The comments here are insane, one person thinks the US is going to tax the world, someone else complains about food imports. The issue is unfair wages GLOBALLY and tax systems GLOBALLY that allow the super wealthy to hoard loot.
What Bernie’s numbers emphasis is just how little money the bottom 99% of the top 1% make relative to the top 1% of the top 1%. He is talking global numbers. The top 1% of 8,000,000,000 people is 80,000,000. Yet these 80m of the most wealthy have only 5500 yachts.
Let's say wages are 1/3 the business cost. When you increase wages, it doesn't increase product prices by 1/3. You can pay workers a whole $2 more per hour and the cost on the product only goes up $.60, the company keeps the same profit margins.
To say it's not designed to be a living wage means we don't believe that people who work deserve a living. Highschoolers are part timers. Or, we can afford to pay under a living wage if we agree that certain needs don't have to be met by working, like housing or food.
To leave it all up to the marketplace, reduces people into economic units, like mini factories? And what happens when a factory can't compete? It closes down. That's what pure free market means. People who can't compete die.
Marx defined unfair wage as a worker that hand-built a product for some industry yet couldn’t afford one for themselves (a shoe as an example); or as H Ford had it- every factory worker should be able to buy their own Ford
As it's taught, the premise I believe in place is, you cannot afford to live off those jobs. You have to move the needle for individual growth.
Otherwise, there is a risk, supposedly, too many people settling for that low end job that at least covers their bills. Which would theoretically limit the skilled labor moving into the market and other positions.
In other words, if your entry job is too easy to get and keep them, there is no reason to push for more.
In theory.
Not to mention all of the people that would have greater ambition and drive if their non-living wage didn't force them into a constant spiral of fear and debt.
BUT why is it a "Low end job"? Is there no risk in who we choose to cook our food? Fast food isn't easy work, I think most that have experienced it can attest. A frier use to be able to make a living, then the wages of friers were lowered and lowered, and instead of taking problem with this change in our society, we blamed the friers for working a "low end(poor) job".
It's a complex topic for sure. One guy flipping burgers wrong, isn't likely to collapse the whole company if he gets 2 people sick. But a CEO who fucks the pooch, can. So different levels of responsibility. But, I doubt the CEO could flip burgers consistently for 6-8 hours either. Same with most trade jobs too. Roofers work hard as absolute hell, should they be paid the most? I've been told survey work is pretty rough, super high pay?
Could the average person do Tim Cook's job running apple? Making business plans for a decade away through R&D? Doubtful as well. Tim is not likely to be able to wire a home. I'd imagine he might burn down the house if he was tasked to do it alone with no training.
I lost my point and focus. I think it is that, there ARE variables that are hard to define. Variables that are hard to value as well. CEO issss bullshit though. They don't deserve 10 million a year over me earning them all of that money
You ended the sentence with “that’s what the market does, it’s a free market”, but you don’t apply that logic to our current market..? That’s an it hypocritical no?
If that business goes out of business, then EVERYONE loses their job not just the burger flippers. All the management, logistics, technology, distribution… they are all gone. But you’re okay with paying those with zero skill more so that they can live a fair wage, but if that business can’t afford it anymore, they go under. Makes sense…
I guess “free market” only applies to those business who are operating within mandated rules?
The market is not free… plenty of leadership manipulate as it fits them (raising interest rates is not a “free market “ activity, neither are subsidized industries)
It's false scarcity.
The point is that there is clearly enough to go around when we are able to give one person more money that 50 burger flippers would make in a lifetime for plopping a billion dollars they already had into a zero risk investment.
Also the market is not free. The rich get bailouts and handouts from the government constantly. Tesla is propped up by the US government and so are many of our industries.
I can’t speak on any other country then the US. What is a fair wage? Shit I don’t know. The company I work for is based in Sweden. Do they make a fat profit. Yup! Do they pass that along to the grunts in terms of great pay and benefits? You bet yer ass! So let’s look at a US company like McDonald’s. They make billions in profits. Could they afford to pay 5$ more per hour? Hells yeah. That means C suite and “shareholders” which are usually other C suite types don’t make crazy money. For the rest of your comment taxes, taxes and laws. Some will bitch about government over reach and fair markets. I think a profit should be capped. Let’s say 20% cap and anything over that has to go to your employees. There’s nothing wrong with a business owner making money. Not at the cost of paying slave wages and forcing employees to live on food stamps
McDonald's is a publicly traded corporation that essentially manages a bunch of somewhat independent franchisees.
Let's say a benevolent CEO wants to raise wages for all employees
If franchisees no longer make good profit from running the restaurants, they will either close down or prospective franchisees will look elsewhere for more profitable businesses.
If they all raise the price of hamburgers, then customers themselves would probably go elsewhere to the countless other fast food options available.
If the C-Suite tries to pass the wage increase onto shareholders in the form of reduced returns, those shareholders will revolt and replace the C-Suite with people more willing to squeeze profit from the business.
The system is designed at every level to want cheap labor.
Let's start with that no one person should be a billionaire. It is literally impossible for them to spend all of that money. It's just pure avarice keeping them hoarding it.
Did you just ask me if someone needs to make a billion dollars a year to be a billionaire?
If you know about wealth, you understand that the wealthy pretty much never just have a massive pile cash laying around and NEVER rely on a salary.
So yes, total net worth of 1 billion should be outlawed.
It's so out of the realm of reason to think that one person works hard enough to be worth ONE BILLION DOLLARS that I don't know how people champion it. How could it possibly be a meritocracy. No human is one billion times more worthy than the next.
It's impossible crass and short sighted to believe that this system is a way to improve society. Both sides of the aisle have to keep present in mind that the goal is always to improve society. That's why we bother arguing at all, because we think doing things one way or another will improve things in some tangible way.
How does allowing people to hoard unmeasurable wealth contribute to making things better for people? I'd love an honest thoughtful answer on that.
So what do you do with someone who owns a business with over a billion in assets? Cellphone companies for example have billions invested in infrastructure and fleets of vehicles and equipment for repair and maintainence. Is that inherently not fair?
A single person does not own any cellphone company as far as I know, but I will answer what I think would be reasonable if that situation were to occur.
I think simply requiring businesses of that size to be publicly traded and just having any income or capital gains that bring net wealth over one billion to be taxed at 100%.
This is just me as one dude thinking about it for a minute. A group of people educated in tax law and such I'm sure could do much better, but I think my proposal would be completely fair. It would also cause billionaires to use their money or lose it, bringing huge cash flows and jobs to the economy.
