5.3 million millionaires in the US and only 614 billionaires.

[VanceMack]

I am sorry you feel that way. I care about my country and my fellow citizens. All of them.

I'm SURE that's what the military taught you. Whine about your own failings. Blame others for your own existence. Whine that others that earn more than you wont give it to you.

We didnt get those messages in my 20 years.

 

[NatMorton]

40% of all wealth is inherited. I think that is a lot of free rides.

So come your time you’ll be leaving your million+ to the federal government then, yes?

 

[NatMorton]

The redistribution of wealth upwards is a

... myth.

 

[Luther]

Inheritance taxes.

Oh yes, Easy money

 

[cpwill]

You take that out of context. The argument was about generational wealth and I said they would not agree.

I am quoting it directly. You argued that they died for generational wealth, and that they all agreed with you. Neither of those claims is correct, and they are not a prop.

They were individuals. They had their own opinions, their own beliefs. Please let them be themselves, or let them be - they are not a tool.

 

[AliHajiSheik]

I don't know but I guess if 1% own 40% of the wealth and 40% of wealth is inherited than 1% probably inherits most of the wealth?

You are using a measure of wealth which is very transitory. Wealth based on the value of a stock multiplied by a current stock price can be fleeting. As for inherited wealth? Who cares, that is the whole idea behind private property. It is yours to do with as you see fit.

 

[NatMorton]

You are using a measure of wealth which is very transitory. Wealth based on the value of a stock multiplied by a current stock price can be fleeting. As for inherited wealth? Who cares, that is the whole idea behind private property. It is yours to do with as you see fit.

That's the rub. They see it as theirs do so with as they see fit.

 

[craig]

I'm SURE that's what the military taught you. Whine about your own failings. Blame others for your own existence. Whine that others that earn more than you wont give it to you.

We didnt get those messages in my 20 years.

Were you an enlisted man. Soldiers bitched more than any one I have ever been with.

 

[craig]

So come your time you’ll be leaving your million+ to the federal government then, yes?

Hopefully I will have spent much of it down before I die. It only takes a half dozen years in a nursing home now days to get rid of a million dollars.

 

[NatMorton]

Hopefully I will have spent much of it down before I die. It only takes a half dozen years in a nursing home now days to get rid of a million dollars.

Perhaps the government should take it away from you before then. You can always be placed in a nursing home that takes Medicare.

 

[craig]

Perhaps the government should take it away from you before then. You can always be placed in a nursing home that takes Medicare.

There are lawyers that do nothing but set up trusts for the middle class to pass on their wealth and then live their last years on welfare.

 

[NatMorton]

There are lawyers that do nothing but set up trusts for the middle class to pass on their wealth and then live their last years on welfare.

So much for "tax wealth not work."

 

[craig]

So much for "tax wealth not work."

I don't avoid taxes or attempt to defraud the government. Both are criminal and should be prosecuted. If there had been a flat tax on wealth and no income tax or capital gains tax I would have more wealth not less.

 

[Mithrae]

so if there were no government handouts, how would the poor survive?

Desperate people may decide to ignore the imposed restrictions on their freedom we know as 'property laws.' If concentrated land ownership, profit-driven automation, offshoring, paywalled education access, your-money-or-your-life 'healthcare' models and so on all conspire to stack the odds against everyone without the right talents and opportunities, playing by the rules dreamed up by other folk may well have no upside or benefit at all for them. In that case it's only rational to ignore those imposed rules, if they can.

Some folk on the right seem to dream of a purely negative, strictly punitive system; no upside whatsoever, no safety nets, no social contract ensuring that we will at the very least be better off even at the bottom of our society than in the hypothetical state of nature... just brutal punishment for anyone who breaks their rules. Fortunately most people realise that in terms of both pragmatism and principle, the upside of social safety nets are indeed a good and necessary thing. Restricting your freedom in deference to property laws is rewarded if you are successful through protection of your property, and rewarded if you're not by protection of your basic needs for a decent life.

 

[Exquisitor]

Oh yes, Easy money

I was referring to the idea that you won't be able to seperate them from their money until they die.

 

[Linuxcooldude]

When was the last time your employer laid you off because sales are down? Workers are only employed to make the owners more money.

Then you go to another employer. What do you do when the homeless man can't give you a job? Go to the next homeless man?

 

[Felis Leo]

I think more millionaires and no billionaires would be better for our democracy and our economy.

It may be more than 5.3 millionaires. We are perhaps closer to 20 million individual millionaires*.

*And by "Millionaire" that means a person whose net worth when accounting for the value of all their personal assets, real estate, and financial assets equals or exceeds 1 million dollars.

 

[iguanaman]

Then you go to another employer. What do you do when the homeless man can't give you a job? Go to the next homeless man?

You go to the Govt. to help you out because no one is hiring. I happens every decade. Corporations do not care what happens to you. They only hire you if you make them money.

 

[cpwill]

You go to the Govt. to help you out because no one is hiring. I happens every decade. Corporations do not care what happens to you. They only hire you if you make them money.

Huh. That's interesting. So what would they do if the price of your labor suddenly became such that you lost them money?

 

[Ren]

I think more millionaires and no billionaires would be better for our democracy and our economy.

I think creating more millionaires from lower tax brackets would be best. Leave the billionaires alone and let's try to make more of them!

 

[Felis Leo]

Most people in poverty are there because of bad decisions.

Prove me wrong.

Very true, RetiredUSN. But those decisions were often not made by them.

No one can help the family structure they are born into, their material circumstances, or what they are taught by their elders, many of whom know little to nothing more than their children.

 

[craig]

The fair way to make more millionaires is to require capital gains be paid every year just like income taxes and at the same rate. That will allow working people to accumulate wealth.

 

[Felis Leo]

The fair way to make more millionaires is to require capital gains be paid every year just like income taxes and at the same rate. That will allow working people to accumulate wealth.

How so, craig? Let us say a young Generation Z man or woman is working an entry-level office job, and making $15.00 per hour starting and they are working full-time. How does higher taxes on capital gains help that office worker start on a path to build his or her wealth? Or anyone for that matter?

 

[Bullseye]

The fair way to make more millionaires is to require capital gains be paid every year just like income taxes and at the same rate. That will allow working people to accumulate wealth.

Why is that fair? How exactly would that make it any easier for working people to aacumulate wealth?

 

[Felis Leo]

Why is that fair? How exactly would that make it any easier for working people to aacumulate wealth?

I can understand the argument for taxing all income at the same rate. I think there is a reasonable argument for arguing that money one makes from investment should not be taxed at a lesser rate than money you make from the sweat of your own brow.