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Cool, tuition should be taxpayer funded by the American people, namely the super wealthy.

mcmcmc 2y ago
There are a lot of other things that money should go towards before college tuition. Maybe we start with our abysmal primary and secondary education.
zeroonetwothree 2y ago
Fun fact: if we taxed all income over $500,000 at a 100% tax rate it wouldn’t even cover our current budget deficit, let alone allow for such a massive spending increase.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- patrickthebold 2y ago
  Source?
- Aloisius 2y ago
  Em. People filing returns over $500K reported an aggregate AGI of $3.8 trillion for 2022. After subtracting out the $981 million in income taxes they paid, you'd still be left with about $2.8 trillion, about a trillion more than the deficit. Not that they wouldn't immediately shield their income if you tried. Still, I don't see any issue with maximizing our tax revenue from the top 1% by increasing their taxes until total revenue starts to drop, though I'd also be happy just dramatically increasing inheritance taxes and eliminating tax shields since billionaires still die regularly. Source: https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-statistical-tables-by-size-of-adjusted-gross-income https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-stat... (Table 1.1, row 57)
  - WeylandYutani 2y ago
    There are entire skyscrapers filled with people whose job it is to make sure rich people pay as little tax as possible.
rayiner 2y ago
You can’t fund all this stuff only by taxing “the super wealthy.” The math just doesn’t math. That’s why every developed country that has free college also has heavy taxes on middle and upper middle class people.
- latentcall 2y ago
  I’d happily pay more taxes if it meant my country had healthcare and education.
  - rayiner 2y ago
    Me too! But nobody is fixing to materially raise my taxes. Somehow, “the top 1%” became “the super wealthy” and “billionaires,” and engineers and lawyers and doctors continue to enjoy tax rates that haven’t materially gone up since Reagan. If you’re not going to significantly raise my taxes, and instead are ranting about the “super wealthy,” you’re just cosplaying about universal healthcare and free college. The math doesn’t match. People in the top 1% of the wealth distribution have an average wealth of $18 million: https://taxfoundation.org/blog/super-rich-pay-effective-tax-rates/ https://taxfoundation.org/blog/super-rich-pay-effective-tax-.... They have an average AGI of about $1 million/year. The total income for this segment is about $1.8 trillion. You could double their taxes to over 50%, and that would bring in less than $500 billion a year. It wouldn’t even get halfway to closing the deficit, much less paying for universal anything. Meanwhile, people in the top 10% have an average wealth of $3.8 million, and average AGI of $273,000. Their total income is $4.9 trillion. So the people outside the top 1% but inside the top 10% reflect a potential tax base of $3 trillion. And we refuse to raise taxes on these people.
lolinder 2y ago
In a sense isn't that exactly what OP is saying is happening today? Only the super wealthy actually pay the sticker price on college, everyone else is subsidized by some combination of taxpayer-funded grants, scholarships (usually provided by the super wealthy), or just straight-up discounts (covered by the wealthy students paying full price).

There are a lot of other things that money should go towards before college tuition. Maybe we start with our abysmal primary and secondary education.

zeroonetwothree 2y ago

Fun fact: if we taxed all income over $500,000 at a 100% tax rate it wouldn’t even cover our current budget deficit, let alone allow for such a massive spending increase.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
patrickthebold 2y ago
Source?
Aloisius 2y ago
Em. People filing returns over $500K reported an aggregate AGI of $3.8 trillion for 2022. After subtracting out the $981 million in income taxes they paid, you'd still be left with about $2.8 trillion, about a trillion more than the deficit. Not that they wouldn't immediately shield their income if you tried. Still, I don't see any issue with maximizing our tax revenue from the top 1% by increasing their taxes until total revenue starts to drop, though I'd also be happy just dramatically increasing inheritance taxes and eliminating tax shields since billionaires still die regularly. Source: https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-statistical-tables-by-size-of-adjusted-gross-income https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-stat... (Table 1.1, row 57)
- WeylandYutani 2y ago
  There are entire skyscrapers filled with people whose job it is to make sure rich people pay as little tax as possible.

rayiner 2y ago

You can’t fund all this stuff only by taxing “the super wealthy.” The math just doesn’t math. That’s why every developed country that has free college also has heavy taxes on middle and upper middle class people.

latentcall 2y ago
I’d happily pay more taxes if it meant my country had healthcare and education.
- rayiner 2y ago
  Me too! But nobody is fixing to materially raise my taxes. Somehow, “the top 1%” became “the super wealthy” and “billionaires,” and engineers and lawyers and doctors continue to enjoy tax rates that haven’t materially gone up since Reagan. If you’re not going to significantly raise my taxes, and instead are ranting about the “super wealthy,” you’re just cosplaying about universal healthcare and free college. The math doesn’t match. People in the top 1% of the wealth distribution have an average wealth of $18 million: https://taxfoundation.org/blog/super-rich-pay-effective-tax-rates/ https://taxfoundation.org/blog/super-rich-pay-effective-tax-.... They have an average AGI of about $1 million/year. The total income for this segment is about $1.8 trillion. You could double their taxes to over 50%, and that would bring in less than $500 billion a year. It wouldn’t even get halfway to closing the deficit, much less paying for universal anything. Meanwhile, people in the top 10% have an average wealth of $3.8 million, and average AGI of $273,000. Their total income is $4.9 trillion. So the people outside the top 1% but inside the top 10% reflect a potential tax base of $3 trillion. And we refuse to raise taxes on these people.

lolinder 2y ago

In a sense isn't that exactly what OP is saying is happening today? Only the super wealthy actually pay the sticker price on college, everyone else is subsidized by some combination of taxpayer-funded grants, scholarships (usually provided by the super wealthy), or just straight-up discounts (covered by the wealthy students paying full price).