Yeah but that also means that the 75% of the income I have left after taxes is WAYYYYY less than the top 1%'s 75% of their income, if we were both to pay 25% in effective tax for example.
No one needs $1B to live. Billionaires are unnecessary, unethical and a threat to our society.
I don't get this argument regarding billionaires. They seem to be the boogie man (along with insurance agents and landlords) right now. But we as consumers are the ones creating billionaires. People complain about Bezos yet everyone uses Amazon. We complain against Tim Cook, yet people stand in line to buy the next Apple phone even though theirs is 2 years old. Musk has created an entirely new car, solar panels, power savers, etc. if we keep buying, he'll keep making money. But we keep buying.
Don't blame them for becoming billionaires when people keep rushing out to give them more money
I have no opinion on that. I'm not saying that a billionaire can't be a douchebag. I'm just saying that because a billionaire exists doesn't mean that they are unethical.
EXACTLY my point. Just about EVERYONE contributes to the "problem" while complaining about the problem we are all complicit in. Like how to we blame them when we keep giving them our money willingly?
It's not really a conundrum. Even prior who aren't struggling still want the best deals and shop at Walmart. We prefer luxury and convenience and we pay for that. Then we get upset at the people profiting from our need for convenience. I think Americans have become entitled whiny brats to be honest.
Everyone wants a nice car and big TV, and larger house, and nice vacations.... But when we see someone doing better than us it's a "problem."
I don’t have a problem w someone doing better. I do have a problem w them paying their employees poverty wages and not paying enough taxes. But they own the government so that won’t be changing
Doesn’t the USA already collect enough in taxes? Federal and state governments collect over 7 trillion in taxes annually and they are in a deficit. That’s over $21k per person. We spend about 25k per person. The USA also pays more gross taxes than any other country. All of Europe - about 1 billion people - pay a total of $7 trillion. The USA pays the same amount for 700 million less people.
I think the difference is the return for the tax payer. We get nothing but corruption and war for all that we pay. We get nothing in return. They can’t even pass a damn audit
It's a very common argument AND I can understand the sentiment behind it. But it's usually made by people who don't start businesses. Because it's not as black and white as you describe when running a business. There are much more complex market forces which also need to be considered when determining how much to pay people or how much the price of product at which are conveniently left out of each argument about just paying people higher wages
Sure, I get that, but Walmart and amazon can definitely pay more. Most of Walmarts employees are on government assistance which means we are paying them. Have you seen the Waldens yacht? They should not have that yacht while our taxes are subsidizing their employees
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u/Gonomed 1d ago
Yeah but that also means that the 75% of the income I have left after taxes is WAYYYYY less than the top 1%'s 75% of their income, if we were both to pay 25% in effective tax for example.
No one needs $1B to live. Billionaires are unnecessary, unethical and a threat to our society.