With Trump in the mix, there is always something to laugh about for those of us following the US presidential race. This week Elizabeth Warren upped the comedy stakes with a pop at America’s billionaires. She has proposed a tax on the super-rich 0.1% and surprisingly enough, the billionaires don’t like the sound of it and have already used their media profiles to attack the policy. Undeterred, Warren has published a tax calculator for billionaires on her website which takes a poke at them. Give it a bash!
The Ultra Millionaire Tax
Warren has proposed the following;
“A two-cent tax on the great fortunes of more than $50 million can bring in nearly $3 trillion to rebuild America’s middle class. …… It’s time for the rich to pay their fair share.”
“The 400 richest Americans currently own more wealth than all Black households and a quarter of Latino households combined. According to an analysis from economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman from the University of California-Berkeley, the richest top 0.1% has seen its share of American wealth nearly triple from 7% to 20% between the late 1970s and 2016, while the bottom 90% has seen its share of wealth decline from 35% to 25% in that same period. Put another way, the richest 130,000 families in America now hold nearly as much wealth as the bottom 117 million families combined.“
All 100% accurate and very scary. Warren proposes that some of this huge concentration of wealth is redistributed to the other 99.9% of the US population.
Gates Doesn’t Like It
Bill came out to attack the proposal; “I’ve paid over $10 billion in taxes. I’ve paid more than anyone in taxes. If I had to have paid $20 billion, it’s fine,” Gates said. “But when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left over.”
Where he got the crazy figure of $100 billion is anyone’s guess. It is puzzling why this famous philanthropist has attacked the policy before he has even taken the time to establish how much the proposed tax is actually for. Rather than call him out directly Warren has published the calculator because “Some billionaires seem confused about how much they would pay under Elizabeth’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax. Don’t worry, now we have a calculator for that too.”
She has even helpfully added a button for the a select few of the super-rich so they don’t have to enter their net worth. For Bill the calculator reveals the following;
“BILL GATES WOULD PAY $6.379 BILLION NEXT YEAR UNDER ELIZABETH’S WEALTH TAX.
Bill Gates has a net worth of $107,000,000,000. Don’t worry too much about Bill Gates – if history is any guide, if billionaires do nothing other than invest their wealth in the stock market, it’s likely that their wealth will continue to grow. Elizabeth’s wealth tax, which only impacts America’s 75,000 wealthiest families, would generate enough revenue to cover universal child care, quality public education, forgive student loan debt, provide free public college, and help finance Medicare for All.”
Go Warren – you’d have my vote if I was American!
