I’m going to talk about France and not the US because that’s where I live.
We have 55 billionaires, among them, the richest man and the richest woman on earth. More than 50% of them come from aristocratic or highly privileged backgrounds. That includes Arnault and Bettencourt, but there is also Pinault, Bolloré, Dassault, etc. That’s your part about inheritance. These people are insanely rich beyond anything imaginable because inheritance isn’t taxed properly here. It used to be, but not anymore and since then, the amount of millionaires and billionaires exploded. Must be a coincidence I suppose, same for the fact that France is top 3 world wide in number of millionaires.
I agree that you should be able to give your kids part of what you worked for, but that absolutely needs to be progressively taxed, and with hard limits over which a state takes pretty much everything. Especially when it comes to that kind of wealth.
Thankfully enough, we don’t have much wage theft here because of our somewhat solid workers rights. If you want a definition with my words, it’s when an employer doesn’t provide the benefits legally due to an employee. It can manifest with not following minimum wage laws, undeclared overtime, or garbage contracts.
Speaking of taxes and handouts, France gives every year a whopping 200 billion Euros to help French companies , no questions asked. That’s about 30% of our budget. These 200 billion euros come in three parts, one of them being legal tax loopholes, in which companies can pour money and not being taxed on it. Another one is exemption from social security contributions, they basically don’t pay some taxes that would finance our social services (or our unemployment fund or our retirement funds). And the last one is a direct handout from the government, with absolutely no expectations of results whatsoever. And once again, strangely enough we have some of the biggest companies in the world that have reported record profits in the recent years. And I’m not even talking about the massive inflation we are going through.
Let’s also not forget that these massive companies and their billionaires/CEO don’t pay their taxes or pay a very low amount. You probably pay more than they do as a proportion of your wealth. Arnault’s income tax rate is at 14%, the dude has a 70 million euro salary as CEO of LVMH for fuck’s sake.
In France, poverty rate increased in the last 20 years, also strangely enough, we’ve had liberal trickle down economic policies for the past 20 years as well. Our social services are in absolute shambles because among other things, “lack of funds” and rampant privatisation. Who are the private owners ? Said billionaires up above, mostly.
Let’s not forget how these people also rig the game in their favour too.
In France, 90% of mass media is owned by roughly 10 people (Niel, Lagardère, Bolloré, Pinault, Arnault, Bouygues, Dassault, Drahi, and I forgot the other two). One of them being Vincent Bolloré, a massive Christian conservative fascist, there is also an arms dealer (Dassault) or a known fraud (Drahi).
Bolloré massively influenced the last elections thanks to his mouth pieces (C8, Europe 1 among others). He got one of his TV licences revoked because of that, but that’s obviously far from being enough.
These people also gather frequently with our lawmakers and our dearest president, on public funds obviously.
I’m not saying that taxing these people to hell and back would solve world hunger, but god damn if it wouldn’t massively tackle inequalities. There is only a limited amount of money in the economy, and an absolutely humongous amount is concentrated in the hands of the few and it’s not being properly recirculated and redistributed.
Their fair share would be a better, progressive, tax rate and a flat limit above which 99% or 100% is taken by the state. Nobody needs a billion Euros, ever.
For your last point, the point of taxes is to take more to people who can afford it and give (directly via social security measures or indirectly via a better more equal health or education system) to people who can’t.
And I’m not even talking about their lobbying, how destructive their lifestyle is for the environment, nepotism, corruption, neo colonial practices in Africa, etc.
I’m going to talk about France and not the US because that’s where I live.
We have 55 billionaires, among them, the richest man and the richest woman on earth. More than 50% of them come from aristocratic or highly privileged backgrounds. That includes Arnault and Bettencourt, but there is also Pinault, Bolloré, Dassault, etc. That’s your part about inheritance. These people are insanely rich beyond anything imaginable because inheritance isn’t taxed properly here. It used to be, but not anymore and since then, the amount of millionaires and billionaires exploded. Must be a coincidence I suppose, same for the fact that France is top 3 world wide in number of millionaires.
