Powerful editorial in support of a wealth tax ...

Not a great look for Gavin Newsom or Nancy Pelosi either.

I object to wealth gained by buying tax breaks and causing injury to people, wildlife, and the environment and maybe other ways.
Suspect that includes the wealth of most billionaires.

Not sure I approve of taxing the billionaires because they are billionaires, but I might be swayed.

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:

Not sure I approve of taxing the billionaires because they are billionaires, but I might be swayed.

Acute concentration of wealth leads to acute concentration of power, it will ultimately undermine democracy. Tax away.

To tax, you have to have a legislature and a President with the will to do so.

As of right now, no such law will pass the Senate.

Everyone talks about what should be done ... on taxes, and voting rights, and other things. But the realpolitik answer is that none of it can be done, because the laws cannot be passed.

"Should" isn't persuading anyone who matters.

When last I checked the serious polling, "taxing the rich" was an idea that garnered much more than bare winning margins. It's one of those bumper sticker slogans the Democrats could use (could have used) to counter the GOP's brainless bumper stickers about things as varied as gas prices (conveniently forgetting $4 a gallon under Trump) or the dreaded critical race theory "assault on America."

So yes, there are no majorities to make sweeping progressive changes to the tax code, especially if those changes reach down to income levels where there are millions of politically well-connected people. But there are reasons to think that vocally advocating revenue-increasing measures imposed on people almost no one can relate to now, or see themselves becoming like in the future, could be politically useful. And adding a few more Dems to Congress could be a virtuous spiral, making something like a billionaire wealth tax, or adding some enforcement power to the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats, more likely over time.

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
When last I checked the serious polling, "taxing the rich" was an idea that garnered much more than bare winning margins. It's one of those bumper sticker slogans the Democrats could use (could have used) to counter the GOP's brainless bumper stickers about things as varied as gas prices (conveniently forgetting $4 a gallon under Trump) or the dreaded critical race theory "assault on America."

So yes, there are no majorities to make sweeping progressive changes to the tax code, especially if those changes reach down to income levels where there are millions of politically well-connected people. But there are reasons to think that vocally advocating revenue-increasing measures imposed on people in whom almost no one can themselves now, or see themselves becoming like them in the future, could be politically useful. And adding a few more Dems to Congress could be a virtuous spiral, making something like a billionaire wealth tax, or adding some enforcement power to the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats, more likely over time.

It should work, logically.

It doesn't work, in reality. No matter how much you say "billionaires" (or whatever-aires) only, Republicans yell that the Democrats are trying to tax everyone, and a large part of the populace believes their lies. It happens over and over again. I'd quote the line from the musical "1776", but honestly I don't think that's what is happening. I just think that more than 50% believe the Republican lies that taxing the rich means taxing the middle class, too, regardless of Democratic counter-messaging. You can blame the Republicans for lying, you can blame Russian bots, you can blame Facebook's algorithm, you can blame the internet, you can blame gullible voters, it doesn't matter. That's the realpolitik that I see.

It's also not a wedge issue for voting, and that's where the rubber hits the road. Unless a Republican fears losing their seat over this issue, they won't vote for it. And, right now, there's not a single Republican who has that fear. To the contrary, polling and history suggest that they are going to pick up majorities, maybe big majorities, in the House and the Senate next November.

At the moment, I fear that democracy in the United States is in a death spiral, and I don't see how to pull out of it.

I think it could sell, but the Dems need to take a page out of the GOP playbook and start branding and marketing their ideas.

No one wants to hear a PhD thesis from your candidate, especially in non-intellectual USA. The Dem points are generally supported by the majority of people. We need to brand things. Remember "death panels"? "Guns don't kill people, people kill people," etc.

Our stupid best was "defund police." Groan.

How about "billionaire's tax," with an ad showing super rich people cavorting in, um, the French Riviera next to film of people working on manufacturing lines. Or Bezos shooting himself into space, etc. Recapture phrases like "and justice for all..." when talking about judicial inequity. Show photos of the family farm in drought or flood states to refocus the climate change debate from tree-hugging wackos to regular folks.

But for heaven's sake, keep it simple. And keep pounding it out, over and over again. Just like we heard about MAGA, death panels, "Hollywood elites," etc.

To me this is basic behavioral science and marketing.

quote:

Our stupid best was "defund police." Groan.

Indeed.