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Originally Posted by Dadhawk
I listened to the "long play" version. A lot of pontificating, some very good points on quality of work, etc. but not a lot of real solutions offered.
The "tax em" mantra always sounds good but it is never explained properly. Bregman keeps harping on Michael Dell for example. In 2020, Dell's taxable salary was around $3M. $995,000 was straight salary and he rest was bonuses paid out to him. Taxing that at 90% solves nothing, drop in the bucket, but it's a good talking point because Bregman, like most that support this, know the general population does not understand the difference between wealth and salary. They, for the most part, only understand salary not wealth gained from creating, building and retaining ownership of something.
By the way, from what I could find searching Bregman himself is a multimillionaire, primarily through book sales, and speaking fees. Maybe he gives it all away, I don't know.
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One woman talked about the banks, so people could have a better shot at making money, but I really don't think Dell is asking what philanthropy solutions will help to create wealth for others. He isn't calling for an increase in unions, an increase in wages, an increase in anti-trust regulations, an increase in tax break and incentives for small businesses, an increase in laws to protect small business against large corporations from pricing them out of market, etc. That was a panel talking about the issue of economic disparity, but in Dell's eyes, he doesn't want to give up his wealth and standard of living; he wants everyone else to try to raise their wealth, but it is clear to me that he fundamentally doesn't understand that it will be at the expense of his wealth, whether that means paying himself less and paying his employees more, or taxing him more. He doesn't want to deal with competition. He doesn't want his kids having to struggle to get into college because it is based solely on merit and intelligence; no, he wants to be able to send his kids to school using his money.
I agree people often confuse wealth and salary. Bezos and Musk might be jostling for having the highest net worth, but their annual, taxable income is quite low, relatively speaking. Just like a person adding wealth when the housing market goes up and their home appreciates, billionaires valuation appreciates all the time, but just like the average person doesn't claim income on the increased valuation on their home, these billionaires aren't seeing a rise in taxable income. This is why they mentioned other types of taxes like an inheritance tax or whatever.
Like I listed above, there are a number of ways we can structure taxes and the market to better distribute the wealth than to have a system that gives tax breaks to the wealth and a system that allows people to take a huge share of the profits.
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Though they’ve promised to shed at least half of their wealth for the common good, many of the billionaires who have signed the Giving Pledge are richer than ever, the Institute for Policy Studies said; it added that, “while some pledgers earnestly intend to fulfill their promises, many are unable to because their assets are simply growing too fast.”
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https://www.marketwatch.com/story/gi...ver-2020-08-08