America has the world's luckiest billionaires

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Charts: America Has the World's Luckiest Billionaires | Mother Jones

Ultra-high-net-worth individuals by country, 2011

The tax plan passed by Senate Democrats on Wednesday isn't really about taxing the rich; it's about taxing the megarich. As Timothy Noah has explained in The New Republic, the plan would actually reduce taxes on a lot of fairly rich people by renewing the (supposedly temporary) Bush-era tax cuts for everyone except those who make more than $250,000 a year. Even then, Democrats are only proposing a higher marginal tax rate, which means that even people raking in far more than $250,000 will still pay lower taxes on their first quarter million in annual earnings. Crunch the numbers, and it turns out that the biggest losers under the Senate plan are couples who earn more than $1 million a year—mostly multimillionaires and billionaires.

While the Senate tax plan could certainly go further in taxing the rich, focusing on the megawealthy makes sense considering how much of our economy is now controlled by them. According to the Internal Revenue Service, there are 66,000 taxpayers who individually control $20 million or more in assets, and all these people put together are worth $4 trillion—more than the net worth of the majority of the US population.

The investment bank Credit Suisse, for its part, classifies "ultra high net worth individuals" as people with at least $50 million in assets—and according to the bank's 2011 Global Wealth Databook, more of these UNHWIs live in the United States than anywhere else in the world (see chart above).

So perhaps America has lots of multimillionaires because it's a prosperous country? That's certainly a factor—but not the only one. Compared to the superrich in the six other countries with the most multimillionaires, American tyc00ns grab a disproportionately large share of the economic pie:

Percent of Income Earned by Top 0.1% of Taxpayers

Yet despite raking in such a large share of the national income, our nation's über-wealthy pay very little in taxes by global standards:

Top Income Tax Rates in the 6 Countries With the Most Ultra-High-Net-Worth Citizens

But don't higher tax rates at the top slow economic growth? Apparently not, considering the growth rates of our tax-happy competitors.

Change in Gross Domestic Product, 2011

So why hasn't Congress already raised taxes on the rich? Perhaps because the superwealthy have raised a lot more political money than the rest of us.

Percent of donations to super-PACs this year that come from just 196 Americans: 80
Amount the Koch brothers and their foundations plan to spend to defeat Obama: $395 million
Total money raised by John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign: $384 million
Number of billionaires who've made donations to Mitt Romney's super-PAC, Restore Our Future: 32
Percentage of Americans who give more than $10,000 in any election cycle: 0.01

 

[Serious]

great powerpoint breh.......

 

[Slystallion]

what solutions will raising taxes on the rich bring upon? even taxing them at 100% won't do anything for the defecit and raising taxes in the past has not shown an increase in revenues so what is the benefit exactly?

 

[Robbie3000]

what solutions will raising taxes on the rich bring upon? even taxing them at 100% won't do anything for the defecit and raising taxes in the past has not shown an increase in revenues so what is the benefit exactly?

If the system is designed in such a way that the rewards have gone to the uber rich, it makes sense to tax the more and use the additional revenue to invest in the country's education and infrastructure.

BTW Sly, the way you always put your cape on for the rich, I must assume you make 250K + a year.

 

[Type Username Here]

Fantastic thread.

 

[Serious]

If the system is designed in such a way that the rewards have gone to the uber rich, it makes sense to tax the more and use the additional revenue to invest in the country's education and infrastructure.

BTW Sly, the way you always put your cape on for the rich, I must assume you make 250K + a year.

Doubt it, breh is just another dikkriding mislead conservative nut bag

Who follows stupid ideology that he too, may one day be filthy rich

Fantastic thread.

Breh this is a 5 star thread imo, I just wish the masses would choose to become enlightened instead of living like sheep.....

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

what solutions will raising taxes on the rich bring upon? even taxing them at 100% won't do anything for the defecit and raising taxes in the past has not shown an increase in revenues so what is the benefit exactly?