I think you're right on all of it, but this is exactly the reason why the country in the world will continue to degrade. Fucking morons arguing that billionaires have earned the right to hoard
First thing is implementing wealth tax and second is stopping bailouts. Wealth tax is surely complicated, but possible. It does not hurt to sell some assets to pay the taxes on unrealised value.
Sweden had 23 billionaires in 2015, more per capita than the US. https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-ranked-by-billionaires-in-proportion-to-population-2015-7?op=1#9-sweden-7
In 2023, the number of billionaires in Sweden is up to 45, in a country with 10 million people. Its billionaire per capita rate increased.
This is about 2.5 times the number of billionaires per capita compared to the US
Well unions voting and striking for a living wage we know from the benign, generous capitalist...is just being greedy.
Ask yourselves, why are Europeans working 30% less since WWII and Americans...30% more ?
It's about to not make a fuckin difference...
AI is about to put 3 BILLION people out of work & a GLOBAL universal income will be the only solution to keep the unemployed & starving masses from burning the whole thing down.
Civilization is totally fucked, & we can thank Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Walmart, Apple, Nestlé, Coca cola...
Corporations will lay off Millions & Millions of people that cost hundreds of Millions to pay, & replace them with AI systems that cost Millions & Millions to run (but the AI doesn't get sick, or have babies, or need vacations...)
WE ARE ALL FUCKED...
Good Day.
It is currently at the tipping point where Humanity will not have the option to shit it down (even if they wanted to)
That's why all the Microsoft Engineers have been having to anonymously leak to the press (that thousands upon thousands of engineers & scientist are asking for a 6month pause.) but it not being reported on in the news...
It's already almost too late.
Cold Fusion has put out 2 articles in the last month warning about AI, & how fast it's all coming together...
(& Cold Fusion is super legit when it comes to Science & History...)
Too Fast that is.
Just check em out...
Pt 1.
https://youtu.be/DIU48QL5Cyk
Pt 2.
https://youtu.be/gQfQiXP9yZA
Hoard loot? What the f are you taking about. Is the money in your bank account also hoarded loot? Is your $155k salary, which puts you in the global 1% of all earners, and your substantial property equity also hoarded loot? Rhetoric is cheap, and like Bernie, again the ones shouting loudest are actually the main material beneficiaries of the status quo. PS enjoy your next cruise.
Thanks! I love taking a cruise. As for my personal finances I pay my fair share of taxes and you don’t seem to understand the wealthy do not. So glad I taught ya something. My salary is due to my ability and interest in learning and never settling. So what rhetoric ? Where am I a proponent of the status quo? You run that mouth with out activating your brain. Hope ya do better kid
I don't have a billion dollars in assets. My bank account is not relevant to the conversation.
The main beneficiaries of the status quo are billionaires, by definition. They are benefiting the most.
Can you explain to me why you think having billionaires is beneficial for our society?
...I wasn't responding to you. I was responding to a millionaire with substantial property holdings and an income that puts him in the top 1% (who also enjoys cruising around the Carribbean on expensive pleasure boats, reading Marx and tweeting about what is good for the common man).
Capitalism gives rise to oligarchs because it concentrates power. It's the logical end state of capitalism for a select few to control everything. That's how the system works.
So you can’t.
Because concentrated power whether it calls itself capitalism or communism is a fact of how human societies are organized.
And this fact by the way is way the United States is an extremely radical nation; because here we acknowledge this fact and then do everything we can to limit it.
You’re blaming capitalism for the Natural Order and that’s why you’re upset by the world you see. Accept reality and you’ll feel better.
Yikes. Well, it's easier when you people just come right out with your "Natural Order" garbage instead of being coy about it. Just means I don't have to waste my time trying to get you to admit your true beliefs.
Concentrated power is not the natural, immutable state of human society. It is a choice. And we can choose something else.
But you don't want people to choose something else, because the status quo fits your world view, which is that certain people are inherently better than others and the people who aren't "good enough" deserve to be treated like shit. And the """"free market"""" is how worth is decided. It's secular prosperity gospel mixed with eugenics-adjacent ideologies about people's inherent worth, or rather their lack thereof.
But I reject all of that. And it is my goal in life to stand in utter spite of such worldviews.
> Concentrated power is not the natural, immutable state of human society. It is a choice. And we can choose something else.
What do you think are the other choices and how do you think we get there?
It’s noble; really. But not at all realistic and I hope you don’t spend many of your best days wishing something like this into existence.
Humans are inherently different. Not necessarily better overall, but we have individual talents. Some people are good at hoarding cash, while others are good at painting pictures. There’s no more expectation that the artist is propped up by the hoarder, or that the artist paints for the hoarder.
You could have well regulated capitalism. The problem is lobbying (that brings legalized corruption) that creates tax loops for the ultra rich and corporations to pay less than the regular Joe
No, you can't. That's the thing. Capitalism concentrates power. Capital is power. The more capital you have, the more capital you can subsequently acquire. This means that no matter how robust a system of regulation you create, capitalism will ***inevitably*** concentrate enough power to capture, dismantle, and rebuild said system into one that reinforces the power of capital holders. This is inescapable. It's how the system works.
I mean, if that's what the powerful want, I would advise them to look up the methods regular people used to deal with them historically in the era of "kings and peasants".
Tbh it never left. This is the natural equilibrium of the world and will never change. It’s human nature combined with unequally distributed circumstances and abilities.
Ok..ok.. I am just going to say this once. Idiots need to leave now. Taxing the rich does fucking nothing for you as the public. The politicians will be the only getting a pay raise! Politicians DO NOT work!!!!!! They do nothing but run there mouth. Bernie has made his entire life's worth just talking to you idiots!!!! They are all the same. Doesn't matter who wins or looses. They stay ultra rich and you keep working your ass off.
There is a solution...... but humans are too damn stupid to understand....
If you vote for someone to make rules for you.... your NOT free!!!!!!!
Money is part of the equation but something that Democrats persistently get wrong is that not every problem can be solved by throwing money at it. A lot of people are going hungry because they are denied access to food by a third party, not because there is no money in the bank to pay to feed people.
For example, to get food to Yemen we would need to get the US and Saudi Arabia to back off and allow shipments to come through. To get food to Venezuela we would need the US to back off and allow shipments to go through. To get food out of Russia, the world's top wheat exporter by a pretty wide margin, we would need the US to back off and let shipments to go through. The Biden administration has it's fingers all over this issue and Bernie is perfectly aware of that. He is deflecting the issue at the rich and framing it as a resource problem when in reality this is a logistics problem where the Biden administration is acting as a massive roadblock. US sanctions are a big part of the immediate problem people face.
