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Originally Posted by supafamous
I think history consistently shows that when economic inequality increases that there will be uprisings of some form - both the anti-billionaire rhetoric and the far right nationalists are born from the same place which is inequality (real or perceived).
I don't follow European or Asian news that much but I don't see the same anti-billionaire pushback that I see in the US where income equality is the worst (I don't really see it in Canada either). Making matters worse are that the most visible US billionaires are all kinda assholes - Musk is the obvious front runner but Zuck and Bezos do themselves no favours by siding with Trump so visibly. The "good" billionaires are all pretty silent.
The "saving" grace for the US is that there is such a mass of uneducated people that it's so easy to point their anger about their lives towards minorities instead of the people who are robbing them blind. If 40% of the population truly believes that Trump and these billionaires are looking after them then I'm not sure how the uprising actually happens - there's just not enough people left to fight the fight.
re: Wealth tax. I think the time has come for something like this (or higher taxes on non-employment income). More and more of the money being made is now not from employment so the pool of revenue for gov't is shrinking more and more of income comes from other sources that have lower taxes rates (if any taxes at all). My tax rate on my investment income this year is something like a third of my income tax rate (ballpark) and I made a lot more on the investment side this year than I did in employment income - my tax rate shouldn't really go down as I make more money. Nice for me but it doesn't sound fair overall.
Related: One of Zuck's lawyers just quit b/c of his "descent into toxic masculinity". https://www.instagram.com/p/DE0e0CUS..._web_copy_link |
Compound this with the rich's and tech billionaires growing obsession with crypto currency.
It's not some coincidence that rightwing politicians, conservative thinktanks and billionaire tech bros are obsessed with pushing governments to pivot in that direction.
They imagine a world where their money becomes completely opaque (more-so than it is already) -- untraceable, untaxable, unbound to any country's currency.
This is their greatest pivot to effectively eliminating income taxes on themselves, and essentially crush governments from a tax solvency perspective.
It's as clear as fucking day.