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New Plan. New Deal. Seize The Wealth!

H

Highlight

Banned
Joined
Apr 11, 2025
Messages
69
Reaction score
76
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Slightly Liberal
As I said in another thread, the bottom 50% of Americans have around 4 trillion in wealth. The top 50% of Americans have around 156 trillion in wealth. They got that wealth in many ways. Tax loopholes, underpaying employees, destroying the environment, shipping manufacturing overseas, etc. Well I say out government just seize most of their wealth. Our government is around 37 trillion in debt. Seize that out of the 156 trillion the wealthy have and pay off the national debt. That will leave them with 119 trillion. The more they have, the more we just take. Though I would take another 19 trillion and leave them with 100 trillion in wealth. With that 19 trillion dollars, we fix all the infrastructure in the U.S. Whatever is made overseas, we build the factories to have those things made here. Next would be to end poverty and homelessness. I don't know right of hand how to spend the other 15 trillion or so that would be left over.
 
I don't think you are "Slightly Liberal". I think you are full blown Socialist.

Anyway, what do you think will happen if the government starts confiscating people's wealth? Answer: They will leave the country in droves.
 
In the 1950s (which I assume is the era that was "great" that MAGA always refers to) the top marginal rate was upwards of 90%. So let's go back to that and get the deficit down.

The problem is, most conservatives don't even know how marginal taxes work, so they hear 90% and shriek.
 
Highlight said:
Seize that out of the 156 trillion the wealthy have and pay off the national debt.
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As soon as they start talking about this commie level of expropriation, you would see capital flight on a scale the world has never seen before.
 
Highlight said:
Well I say out government just seize most of their wealth. Our government is around 37 trillion in debt. Seize that out of the 156 trillion the wealthy have and pay off the national debt.
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Nationalization is communism. It would also completely destroy your economy because no one would ever invest in American industry again.

Also you realize that wealth is mostly equities right? What happens to the value of those equities when there's a mass sell off?
 

Under what constitutional power would the federal government “seize” personal wealth from “the top 50%”?

Do you have some special formula in mind or simply plan to have the federal government “seize” personal assets above some established personal wealth (net worth?) cap?

BTW, how is that plan Slightly Liberal?
 
Better plan...


Nationwide workers strike.

Full stop, we'll be listened to.
 
And nationalization has worked so well for Venezuela....few will invest in that country for the foreseeable future.
 
Bum said:
And nationalization has worked so well for Venezuela....few will invest in that country for the foreseeable future.
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Didn't work well in Cuba either. When challenged these people can never point to one example of where their batshit economic schemes worked.
 
Reactions: Bum

Median income of the top 50% was roundabout 80,000 in 2023. They made that absolute killing shipping jobs overseas.

80K is wealthy in Vietnam. Here it's middle class.

Laughable.
 

Federal revenue in the 1950s was about what it is now - about 17% of GDP.

Federal Receipts as Percent of Gross Domestic Product

Graph and download economic data for Federal Receipts as Percent of Gross Domestic Product (FYFRGDA188S) from 1929 to 2024 about receipts, federal, GDP, and USA.
fred.stlouisfed.org
 
I won't advocate anything. But I will note that increasing wealth disparity is directly correlated with increasing social unrest.

You might have to have spent your life reading to understand just how serious that is.
 
Sure dude, anything to pay the debt, because debt sucks!

Well, if the Government wants to get out of the tax business, here's how to do it.

Stop telling people to get married and buy a house.

You will still need to file a tax report for your credit and so-forth, but just like now, if you don't file, you're entitled to keep your cash earnings, unless you're on the dole.
17% is not enough, we need double that, but I don't know if the supply chain can absorb 34%.

34% of revenue, two for me and one for you, everybody chip in.

With this you must have a ramping up of the minimum wage, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty dollars.

And then we pay, until the debt is paid and restructure.
 
As no one appears willing to discuss how to do anything about the tax issue I work alone trying to come up with a solution. The latest I've come up with would tax gross income progressively relative to multiples of the GNI per capita, with income exceeding 450 times the GNI per capita taxed at 99.8%.
 
Gaius46 said:
Median income of the top 50% was roundabout 80,000 in 2023. They made that absolute killing shipping jobs overseas.

80K is wealthy in Vietnam. Here it's middle class.

Laughable.
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I believe I'm looking at 2022 tax date where the top 50% (76,794,954 returns) had an AGI of $13,191,209,000,000 after applying deductions to their gross income, which would be an average AGI of about $171,772 while the bottom 50% had an average AGI of about $19,937.
My wife and I live quite comfortably on less than $4,000 per year though my U.S. income tax is more than $32,000.
 
I was using median - not mean - data because the ultra rich would skew the mean.

The main point is that the OP wants to confiscate money from people who are decidedly middle class.
 
Individual said:
My wife and I live quite comfortably on less than $4,000 per year though my U.S. income tax is more than $32,000.
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Is there a typo in your post? The math seems skewed.
 
Highlight's plan pretty much is the plan. Trump is simultaneously firing the economic statistics people if they don't cook the numbers, making the Federal Reserve a rubber stamp, and threatening independent news outlets more every day. The result of all this loss of transparent, independent decision making is going to be substantial credit downgrades to Treasury Bonds. Now the lower the ratings, the higher the interest rate that has to be offered --- and the US can't afford to pay all that interest! Which means more downgrades! Until ... BBB- is reached. Then a downgrade takes the Treasury Bonds out of commercial grade, and every reputable fund is FORCED to sell them as junk bonds. That's 80% of all the Treasury Bonds, out there competing to get bought.

The result of all that is that the dollar starts to look more like a fraction of a penny. All that wealth does disappear.

Now you'll say wait, that OP said to pay 37 trillion out of 156 trillion, but now you have 0 trillion. Well, yeah, YOU have 0 trillion. But they are going to skittle their currency away into other currencies, cryptocurrencies, foreign bonds, whatever, leaving little of it behind to ride its way to zero.
 
aociswundumho said:
As soon as they start talking about this commie level of expropriation, you would see capital flight on a scale the world has never seen before.
Click to expand...

But I thought the US is the best place in the world and everywhere else is a shithole?

Why would the rich flee to live in shithole countries?
 
Gaius46 said:
I was using median - not mean - data because the ultra rich would skew the mean.

The main point is that the OP wants to confiscate money from people who are decidedly middle class.
Click to expand...
Noted.

I have no problem taxing the highest income earners more, and would reduce the tax burden on the bottom 70%.
 
Allan said:
Your net is $4k after $32k in taxes?
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No, our cost of living is about $300 per month, so the majority of my income is invested or given to my daughter, who invests it. Just saying government spends more of my income than I do.
 
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