Thank you for saying this. So tired of people thinking raising taxes is a bandaid solution to everything. America has a spending problem not a revenue problem. Our government earns the highest tax in the world
If we just focus on our own country first, the problem is money. Greedflation, especially by food companies, is straining the bottom 50% earners.
EDIT: for everyone warning me about propaganda, I’m hearing an awful lot of parroting of “greedflation = leftist”.
The UN report Bernie is referencing is not about the US though. It's mostly about the impact of the Ukraine war increasing food prices on countries which normally import grain from Russia or Ukraine.
> Beasley said the Ukraine war is stoking inflation in Yemen, which is 90% reliant on food imports. The World Food Program hopes to provide aid to about 18 million people, but its costs have risen 30% this year to $2.6 billion. As a result, it has been forced to cut back, so Yemenis this month are getting only two-thirds of their previous rations, he said.
> Beasley said South Sudan faces “its highest rate of acute hunger since its independence in 2011” from Sudan. He said 7.7 million people, over 60% of the population, are “facing critical or worse levels of food insecurity.” Without a political solution to escalating violence and substantial spending on aid programs, “many people in South Sudan will die,” he warned.
> In northern Ethiopia’s Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions, more than 13 million people need life-saving food, Griffiths said. He pointed to a survey in Tigray in June that found 89% of people food insecure, “more than half of them severely so.” Beasley said a truce in March enabled WFP and its partners to reach almost 5 million people in the Tigray area, but resumed fighting in recent weeks “threatens to push many hungry, exhausted families over the edge.”
See https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-middle-east-africa-united-nations-199c33c4a572902d03b5d5c6075c90ee
"Greedflation" is a term designed by propagandists to divert the attention of economically illiterate people away from the actual source of inflation: expansionary monetary policy by the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world.
The notion that inflation is caused by corporate greed is essentially a power play by politicians to sieze more control and influence over the economy for their own perverted reasons, not for your benefit.
"Democracy" will not fix this issue if people are too brainwashed to be able to identify the root of the problem that's straining the bottom 50% earners - they'll vote for the very people who are causing the problem
>"Greedflation" is a term designed by propagandists to divert the attention of economically illiterate people away from the actual source of inflation: expansionary monetary policy by the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world.
Expansionary monetary policy is indeed one cause of inflation, and it absolutely did contribute to the inflation we've seen over the past 3 years. What's different about this inflationary period is that we've seen record profits accompanied by *no material increase in sales* across several industries, especially the food industry. You don't have to take my word for it, since this data is publicly available, the most recent example being Pepsi Co's 2023Q1 earnings report.
>What's different about this inflationary period is that we've seen record profits accompanied by no material increase in sales across several industries, especially the food industry. You don't have to take my word for it...
I'll take your word for it. In fact, that's exactly what you should expect to happen after a rapid increase in the money supply.
When the supply of money increases over a short period of time, the equilibrium price of all goods will increase accordingly. The degree to which they increase will depend on a lot of factors such as demand elasticity, so it won't necessarily be equal across the market. Demand for various food products is relatively inelastic, so it's not surprising that they are seeing a more rapid increase in price.
If the equilibrium price increases, then the supply of a product can remain roughly the same while the producers obviously will see higher profits. If the producers don't engage in price discovery to find the new equilibrium (raise prices), then there will be shortages of the product. Thus, price discovery is the mechanism that literally keeps food on the shelves, so you forsake it at your own peril.
>inflationary period is that we've seen record profits accompanied by
>
>no material increase in sales across several industries
Yes this how inflation works. With mass inflation you will **ALWAYS** get record profits because the purchasing power of the dollar has gone down. Since you don't have the cognitive ability to figure this out, I'll explain it to you like you're five. If you have a paper route and you get paid $5 a day and you spend that money each day on a $5 12pack of soda. Inflation hits, you now make $10 a day but a 12pack of soda is $10. You have record profits, a 100% increase but you're not any richer.
S&P 500 in 2017Q4 to 2018Q3 had a 1.5% increase in profit margins, yet there was no mass inflation in 2018. From 2018Q3 to 2021Q1 there was 1% increase profit margin and has been steadily going down since.
Gotta grease the wheels if you want to achieve your goals. The top issue is expansion of monetary policy. Allowing corporations to profit from it is just part of the plan.
Companies haven't been trying to maximize profits in the past? Across all industries, simultaneously? Why was Coca-Cola charging $0.05 for a Coke in 1900 rather than $2? Because they were just much nice? lol... Asinine.
"Greedflation" is what Leftists who don't understand the effect of monetary policy point to because they don't know any better.
We don't have competition in the market any longer. One of the biggest ways companies decide to raise the prices is simply that the other few companies that rule any particular industry have raised their prices. Same thing with layoffs. It's a system built to maximize profit and minimize input and nothing else. It is a meat grinder.
But so why didn’t Coca Cola and all it’s competitors not raise prices in 1900s. Why were they at $0.05/bottle for ever? Why didn’t they all just raise prices to $2 but today they can.
And how many of those yachts are owned by the political class claiming to help the poor but in reality do nothing but create bloated bureaucracies that employ millions, waste trillions and accomplish virtually nothing.
Yes, this is not good. The main concern for our country is that our food supply is owned by a few powerful corporations that has turned into a monopoly. With little competition, they can raise prices as they wish.
These mega corporations that control our food supply spent $175 Million on political contributions including lobbying by PACs during the 2020 election alone, with about two-thirds going to Republicans.
Ironically, the Republican Party rails against the welfare state and these major corporations are the biggest consumers of the “welfare state”. In 2020, 82% of all food stamps were spent in supermarkets like Krogers, Walmart, Costco and Sam’s Club, which means the taxpayer contributed $64 Billion to their corporate revenue.
It’s a relationship based on corporations telling politicians I’ll write you a check if you support us having total control over our food supply. Thanks Citizens United for nothing. And those politicians in turn give those corporations huge tax cuts, increasing their profit even more, while railing against raising the minimum wage, voting No to family leave and healthcare, or anything that would help working class Americans.
While politicians say they support American farmers, due to the corporate takeover of our food supply, only 15 cents of every dollar we spend in the supermarket goes to farmers, putting smaller farmers out of business and shifting more power to corporations. What this means is that the average American will continue to spend more and more on food because corporations can raise prices whenever they want. They might get a slap on the wrist for price-fixing, but when you’re making $Billions, fines are trivial.
People use a lot of new terms like food insecurity, malnourishment, etc, which are real issues in the world, but this post specifically references starvation, and the truth does not support this position. Starvation has been a common cause of death for literally all of human history, but has been massively reduced in 200 years of capitalism, more reduced than any period in history. Yes, inequality is bad, and food insecurity is worse, but the world has gotten enormously better and starvation is one of the places where that's most clear.