I agree that you should be able to give your kids part of what you worked for, but that absolutely needs to be progressively taxed, and with hard limits over which a state takes pretty much everything. Especially when it comes to that kind of wealth.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2023/04/05/the-richest-man-and-woman-in-the-world-are-for-the-first-time-in-history-both-french_6021808_19.html
https://www.thelocal.fr/20230405/french-billionaires-top-list-for-worlds-richest-men-and-women
https://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/la-france-devient-le-troisieme-pays-au-monde-qui-compte-le-plus-de-millionnaires-20230816
Thankfully enough, we don’t have much wage theft here because of our somewhat solid workers rights. If you want a definition with my words, it’s when an employer doesn’t provide the benefits legally due to an employee. It can manifest with not following minimum wage laws, undeclared overtime, or garbage contracts.
Speaking of taxes and handouts, France gives every year a whopping 200 billion Euros to help French companies , no questions asked. That’s about 30% of our budget. These 200 billion euros come in three parts, one of them being legal tax loopholes, in which companies can pour money and not being taxed on it. Another one is exemption from social security contributions, they basically don’t pay some taxes that would finance our social services (or our unemployment fund or our retirement funds). And the last one is a direct handout from the government, with absolutely no expectations of results whatsoever. And once again, strangely enough we have some of the biggest companies in the world that have reported record profits in the recent years. And I’m not even talking about the massive inflation we are going through.
https://linsoumission.fr/2024/04/05/200-milliards-aides-entreprises/
Let’s also not forget that these massive companies and their billionaires/CEO don’t pay their taxes or pay a very low amount. You probably pay more than they do as a proportion of your wealth. Arnault’s income tax rate is at 14%, the dude has a 70 million euro salary as CEO of LVMH for fuck’s sake.
https://basta.media/superprofits-totalenergies-n-a-pas-paye-d-impot-sur-les-societes-en-france-depuis-deux-ans
https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/top-court-sides-with-french-taxman-against-lvmh-legality-2019-raids-2023-02-15/
https://www.arretsurimages.net/articles/bernard-arnault-impose-a-14-seulement-dans-le-silence-mediatique
In France, poverty rate increased in the last 20 years, also strangely enough, we’ve had liberal trickle down economic policies for the past 20 years as well. Our social services are in absolute shambles because among other things, “lack of funds” and rampant privatisation. Who are the private owners ? Said billionaires up above, mostly.
https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/7710966
Let’s not forget how these people also rig the game in their favour too. In France, 90% of mass media is owned by roughly 10 people (Niel, Lagardère, Bolloré, Pinault, Arnault, Bouygues, Dassault, Drahi, and I forgot the other two). One of them being Vincent Bolloré, a massive Christian conservative fascist, there is also an arms dealer (Dassault) or a known fraud (Drahi). Bolloré massively influenced the last elections thanks to his mouth pieces (C8, Europe 1 among others). He got one of his TV licences revoked because of that, but that’s obviously far from being enough.
These people also gather frequently with our lawmakers and our dearest president, on public funds obviously.
https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/le-diner-de-versailles-a-t-il-coute-6-270-000-euros-au-contribuable-20230926_S2IOFEBI5FDOFOFRE7QFAFAZAU/
I’m not saying that taxing these people to hell and back would solve world hunger, but god damn if it wouldn’t massively tackle inequalities. There is only a limited amount of money in the economy, and an absolutely humongous amount is concentrated in the hands of the few and it’s not being properly recirculated and redistributed.
Their fair share would be a better, progressive, tax rate and a flat limit above which 99% or 100% is taken by the state. Nobody needs a billion Euros, ever.
For your last point, the point of taxes is to take more to people who can afford it and give (directly via social security measures or indirectly via a better more equal health or education system) to people who can’t.
And I’m not even talking about their lobbying, how destructive their lifestyle is for the environment, nepotism, corruption, neo colonial practices in Africa, etc.
TLDR:
eattax the fucking rich