Jeff Bezoz in a recent interview opined over how terrible he thought it was that a "nurse making $75,000 from Queens" pays $12,000 a year in taxes.
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I agree. Though the point Bezoz was raising was more of a general "but we all HATE taxes" right sort of point.
And dudes like him have used this point to rob out city, state and federal budgets in every way possible for decades.
"but think of the nurse in Queens" the exact type of union job with modest benefits these clowns love to eliminate and turn into gig work.
All while offering her a few hundred bucks saving on taxes while he runs off with billions.
If the "but think of the nurse paying taxes" line works we're doomed.
Why on earth is it a struggle at all for someone with an important job that requires extra training and education, a job that we can't live without, to survive?
Why aren't her wages higher, the local schools better, the specter of poverty in old age less of threat? Why aren't there more solid career opportunities for her kids?
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If the "but think of the nurse paying taxes" line works we're doomed.
Why on earth is it a struggle at all for someone with an important job that requires extra training and education, a job that we can't live without, to survive?
Why aren't her wages higher, the local schools better, the specter of poverty in old age less of threat? Why aren't there more solid career opportunities for her kids?
Why didn't Bezos use one of the many people who **work for him** as an example? Lots of Amazon employees in NYC.
Oh that's right, most of them don't make 75k (this is the average salary in the US) they make a good bit less, little enough that his sad tax story falls apart since "wouldn't $300 extra dollars" doesn't fix the horrible salary.
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Funding schools out of property taxes is an astonishingly bad idea. It guarantees that your education outcome, which strongly correlates with earning potential, is tied to your parents’ wealth. If I had to design a policy to impede social mobility, this would probably be my first choice. The people rich enough to live wherever they want should be funding the schools for the people who can’t do that.
All true
But most rich people don't get that way by thinking about how to help others.
In fact, I propose, most focus on how to maximise the benefits to themselves (and family). That is exactly why property taxes fund schools - so the best educated are the children of the wealthy.
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If the "but think of the nurse paying taxes" line works we're doomed.
Why on earth is it a struggle at all for someone with an important job that requires extra training and education, a job that we can't live without, to survive?
Why aren't her wages higher, the local schools better, the specter of poverty in old age less of threat? Why aren't there more solid career opportunities for her kids?
Yes, if society thought more about increasing the social safety net and public goods/services - we wouldn't all need to focus on hording personal wealth pots to guarantee our health and retirement.
What a stunningly inefficient system we have built. Well, actually, it's very efficient at concentrating wealth for a few thousand people.
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If the "but think of the nurse paying taxes" line works we're doomed.
Why on earth is it a struggle at all for someone with an important job that requires extra training and education, a job that we can't live without, to survive?
Why aren't her wages higher, the local schools better, the specter of poverty in old age less of threat? Why aren't there more solid career opportunities for her kids?
@futurebird @david_chisnall Wealth inequality. There needs to be a point at which society stops rewarding "success" (or at least its realisation in monetary terms) and starts penalising it. Otherwise all the "success" gets sucked up by an ever smaller section of society. If the nurse is paying 1/6 of their income in taxation, why isn't the multi-billionaire paying 7/6 of theirs?
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If the "but think of the nurse paying taxes" line works we're doomed.
Why on earth is it a struggle at all for someone with an important job that requires extra training and education, a job that we can't live without, to survive?
Why aren't her wages higher, the local schools better, the specter of poverty in old age less of threat? Why aren't there more solid career opportunities for her kids?
@futurebird @david_chisnall all of this holds equally true for other states than the USA. Same goes in Britain and I'm sure much of the rest of the world. A few notable exceptions but by and large...
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I agree. Though the point Bezoz was raising was more of a general "but we all HATE taxes" right sort of point.
And dudes like him have used this point to rob out city, state and federal budgets in every way possible for decades.
"but think of the nurse in Queens" the exact type of union job with modest benefits these clowns love to eliminate and turn into gig work.
All while offering her a few hundred bucks saving on taxes while he runs off with billions.
Though the point Bezoz was raising was more of a general "but we all HATE taxes" right sort of point.