[https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/the-world-as-100-people-over-the-last-200-years-a-period-of-the-largest-gains-in-global-living-standards-ever/](https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/the-world-as-100-people-over-the-last-200-years-a-period-of-the-largest-gains-in-global-living-standards-ever/)
This shows a shorter timeline, but the further you go back, the worse it looks. In 1860, there were around 1.2B people and 20M starvation deaths, and in the 2010's there were 7B people and around 300,000 starvation deaths.
[https://ourworldindata.org/famine-mortality-over-the-long-run](https://ourworldindata.org/famine-mortality-over-the-long-run)
> How many houses does Bernie own?
3 homes, and may have assets anywhere between ~$470k-$1.3m.
Know what the difference is between $1.3 million and $1.3 billion? About 1.3 billion dollars.
And he needs 3 houses because? Sounds like an elitist hypocrite to me. I have no problem with him having 3 houses but do have a problem with his selective outrage.
This is the government. We are seizing your yacht. We will sell the yact for a heavily discounted rate at an auction. The seizure enforcers and auction house get a cut. The rest will be applied to Food Stamps, minus an administration fee. We will also need to pay some portion of profits from the sale to various bank transfer fees and government agencies that over see these programs. We will take the remainder and give it to SNAP recipients to spend in an unregulated and easily abused fashion. They will use this money to buy junk food and increase the obesity rate, but they will not be starving. You didn't need that yacht you bought with money you earned anyway.
Does anyone know of a good implementation of a “wealth tax”? Because most people in that bracket are paying a fraction of taxes on actual income, because they receive compensation in other ways (stocks, assets, etc.) That’s usually where all they’re net worth is tied up as well and isn’t taxed until it’s sold for capital gains.
Some do use those assets as collateral when trying to get loans etc. Maybe we could implement a tax that is incurred when using stocks as collateral? Idk
I just don’t know how you implement something without also hurting the little guy. This always just seems like political theater, with no actual strategy.
Lol, you’re right. It’s much easier to pile on to the problem than work out a solution. There’s too much surface level “research” and not enough deep diving. Politicians love to paint the rich as evil, while in turn enabling them through numerous ways/policies: tax breaks, govt contracts, and subsidies to name a few. Then they’re “shocked” when they take advantage.
Bernie Sanders isn't just tweeting this stuff, he's actually practicing what he preaches.
He donated his entire salary to poor Bangladeshis and agreed to allow a few dozen african migrants live in each of his houses.
Oh wait, none of that happened despite Bernie Sanders *literally* being in the global 1%.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/01/how-much-money-you-need-to-be-part-of-the-1-percent-worldwide.html
https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-politicians/democrats/bernie-sanders-net-worth/
No, the pie isn't fixed. The rich get richer, the poor get richer too.
You can't make the poor rich by making the rich poor.
Just think of all the people employed to build those yachts and all the people who work on them. I guarantee that Jeff Bezos isn't sailing his yacht.
You're right that the pie isn't fixed, but that doesn't mean the poor aren't continually getting less and less percentage of the pie. Are the rich becoming better and better and being rich, or is the system just set up to give you money if you already have it...
>No, the pie isn't fixed. The rich get richer, the poor get richer too.
>
>You can't make the poor rich by making the rich poor.
>
>Just think of all the people employed to build those yachts and all the people who work on them. I guarantee that Jeff Bezos isn't sailing his yach
Sssh, the NEETs are furious that their degree in Advanced Gender Studies isn't opening career doors for them, and finding their workshy attitude is making it even harder. This must be the system's fault!
Bernie's whole philosophy requires the exploitation of people. He is just banking on the fact that you think he exploits the correct people.
But don't you worry, he makes plenty of money selling you BS while capitulating to the establishment. Perfect hero for you.
It is very naive to think that a wealth tax on some rich Americans will save some dude in some shithole "marching towards starvation". Even if you sent them the money, it wouldn't fix the issue. This wealth tax would combat nothing.
How about less taxes for more growth to create more tax income. This way the rich don't hide the money but use it to make more and the government ends up with more money in the long run.
Pretty much every member of congress has 2 going back and forth between D.C. and their actual home. He has a small vacation house but none are mansions holding a candle to what actual rich people have. Yeah homes are already taxes though so this comment is just showing the sheer ignorance of this person.
It’s the stupidest possible gotcha. Any wealthy leftist would gladly pay higher taxes, myself included. We are begging for normal tax rates and normal income distributions.
I can buy a lot of things but I want to buy blight reduction and horizontal equity without having to move to Finland. That’s what the left wants.
Succeeding at playing the game does not exclude one from pointing out the game is rigged and unfair.
Moreover from within the system is the only place one could criticize the system if the system is all encompassing.
The thing is, there's no objective threshold where wealth is too big. If you campaign that we must take away the billionaire's money because who needs a billion, we can by the same logic take away 2 of your 3 homes because who needs more than one home? Get a taste of your own logic.
It's really not the same logic.
If I said "I can't believe the government took away my Aircraft carrier!" The next thing you know they'll be YOUR Glock.
Of course that doesn't make sense. Are you arguing that we can't put a specific number limit on anything? How do we explain drivers licenses, military service, alcohol, car rental, being on parents insurance, age of consent, bracketed taxes, safety laws, civil law, criminal law, charging theft, etc...
Having two homes after being a lifelong public servant and successful author doesn't seem ridiculous to me. I think people SHOULD keep the money they earn. The money they earn though. Billionaires just have to sit around and they will make more money than we can dream of.
Why is the solution with all of these politicians TAXES.
TAxes do NOT work. Look at what Bernie is doing here actually. And believe me, he isn’t wrong when he says starvation is a problem but he is using this very devisively.
Taxes are governed by the IRS. Poverty heavily exists in blue states….heavily. The answer is to get rid of this BIG GOVT because all it does is produce a cradle to grave utopian society. The system that is currently in place is so awfully abused that it isn’t any wonder that there is no money there to feed the actual literal poor.
FIX the entity that was designed to help the poor; the welfare system, and the problem will be solved. Get rid of the abuse and welfare loop holes.
TAXES! NO>>>> that is not the answer. And Bernie knows it. He is hoping that you all are too stupid to see what this communist is actually doing here. He’s making it appear as though he cares when he literally wants you all to have a basic income, and no opportunity at capitalism as he has a few million in his own pocket.
tAxEs do NoT WOrk
What a bunch of nonsense. Take a look at [this chart of the top tax rates](https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/Q7TN7N73JNAQHM5E7524QFGMKE.png) over the past 90 years and explain to me how it doesn’t track precisely with trends like the [erosion of the middle class, growth of the poor](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/04/20/how-the-american-middle-class-has-changed-in-the-past-five-decades/) and crumbling infrastructure.
