Mo’ Money, Mo’ Taxes

According to the recent Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the world’s richest 500 people saw their collective net worth jump by 25 percent, or $1.2 trillion. From a poor layman’s view, one would think as a billionaire that you do not carry a lot of the day to day worries that most of us carry. Your home life is relatively stable. You probably have a nanny, housekeeper, personal chef, and even a trainer. Many of your kids probably go to good schools (by hook or by crook), too. Let’s face it. It’s amazing to be a billionaire. Even if there is a huge drop in the stock market, you can be hit with a loss of a few million dollars, and somehow still hold it all together.  But some people have had a harder time dealing with any type of loss. If you are part of the market undoing, then you deserve the loss. 

In the age of Citizens United and presidential debates, it seems that Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Wealth Tax proposal is upsetting a very sensitive class of private citizens. As we continue to get closer to making choices about the candidates, I am still fascinated as to why billionaires are so mad at her.  Sen. Warren’s evil plan is to tax a family’s wealth above $50 million at two percent a year, with an additional surcharge of 1 percent on wealth over one billion dollars. So, I decided to use a calculator to see what’s all the hubbub. Up to $50 million, I assume that you are using the existing tax codes, the shelters, blah, blah, blah. Every dollar AFTER $50 million, the tax rate is two percent, up to one billion. At $100 million, a family will be forced to pay approximately $2 million in taxes, leaving them with a measly $98 million to manage their lives, while also paying into infrastructure, education, blah, blah, blah. So if you move this up to one billion dollars, then that same family will now have to pay approximately $20 million. Writing that check sucks, because it leaves them with the paltry sum of $980 million to barely manage. It’s estimated there are somewhere around 83,620 American Households with $50,000,000 or more, and 36,202 households with $100,000,000 or more. So the last round of calculations is definitely speaking to them. 

After you cross the billion-dollar mark, you are now to be taxed at 3%. So let’s say if you make it to $2 billion, then your taxes would be approximately $60 million. Another hard check to write, and it leaves you with only a minuscule $1.94 billion to cope with life’s daily challenges. While you are coping, you are also contributing to police and fire departments, road maintenance, hospitals, etc. That kind of money could do amazing things for those schools, too. The world’s richest man is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and he is now worth about $116 billion, post-divorce. This makes him vulnerable to the proposed flat tax of 3%, calculated to the tune of $3.48 billion. This leaves poor Jeff Bezos with a pesky $112.52 billion to figure it out. 

Yes with my broke behind, I am counting other people’s money. Is it shady? Possibly it is, but you have to ask the question, what is ultimately the big deal about paying that amount of taxes and still be left with major Baller money? That recent report shows that Bezos has already earned profits over what his “proposed” tax payment would be under this plan. So what exactly is Bezos losing again? His proposed tax payment, along with a few of the other billionaires’ payments, could wipe out student loan debt or certainly make a dent in it. Collectively, they could remove an albatross from generations of educated people that can use that extra money to willingly pay for their own Amazon Prime accounts. Perhaps, they might not even have to drive a Lyft in between shifts and on weekends from their regular jobs. 

When you combine our country’s billionaires and millionaires (those with an income range between $50 million and one billion dollars), the number is only 120,443 people. America has 327.2 million people in it. So let’s just try to be objective. The clear enemy of wealthy Americans, Sen. Warren, is attacking roughly .04% of our population by making them pay 2-3% of their annual wealth/income flatly in taxes, while the remaining 99.96% of us, continue doing the heavy lifting. Their reward for their tax contribution to the economy is to still remain the wealthiest people in the country, nay I say the planet? This is how the trickle-down theory is SUPPOSED to work, isn’t it? I know that I am not the first person to observe that if we had a strong middle class that was reminiscent of the ’50s and ’60s, sans racism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. , then this country would not need to be “great” again. During those times in America, we manufactured and exported quality goods and raw materials, all while maintaining a self-sufficient and strong domestic economy. Our global economy was not only strong, but it was envied by the world. Greed coupled with global exploitation ruined it.  

Let’s be clear. This is NOT an endorsement for Sen. Warren. I also own that my mathematical rationale is subjective and facile. I also know that if I had only twenty dollars in my wallet, and someone took three percent of it for a grand total of sixty cents, that somehow I will make $19.40 work. Now the fact that amount IS my cushion, is altogether another story. I can see that these wealthy folks are getting hit hard, and I feel for them. I truly do, but the simple fact is: the industries and companies owned by .04% of our population employ the other 99.96% of us, and we also patronize those various industries and companies. WE are making and keeping THEM rich. So all in all, how much more do these wealthy titans and their “families” really need? Imagine this country, and even the world, thriving because poverty, the “taking from Peter to pay Paul” type of government spending, or straight-up corruption is dramatically reduced or totally eradicated? As long as power and greed are the major motivators behind many people, and sincere compassion for our fellow man is mocked and dismissed, I fear that the great wealth divide will continue to stay wide and untaxed.

Good luck to you, Sen. Warren.