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I find this discourse incredibly frustrating. I don't like billionaires, and I would prefer they give away their money more rapidly. But they are following that

by notJim 5y ago

I find this discourse incredibly frustrating. I don't like billionaires, and I would prefer they give away their money more rapidly. But they are following that laws that exist just as much as the rest of us. We don't expect people to voluntarily pay higher taxes than required, and that would be a ridiculous way of running a government. It's stupid to say they are "not paying their taxes", because in fact, as a policy, our government has chosen not to tax them. If people disagree with that policy, they should focus their ire on government, not on billionaires.

unreal37 5y ago
It's also ridiculous to say they "don't pay taxes" when in fact they do pay taxes. Bezos has already sold at least $15 billion in Amazon stock over the past 2 years. All taxable. Musk has a $15 billion tax bill that we know is due in 2022. It's not nothing. People can say that it's not enough, but it's not nothing.
- he_is_legend 5y ago
  When deciding what is fair in tax, we should perhaps consider not how much is paid in tax, but how much remains after tax. If a middle to low income earner pays $10k in tax, but then has trouble paying their bills, or keeping a roof over their head, have they paid a fair share? When a bilionaire pays $100m in taxes and has billions left to fritter away on going to space or playing with crypto stocks, have they paid a fair share?
  - unreal37 5y ago
    If you go by that metric, taxes will never be enough. You could tax a billionaire 99.9% and they'll still have enough. And it wouldn't be fair. And it would destroy the economy in the long term.
belltaco 5y ago
It's not easy to tax them without taxing wealth, which has other issues as we are finding out with legislation. https://wallethacks.com/buy-borrow-die-estate-planning-strategy/ https://wallethacks.com/buy-borrow-die-estate-planning-strat...
- notJim 5y ago
  A wealth tax is the only thing that makes sense to me here. Also eliminating the stepped up basis.

by notJim 5y ago

unreal37 5y ago

It's also ridiculous to say they "don't pay taxes" when in fact they do pay taxes. Bezos has already sold at least $15 billion in Amazon stock over the past 2 years. All taxable. Musk has a $15 billion tax bill that we know is due in 2022. It's not nothing. People can say that it's not enough, but it's not nothing.

he_is_legend 5y ago
When deciding what is fair in tax, we should perhaps consider not how much is paid in tax, but how much remains after tax. If a middle to low income earner pays $10k in tax, but then has trouble paying their bills, or keeping a roof over their head, have they paid a fair share? When a bilionaire pays $100m in taxes and has billions left to fritter away on going to space or playing with crypto stocks, have they paid a fair share?
- unreal37 5y ago
  If you go by that metric, taxes will never be enough. You could tax a billionaire 99.9% and they'll still have enough. And it wouldn't be fair. And it would destroy the economy in the long term.

belltaco 5y ago

It's not easy to tax them without taxing wealth, which has other issues as we are finding out with legislation. https://wallethacks.com/buy-borrow-die-estate-planning-strategy/ https://wallethacks.com/buy-borrow-die-estate-planning-strat...

notJim 5y ago
A wealth tax is the only thing that makes sense to me here. Also eliminating the stepped up basis.