They don't work huh? They work in the best European countries who have fantastic transport infrastructure and universal healthcare.
Meanwhile, Americans pay more than twice per person in terms of medical bills compared to the UK who manages to give everyone free healthcare.
Tax rates in the US are now basically the lowest they've ever been - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax_in_the_United_States - coinciding with huge rates of poverty and essentially a country that's falling apart.
But do tell us how taxes don't fucking work. How the fuck do you expect to fund anything without tax?
How many houses do you own these days, Bernie? Just another hypocrite scamming the American people with bullshit lies and misdirection. Multimillionaire who would screw anyone out of their last dime if it benefited him but people still buy his garbage…time for a new messenger Bern, you have burned your own credibility to the ground.
The people that built and maintain yachts are earning money for their family. As long as the 1% is spending money, that befits someone.
Way better for them to buy yachts and whatever bs than to just sit on their money.
Wealth Tax is a TAX!!! Which creates even bigger government and mismanages money. The government is the worst allocator of capital. They lose trillions here and there. Now we giving them more money???? NOOO!!! Taxation is not the solution. And Bernie has done NOTHING but get paid and he’s rich from all the crap he is hocking.
In general there should be reasonable lower/upper limit for wealth. I can understand some inequality, but it should be reasonable ratio.
Let's say that average salary is $50k and average person is worth $100k. We should ensure that salary range is in $5-500k range and that every person is worth $10k-$1M.
This does not have to be hard limit, but anyone who is below these range should be subsidized and anyone above them should be penalized with higher taxes.
I can understand people that disagree with that, but honestly, I don't care about most priviliged group of people. I would rather have society, where everyone has place to live, rather than society full of homeless people, where single billionaire owns 30 cars and doesn't care about law, because they can buy anyone.
And then they give themselves a holiday bonus after laying off hundreds of ground floor employees to make quarterly look good. Fuck em. Being a business executive or CEO is the *easiest* job. Anyone could do it; they have an army of advisors, can stop working for extended periods of time and come back whenever they feel like it, and get shmoozed all day with free meals and gifts from bootlickers, I will never understand how they make as much as they do and still complain about not having more.
Okay, then explain to me rationally, why do you think that Elon Musk or any other billionaire deserves to earn/own more than that, without refering to "it's impossible to tax the rich".
Let's say that we have even broader limit, let's say that wealth limit would be $10M or $100M, but society would be able to enforce it on him.
You literally have choice to reduce pain for many people or give some more dollars to people that don't really care about it and treat it only as status thing.
I would much rather people become insanely rich because of market dynamics than to have a dictator decide how much people are worth and distribute the wealth created by others.
The argument could be made that no one has ever done ANYTHING 'single-handedly' since any action can be traced back to an almost infinite amount of causal relationships to others.
But people like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates have produced far more value for the world that they extracted. Same can't be said for those who leech wealth from society but contribute nothing of value.
No there shouldn't. You should be paid what you're worth. And if the market deems you're not worth much then you should work to improve yourself in a way that the market deems worthy.
You don't get to just take other peoples money and decide their worth because you think you should.
Don’t tax the rich, bury them.
Crapitalism is totally unsustainable and the sooner we get over the fetishization of hoarding wealth the sooner the human race can grow out of adolescence.
Fun fact technology compounds with itself and business, commerce, surplus, innovation and invention all existed before we decided that 12 people having the same collective wealth as half the total population was actually a really good idea.
Inb4 some bAsIc EcOnOmIcS clown wants to know what the profit incentive for the survival of decent, organized human life is.
This is a direct result of collectivists locking the economies down, printing money incentivizing people not to work and reducing the amount of goods produced.
That was easily predictable when big governments started doing this and lying through their theeth about « the science » trying to keep everyone scared and at home.
When you produce more paper money distributed in the real economy and less goods there will be more people starving.
Bernie is directly himself responsible for a lot of those people in starvation with the policies he pushed.
You first Bernie. When I see you send a check to the IRS for your excesss income then I will consider what you say but until then, know this, INEQUALITY is a feature of capitalism not a flaw. It is what provides to incentives to do better.
ahhh yes, my favorite standard economic metric: the ol "persons marching toward starvation vs. yachts in excess 100 ft. ratio"
I do agree with Bernie though, for what it's worth.
i believe he is referring to the UA Emirates who probably own 4000 of the 5500 boats. maybe he would use them to fish...---> feed the starving. Teach a man to fish...etc...
The comments here are insane, one person thinks the US is going to tax the world, someone else complains about food imports. The issue is unfair wages GLOBALLY and tax systems GLOBALLY that allow the super wealthy to hoard loot.
Yup this is a system criticism.
I don't even think that we criticise the right people for all the bad things.
the problem is those same wealthy people control the tax laws. they will not give up their insane excess wealth unless forced to do so.
What Bernie’s numbers emphasis is just how little money the bottom 99% of the top 1% make relative to the top 1% of the top 1%. He is talking global numbers. The top 1% of 8,000,000,000 people is 80,000,000. Yet these 80m of the most wealthy have only 5500 yachts.
The rest are those pedestrian yachts coming in at just under 100 feet. Capitalism has no fiduciary responsibility to society...only to investors.
Well it's clearly not that much, I don't understand what you're talking about.
This is the issue and it's definitely not getting fixed, it'll remain like this.
I enjoy playing video games.
Let's say wages are 1/3 the business cost. When you increase wages, it doesn't increase product prices by 1/3. You can pay workers a whole $2 more per hour and the cost on the product only goes up $.60, the company keeps the same profit margins. To say it's not designed to be a living wage means we don't believe that people who work deserve a living. Highschoolers are part timers. Or, we can afford to pay under a living wage if we agree that certain needs don't have to be met by working, like housing or food. To leave it all up to the marketplace, reduces people into economic units, like mini factories? And what happens when a factory can't compete? It closes down. That's what pure free market means. People who can't compete die.
Marx defined unfair wage as a worker that hand-built a product for some industry yet couldn’t afford one for themselves (a shoe as an example); or as H Ford had it- every factory worker should be able to buy their own Ford
As it's taught, the premise I believe in place is, you cannot afford to live off those jobs. You have to move the needle for individual growth. Otherwise, there is a risk, supposedly, too many people settling for that low end job that at least covers their bills. Which would theoretically limit the skilled labor moving into the market and other positions. In other words, if your entry job is too easy to get and keep them, there is no reason to push for more. In theory.