There's a group in the UK called Patriotic Millionaires that is pushing back on this idea and explicitly asking for higher tax rates for the most wealthy because they understand that the reason that they want to live in the UK is that it has a functioning society (still, mostly, despite Thatcher and her successors' sterling efforts to destroy it) and that requires investment to maintain. It also helps push back on the 'rich people will leave if you put up their taxes' narrative: they are rich people explicitly saying that they want to stay and be taxed more.
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I agree. Though the point Bezoz was raising was more of a general "but we all HATE taxes" right sort of point.
And dudes like him have used this point to rob out city, state and federal budgets in every way possible for decades.
"but think of the nurse in Queens" the exact type of union job with modest benefits these clowns love to eliminate and turn into gig work.
All while offering her a few hundred bucks saving on taxes while he runs off with billions.
@futurebird @david_chisnall Bezos claimed that "You could double my taxes, and it wouldn't help that nurse in.Queens." So, I looked it up. Jeff Bezos's effective tax rate is 1.1% of his actual growth in *wealth* each year. If doubling to 2.2% wouldn't help that teacher in Queens, how about triple? 10x? 50x?
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Though the point Bezoz was raising was more of a general "but we all HATE taxes" right sort of point.
There's a group in the UK called Patriotic Millionaires that is pushing back on this idea and explicitly asking for higher tax rates for the most wealthy because they understand that the reason that they want to live in the UK is that it has a functioning society (still, mostly, despite Thatcher and her successors' sterling efforts to destroy it) and that requires investment to maintain. It also helps push back on the 'rich people will leave if you put up their taxes' narrative: they are rich people explicitly saying that they want to stay and be taxed more.
"Let's just live without any government or taxes at all" says the guy with all the money. "I promise it will work out just fine. I'll be nice, I promise."
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Though the point Bezoz was raising was more of a general "but we all HATE taxes" right sort of point.
There's a group in the UK called Patriotic Millionaires that is pushing back on this idea and explicitly asking for higher tax rates for the most wealthy because they understand that the reason that they want to live in the UK is that it has a functioning society (still, mostly, despite Thatcher and her successors' sterling efforts to destroy it) and that requires investment to maintain. It also helps push back on the 'rich people will leave if you put up their taxes' narrative: they are rich people explicitly saying that they want to stay and be taxed more.
@david_chisnall @futurebird Hasn't Warren Buffett been saying something similar (from the perspective of a US billionaire, no less) for decades?
(It's a bit more remarkable when coming from a billionaire, I think. They have a lot more money to spare, obviously, but it appears to be very difficult to be a billionaire and *not* also be a sociopath. It also seems that there are plenty of millionaires who aren't evil misanthropic assholes.)
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@futurebird @david_chisnall Bezos claimed that "You could double my taxes, and it wouldn't help that nurse in.Queens." So, I looked it up. Jeff Bezos's effective tax rate is 1.1% of his actual growth in *wealth* each year. If doubling to 2.2% wouldn't help that teacher in Queens, how about triple? 10x? 50x?
There are a few misdirections in the question he posed:
- His effective tax rate is tiny, doubling it still makes it much lower than most people pay.
- Most of his wealth gain is untaxed. What would happen if unrealised gains were taxed? You can do this without crashing asset value by allowing payment in shares where the IRS agrees, so the government would gradually own a laregr stake in Amazon, rather than requiring Bezos to sell a big chunk of his Amazon shares to cover taxes. Would that help the 'nurse in Queens'?
- Most importantly: What if the taxation system had prevented the level of wealth inequality that allowed him to become a billionaire in the first place? How much would that help Amazon workers, the 'nurse in Queens', and US society in general?
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J jwcph@helvede.net shared this topic
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Jeff Bezoz in a recent interview opined over how terrible he thought it was that a "nurse making $75,000 from Queens" pays $12,000 a year in taxes.
He mused about how this nurse from Queens might better use that money.
And if you think a nurse from Queens is what he was really talking about may I interest you in some of #PicaTheCat 's exciting crypto currency investment opportunities.
Mr. Bezos we don't think you, yes you personally are paying your fare share of taxes. That's the issue bub.
