange of bank information between countries has led to a sharp decline in offshore tax evasion by individuals since 2016.
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2023/10/dutch-billionaires-pay-less-tax-than-the-american-super-rich/
**Tax** our billionaires? I thought you said *attack our billionaires*.
The top tax bracket in the US is 37% and kicks in around half a million. That’s before we even start on the loopholes.
The only real presidential candidate who’s name isn’t Trump, campaigned on a doa, absolutely braindead, unrealized gains plan.
Elon Musk could fund the total state expenditure of Florida for 3 years and still be in the top 25 richest people.
He could give every American $500 and still be in the top 10.
4th pic should be somebody with 6 dicks in their mouth, with a greasy ear-to-ear smile.
Especially galling when it comes out of the mouth of english actor Will Poulter.
50% is a little much