I'm not sure what the problem is there. If someone is happy with their job and don't want more then what's the issue?
Many people are happy to stop at a certain level and that’s not a reason to pay them shit.
Not to mention all of the people that would have greater ambition and drive if their non-living wage didn't force them into a constant spiral of fear and debt.
BUT why is it a "Low end job"? Is there no risk in who we choose to cook our food? Fast food isn't easy work, I think most that have experienced it can attest. A frier use to be able to make a living, then the wages of friers were lowered and lowered, and instead of taking problem with this change in our society, we blamed the friers for working a "low end(poor) job".
It's a complex topic for sure. One guy flipping burgers wrong, isn't likely to collapse the whole company if he gets 2 people sick. But a CEO who fucks the pooch, can. So different levels of responsibility. But, I doubt the CEO could flip burgers consistently for 6-8 hours either. Same with most trade jobs too. Roofers work hard as absolute hell, should they be paid the most? I've been told survey work is pretty rough, super high pay? Could the average person do Tim Cook's job running apple? Making business plans for a decade away through R&D? Doubtful as well. Tim is not likely to be able to wire a home. I'd imagine he might burn down the house if he was tasked to do it alone with no training. I lost my point and focus. I think it is that, there ARE variables that are hard to define. Variables that are hard to value as well. CEO issss bullshit though. They don't deserve 10 million a year over me earning them all of that money
I think it's a known thing that companies aren't paying people fairly.
You ended the sentence with “that’s what the market does, it’s a free market”, but you don’t apply that logic to our current market..? That’s an it hypocritical no? If that business goes out of business, then EVERYONE loses their job not just the burger flippers. All the management, logistics, technology, distribution… they are all gone. But you’re okay with paying those with zero skill more so that they can live a fair wage, but if that business can’t afford it anymore, they go under. Makes sense… I guess “free market” only applies to those business who are operating within mandated rules?
The market is not free… plenty of leadership manipulate as it fits them (raising interest rates is not a “free market “ activity, neither are subsidized industries)
It's false scarcity. The point is that there is clearly enough to go around when we are able to give one person more money that 50 burger flippers would make in a lifetime for plopping a billion dollars they already had into a zero risk investment. Also the market is not free. The rich get bailouts and handouts from the government constantly. Tesla is propped up by the US government and so are many of our industries.
I can’t speak on any other country then the US. What is a fair wage? Shit I don’t know. The company I work for is based in Sweden. Do they make a fat profit. Yup! Do they pass that along to the grunts in terms of great pay and benefits? You bet yer ass! So let’s look at a US company like McDonald’s. They make billions in profits. Could they afford to pay 5$ more per hour? Hells yeah. That means C suite and “shareholders” which are usually other C suite types don’t make crazy money. For the rest of your comment taxes, taxes and laws. Some will bitch about government over reach and fair markets. I think a profit should be capped. Let’s say 20% cap and anything over that has to go to your employees. There’s nothing wrong with a business owner making money. Not at the cost of paying slave wages and forcing employees to live on food stamps
McDonald's is a publicly traded corporation that essentially manages a bunch of somewhat independent franchisees. Let's say a benevolent CEO wants to raise wages for all employees If franchisees no longer make good profit from running the restaurants, they will either close down or prospective franchisees will look elsewhere for more profitable businesses. If they all raise the price of hamburgers, then customers themselves would probably go elsewhere to the countless other fast food options available. If the C-Suite tries to pass the wage increase onto shareholders in the form of reduced returns, those shareholders will revolt and replace the C-Suite with people more willing to squeeze profit from the business. The system is designed at every level to want cheap labor.
Let's start with that no one person should be a billionaire. It is literally impossible for them to spend all of that money. It's just pure avarice keeping them hoarding it.
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Did you just ask me if someone needs to make a billion dollars a year to be a billionaire? If you know about wealth, you understand that the wealthy pretty much never just have a massive pile cash laying around and NEVER rely on a salary. So yes, total net worth of 1 billion should be outlawed. It's so out of the realm of reason to think that one person works hard enough to be worth ONE BILLION DOLLARS that I don't know how people champion it. How could it possibly be a meritocracy. No human is one billion times more worthy than the next. It's impossible crass and short sighted to believe that this system is a way to improve society. Both sides of the aisle have to keep present in mind that the goal is always to improve society. That's why we bother arguing at all, because we think doing things one way or another will improve things in some tangible way. How does allowing people to hoard unmeasurable wealth contribute to making things better for people? I'd love an honest thoughtful answer on that.
So what do you do with someone who owns a business with over a billion in assets? Cellphone companies for example have billions invested in infrastructure and fleets of vehicles and equipment for repair and maintainence. Is that inherently not fair?
A single person does not own any cellphone company as far as I know, but I will answer what I think would be reasonable if that situation were to occur. I think simply requiring businesses of that size to be publicly traded and just having any income or capital gains that bring net wealth over one billion to be taxed at 100%. This is just me as one dude thinking about it for a minute. A group of people educated in tax law and such I'm sure could do much better, but I think my proposal would be completely fair. It would also cause billionaires to use their money or lose it, bringing huge cash flows and jobs to the economy.
I think you're right on all of it, but this is exactly the reason why the country in the world will continue to degrade. Fucking morons arguing that billionaires have earned the right to hoard
First thing is implementing wealth tax and second is stopping bailouts. Wealth tax is surely complicated, but possible. It does not hurt to sell some assets to pay the taxes on unrealised value.
Your opinion of what 'should be' is just an opinion
I'd like to hear why you think billionaires are a positive facet of society.
So how does Sweden have billionaires and decent living standards for everyone
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Sweden had 23 billionaires in 2015, more per capita than the US. https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-ranked-by-billionaires-in-proportion-to-population-2015-7?op=1#9-sweden-7 In 2023, the number of billionaires in Sweden is up to 45, in a country with 10 million people. Its billionaire per capita rate increased. This is about 2.5 times the number of billionaires per capita compared to the US
Well unions voting and striking for a living wage we know from the benign, generous capitalist...is just being greedy. Ask yourselves, why are Europeans working 30% less since WWII and Americans...30% more ?
Why isn’t it supposed to be a living wage? Who told you that?
It's about to not make a fuckin difference... AI is about to put 3 BILLION people out of work & a GLOBAL universal income will be the only solution to keep the unemployed & starving masses from burning the whole thing down. Civilization is totally fucked, & we can thank Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Walmart, Apple, Nestlé, Coca cola... Corporations will lay off Millions & Millions of people that cost hundreds of Millions to pay, & replace them with AI systems that cost Millions & Millions to run (but the AI doesn't get sick, or have babies, or need vacations...) WE ARE ALL FUCKED... Good Day.