The bolded is false. The largest period of steady continuous growth last century was from about 1940 or so so about 1975 or so when there was top marginal rates ranging from 70-91% and capital gains rates in the 20's.

Even if you don't think the top marginal rate or capital gains rate should be raised, they're not paying taxes mostly due to all these loopholes and deductions. Are you comfortable with and supporting of the mega-rich paying a lower % of their earnings in taxes than many middle class families?

Do you like the fact that the 6 Wal-Mart heirs hold more money than the bottom 42% of Americans? Do you think wealth concentration in the hands of a few is a good or moral thing? Even if you're a believer in the absurd fiction of Laffer curve trickle down economics, it's obviously not trickling down.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

I dont think raising taxes on the rich is the answer.

I do think taxing all income within a narrow band of rates and removing all deductions- kids, mortgage interest and whatever the fukk Mitt Romney used to pay a 13% rate- is the answer.

We need to stop trying to use the tax system as a means of seeking revenge for inequity and address the inequities and their causes directly.

Lol @ hiking taxes on folks making $250K. The actual tax rate paid is a slow ramp up with a quick dropoff. $250K is prob where it peaks.

Not to mention, people wanna talk about missed revenue, I think I have a better starting point

 

[ogc163]

I dont think raising taxes on the rich is the answer.

I do think taxing all income within a narrow band of rates and removing all deductions- kids, mortgage interest and whatever the fukk Mitt Romney used to pay a 13% rate- is the answer.

We need to stop trying to use the tax system as a means of seeking revenge for inequity and address the inequities and their causes directly.

Lol @ hiking taxes on folks making $250K. The actual tax rate paid is a slow ramp up with a quick dropoff. $250K is prob where it peaks.

Not to mention, people wanna talk about missed revenue, I think I have a better starting point

So do you think everyone should start paying higher taxes? I don't see that going over well politically.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

So do you think everyone should start paying higher taxes? I don't see that going over well politically.

I think most Americans should pay higher taxes. We don't have to spike rates to do it. Just get rid of deductions. Hell you could ditch deductions, cut rates and still come out way ahead. You look at the actual rates people pay, it's eye opening.

Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data | Tax Foundation

 

[Sinnerman]

too many loopholes.

 

[Nascimento]

This here is the graph that really needs to be seen tho.

So, more than 80 percent Americans aren't even close to beating inflation, and in fact their income gains are even well below the inflation rate...

It's such a good illustration of what a great country America was for a time post-WWII (in spite of flaws that all nations have). Wealth was generated and decently distributed. In contrast to the current where wealth is blatantly being transferred to the top. If this 30 year-trend is not reversed, shyt's gonna get really real sooner or later is my prediction.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

I dont disagree with that at all, but considering how extremely progressive taxes are right now I don't think we can fix that through taxes

IOW you could put the whole tax burden on the 1%, but that still wouldn't address the income inequality issue... and its been high time for people to stop confounding the two issues

 

[Brock Landers]

Great thread, I really do think that there has to be some sort of drastic change in regards to taxation and the associated loopholes and tricks that the wealthy use to avoid paying. There is only so much that people will stand for before the system eventually crashes and it all turns into chaos - I don't think that will happen any time soon but it is always a possibility.

 

[Habit]

This here is the graph that really needs to be seen tho.

So, more than 80 percent Americans aren't even close to beating inflation, and in fact their income gains are even well below the inflation rate...

It's such a good illustration of what a great country America was for a time post-WWII (in spite of flaws that all nations have). Wealth was generated and decently distributed. In contrast to the current where wealth is blatantly being transferred to the top. If this 30 year-trend is not reversed, shyt's gonna get really real sooner or later is my prediction.

This gets overlooked, the reason why the rich keeps getting richer is because they are not paying anybody.

Wages are the first thing corporations focus on when they try to increase profits, Apple, Nike, and recently Caterpillar.

H-1B visas & mass layoffs FTW.