@futurebird
Weird spelling of “Jeffrey Bozos”
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Though the point Bezoz was raising was more of a general "but we all HATE taxes" right sort of point.
There's a group in the UK called Patriotic Millionaires that is pushing back on this idea and explicitly asking for higher tax rates for the most wealthy because they understand that the reason that they want to live in the UK is that it has a functioning society (still, mostly, despite Thatcher and her successors' sterling efforts to destroy it) and that requires investment to maintain. It also helps push back on the 'rich people will leave if you put up their taxes' narrative: they are rich people explicitly saying that they want to stay and be taxed more.
@david_chisnall @futurebird it's nice to hear that rational self-interest hasn't gone extinct yet
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@david_chisnall @futurebird Hasn't Warren Buffett been saying something similar (from the perspective of a US billionaire, no less) for decades?
(It's a bit more remarkable when coming from a billionaire, I think. They have a lot more money to spare, obviously, but it appears to be very difficult to be a billionaire and *not* also be a sociopath. It also seems that there are plenty of millionaires who aren't evil misanthropic assholes.)
Kind of, though he also justified hoarding money because he thought that his charity would be more effective if he accumulated a lot of wealth and then gave it away rather than giving it away early, completely ignoring that a lot of charity exists solely to address problems caused by hoarding of wealth.
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Kind of, though he also justified hoarding money because he thought that his charity would be more effective if he accumulated a lot of wealth and then gave it away rather than giving it away early, completely ignoring that a lot of charity exists solely to address problems caused by hoarding of wealth.
@david_chisnall @datarama @futurebird Rory Stewart once mentioned on The Rest Is Politics, that he had asked some billionaires about the hoarding vs philanthropy. Ostensibly, they tend to develop a fear of gradually losing their power and political traction as their pot of money diminishes and they descend the league table of the globally wealthy. Whatever the truth of that, it certainly must be an odd position to be in psychologically.
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Jeff Bezoz in a recent interview opined over how terrible he thought it was that a "nurse making $75,000 from Queens" pays $12,000 a year in taxes.
He mused about how this nurse from Queens might better use that money.
And if you think a nurse from Queens is what he was really talking about may I interest you in some of #PicaTheCat 's exciting crypto currency investment opportunities.
Mr. Bezos we don't think you, yes you personally are paying your fare share of taxes. That's the issue bub.
@futurebird At this point you're just being really unfair. Won't someone think of the poor billionaires /s
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Jeff Bezoz in a recent interview opined over how terrible he thought it was that a "nurse making $75,000 from Queens" pays $12,000 a year in taxes.
He mused about how this nurse from Queens might better use that money.
And if you think a nurse from Queens is what he was really talking about may I interest you in some of #PicaTheCat 's exciting crypto currency investment opportunities.
Mr. Bezos we don't think you, yes you personally are paying your fare share of taxes. That's the issue bub.
@futurebird Well, I recognize that Bezos is BSing us…. But I still want to hear more about #PicaTheCat ‘s investment opportunities!
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@futurebird Well, I recognize that Bezos is BSing us…. But I still want to hear more about #PicaTheCat ‘s investment opportunities!
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@futurebird I dunno. I hear what you’re saying, but… that face!
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I agree. Though the point Bezoz was raising was more of a general "but we all HATE taxes" right sort of point.
And dudes like him have used this point to rob out city, state and federal budgets in every way possible for decades.
"but think of the nurse in Queens" the exact type of union job with modest benefits these clowns love to eliminate and turn into gig work.
All while offering her a few hundred bucks saving on taxes while he runs off with billions.
@futurebird @david_chisnall here in Texas, once you are over (I think) 65, you no longer have to pay property tax for schools. Because obviously you obtain no benefit at that point. I've had otherwise "progressive" friends tell me since they home schooled their kids they never should have had to pay these taxes as they got no benefit.
I pointed out to one of them that he had run an accountancy firm with employees who had been to public schools. Would it have been more valuable to him to have had to teach them to read and add and subtract on his own? Nevermind the rest of society. He had never thought of it that way.