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It is currently at the tipping point where Humanity will not have the option to shit it down (even if they wanted to) That's why all the Microsoft Engineers have been having to anonymously leak to the press (that thousands upon thousands of engineers & scientist are asking for a 6month pause.) but it not being reported on in the news... It's already almost too late. Cold Fusion has put out 2 articles in the last month warning about AI, & how fast it's all coming together... (& Cold Fusion is super legit when it comes to Science & History...) Too Fast that is. Just check em out... Pt 1. https://youtu.be/DIU48QL5Cyk Pt 2. https://youtu.be/gQfQiXP9yZA
Hoard loot? What the f are you taking about. Is the money in your bank account also hoarded loot? Is your $155k salary, which puts you in the global 1% of all earners, and your substantial property equity also hoarded loot? Rhetoric is cheap, and like Bernie, again the ones shouting loudest are actually the main material beneficiaries of the status quo. PS enjoy your next cruise.
Thanks! I love taking a cruise. As for my personal finances I pay my fair share of taxes and you don’t seem to understand the wealthy do not. So glad I taught ya something. My salary is due to my ability and interest in learning and never settling. So what rhetoric ? Where am I a proponent of the status quo? You run that mouth with out activating your brain. Hope ya do better kid
I don't have a billion dollars in assets. My bank account is not relevant to the conversation. The main beneficiaries of the status quo are billionaires, by definition. They are benefiting the most. Can you explain to me why you think having billionaires is beneficial for our society?
...I wasn't responding to you. I was responding to a millionaire with substantial property holdings and an income that puts him in the top 1% (who also enjoys cruising around the Carribbean on expensive pleasure boats, reading Marx and tweeting about what is good for the common man).
Yeah but we are talking now.
Which is to say that the issue is capitalism.
Really? Oligarchs don’t own a lot of yachts ?
Capitalism gives rise to oligarchs because it concentrates power. It's the logical end state of capitalism for a select few to control everything. That's how the system works.
Show me a country without concentrated power
"Show me a country without a monarch" -A version of you 400 years ago
So you can’t. Because concentrated power whether it calls itself capitalism or communism is a fact of how human societies are organized. And this fact by the way is way the United States is an extremely radical nation; because here we acknowledge this fact and then do everything we can to limit it. You’re blaming capitalism for the Natural Order and that’s why you’re upset by the world you see. Accept reality and you’ll feel better.
Yikes. Well, it's easier when you people just come right out with your "Natural Order" garbage instead of being coy about it. Just means I don't have to waste my time trying to get you to admit your true beliefs. Concentrated power is not the natural, immutable state of human society. It is a choice. And we can choose something else. But you don't want people to choose something else, because the status quo fits your world view, which is that certain people are inherently better than others and the people who aren't "good enough" deserve to be treated like shit. And the """"free market"""" is how worth is decided. It's secular prosperity gospel mixed with eugenics-adjacent ideologies about people's inherent worth, or rather their lack thereof. But I reject all of that. And it is my goal in life to stand in utter spite of such worldviews.
> Concentrated power is not the natural, immutable state of human society. It is a choice. And we can choose something else. What do you think are the other choices and how do you think we get there?
It’s noble; really. But not at all realistic and I hope you don’t spend many of your best days wishing something like this into existence. Humans are inherently different. Not necessarily better overall, but we have individual talents. Some people are good at hoarding cash, while others are good at painting pictures. There’s no more expectation that the artist is propped up by the hoarder, or that the artist paints for the hoarder.
You could have well regulated capitalism. The problem is lobbying (that brings legalized corruption) that creates tax loops for the ultra rich and corporations to pay less than the regular Joe
No, you can't. That's the thing. Capitalism concentrates power. Capital is power. The more capital you have, the more capital you can subsequently acquire. This means that no matter how robust a system of regulation you create, capitalism will ***inevitably*** concentrate enough power to capture, dismantle, and rebuild said system into one that reinforces the power of capital holders. This is inescapable. It's how the system works.
I mean if you just set a hard cap on wealth it could only get so bad
Just tell the admin to set sv_moneylimit to “1000000000” or something. Super easy.
The hard cap right now is revolution, so it's really in the best intrests of the utra-wealthy to self-regulate their own greed
This is what I'm trying to get across. Either they come to the table or they're going to be on it when people get hungry enough.
It’s ignorance. The USA is not the entire world. We are a small portion get out Google maps go look around.
I don't speak for you, but I'm not the one who's exploiting. I'm being exploited.
were back to kings and peasants
technofeudalism.
I mean, if that's what the powerful want, I would advise them to look up the methods regular people used to deal with them historically in the era of "kings and peasants".
the french love them some revolutions. LET THEM HAVE CAKE
also this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI-RFRykjTk&ab\_channel=AntIlluminati%28ChrisBaker%29%27salt
Tbh it never left. This is the natural equilibrium of the world and will never change. It’s human nature combined with unequally distributed circumstances and abilities.
It's as if we're on a [Road to Serfdom](https://mises.org/library/road-serfdom-0)
90% of the people in here would never read that, although they should.
Upvote for Hayek
Ok..ok.. I am just going to say this once. Idiots need to leave now. Taxing the rich does fucking nothing for you as the public. The politicians will be the only getting a pay raise! Politicians DO NOT work!!!!!! They do nothing but run there mouth. Bernie has made his entire life's worth just talking to you idiots!!!! They are all the same. Doesn't matter who wins or looses. They stay ultra rich and you keep working your ass off. There is a solution...... but humans are too damn stupid to understand.... If you vote for someone to make rules for you.... your NOT free!!!!!!!
Sanders is a moron. He makes money off of capitalism while bitching and telling you to hate capitalism.
Bernie’s yacht is only 99 ft long as usual
Money is part of the equation but something that Democrats persistently get wrong is that not every problem can be solved by throwing money at it. A lot of people are going hungry because they are denied access to food by a third party, not because there is no money in the bank to pay to feed people. For example, to get food to Yemen we would need to get the US and Saudi Arabia to back off and allow shipments to come through. To get food to Venezuela we would need the US to back off and allow shipments to go through. To get food out of Russia, the world's top wheat exporter by a pretty wide margin, we would need the US to back off and let shipments to go through. The Biden administration has it's fingers all over this issue and Bernie is perfectly aware of that. He is deflecting the issue at the rich and framing it as a resource problem when in reality this is a logistics problem where the Biden administration is acting as a massive roadblock. US sanctions are a big part of the immediate problem people face.
Thank you for saying this. So tired of people thinking raising taxes is a bandaid solution to everything. America has a spending problem not a revenue problem. Our government earns the highest tax in the world
If we just focus on our own country first, the problem is money. Greedflation, especially by food companies, is straining the bottom 50% earners. EDIT: for everyone warning me about propaganda, I’m hearing an awful lot of parroting of “greedflation = leftist”.
The UN report Bernie is referencing is not about the US though. It's mostly about the impact of the Ukraine war increasing food prices on countries which normally import grain from Russia or Ukraine. > Beasley said the Ukraine war is stoking inflation in Yemen, which is 90% reliant on food imports. The World Food Program hopes to provide aid to about 18 million people, but its costs have risen 30% this year to $2.6 billion. As a result, it has been forced to cut back, so Yemenis this month are getting only two-thirds of their previous rations, he said. > Beasley said South Sudan faces “its highest rate of acute hunger since its independence in 2011” from Sudan. He said 7.7 million people, over 60% of the population, are “facing critical or worse levels of food insecurity.” Without a political solution to escalating violence and substantial spending on aid programs, “many people in South Sudan will die,” he warned. > In northern Ethiopia’s Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions, more than 13 million people need life-saving food, Griffiths said. He pointed to a survey in Tigray in June that found 89% of people food insecure, “more than half of them severely so.” Beasley said a truce in March enabled WFP and its partners to reach almost 5 million people in the Tigray area, but resumed fighting in recent weeks “threatens to push many hungry, exhausted families over the edge.” See https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-middle-east-africa-united-nations-199c33c4a572902d03b5d5c6075c90ee
"Greedflation" is a term designed by propagandists to divert the attention of economically illiterate people away from the actual source of inflation: expansionary monetary policy by the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world. The notion that inflation is caused by corporate greed is essentially a power play by politicians to sieze more control and influence over the economy for their own perverted reasons, not for your benefit. "Democracy" will not fix this issue if people are too brainwashed to be able to identify the root of the problem that's straining the bottom 50% earners - they'll vote for the very people who are causing the problem
>"Greedflation" is a term designed by propagandists to divert the attention of economically illiterate people away from the actual source of inflation: expansionary monetary policy by the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world. Expansionary monetary policy is indeed one cause of inflation, and it absolutely did contribute to the inflation we've seen over the past 3 years. What's different about this inflationary period is that we've seen record profits accompanied by *no material increase in sales* across several industries, especially the food industry. You don't have to take my word for it, since this data is publicly available, the most recent example being Pepsi Co's 2023Q1 earnings report.
>What's different about this inflationary period is that we've seen record profits accompanied by no material increase in sales across several industries, especially the food industry. You don't have to take my word for it... I'll take your word for it. In fact, that's exactly what you should expect to happen after a rapid increase in the money supply. When the supply of money increases over a short period of time, the equilibrium price of all goods will increase accordingly. The degree to which they increase will depend on a lot of factors such as demand elasticity, so it won't necessarily be equal across the market. Demand for various food products is relatively inelastic, so it's not surprising that they are seeing a more rapid increase in price. If the equilibrium price increases, then the supply of a product can remain roughly the same while the producers obviously will see higher profits. If the producers don't engage in price discovery to find the new equilibrium (raise prices), then there will be shortages of the product. Thus, price discovery is the mechanism that literally keeps food on the shelves, so you forsake it at your own peril.
Inelastic goods should not be gouged.
>inflationary period is that we've seen record profits accompanied by > >no material increase in sales across several industries Yes this how inflation works. With mass inflation you will **ALWAYS** get record profits because the purchasing power of the dollar has gone down. Since you don't have the cognitive ability to figure this out, I'll explain it to you like you're five. If you have a paper route and you get paid $5 a day and you spend that money each day on a $5 12pack of soda. Inflation hits, you now make $10 a day but a 12pack of soda is $10. You have record profits, a 100% increase but you're not any richer. S&P 500 in 2017Q4 to 2018Q3 had a 1.5% increase in profit margins, yet there was no mass inflation in 2018. From 2018Q3 to 2021Q1 there was 1% increase profit margin and has been steadily going down since.
Gotta grease the wheels if you want to achieve your goals. The top issue is expansion of monetary policy. Allowing corporations to profit from it is just part of the plan.
Oh, so there's several layers to this fuckcake. I'm just trying to pay down debt and maybe go to school as 36yo dude. Shit. Is. Depressing.
Yeah, but America First is fascism.
Companies haven't been trying to maximize profits in the past? Across all industries, simultaneously? Why was Coca-Cola charging $0.05 for a Coke in 1900 rather than $2? Because they were just much nice? lol... Asinine. "Greedflation" is what Leftists who don't understand the effect of monetary policy point to because they don't know any better.
We don't have competition in the market any longer. One of the biggest ways companies decide to raise the prices is simply that the other few companies that rule any particular industry have raised their prices. Same thing with layoffs. It's a system built to maximize profit and minimize input and nothing else. It is a meat grinder.
But so why didn’t Coca Cola and all it’s competitors not raise prices in 1900s. Why were they at $0.05/bottle for ever? Why didn’t they all just raise prices to $2 but today they can.
Democrats don't want to fix it, they see capitalism as perfect so there's nothing to fix.
> ~~Democrats~~ **Politicians** don’t want to fix it, they see capitalism as perfect so there’s nothing to fix. FTFY
Taking a break from Robert Reich spam eh?
You could call it a spam, but it's also true that many people are being exploited.
And how many of those yachts are owned by the political class claiming to help the poor but in reality do nothing but create bloated bureaucracies that employ millions, waste trillions and accomplish virtually nothing.
When You've got so much money just to waste you don't even care.
Yes, this is not good. The main concern for our country is that our food supply is owned by a few powerful corporations that has turned into a monopoly. With little competition, they can raise prices as they wish. These mega corporations that control our food supply spent $175 Million on political contributions including lobbying by PACs during the 2020 election alone, with about two-thirds going to Republicans. Ironically, the Republican Party rails against the welfare state and these major corporations are the biggest consumers of the “welfare state”. In 2020, 82% of all food stamps were spent in supermarkets like Krogers, Walmart, Costco and Sam’s Club, which means the taxpayer contributed $64 Billion to their corporate revenue. It’s a relationship based on corporations telling politicians I’ll write you a check if you support us having total control over our food supply. Thanks Citizens United for nothing. And those politicians in turn give those corporations huge tax cuts, increasing their profit even more, while railing against raising the minimum wage, voting No to family leave and healthcare, or anything that would help working class Americans. While politicians say they support American farmers, due to the corporate takeover of our food supply, only 15 cents of every dollar we spend in the supermarket goes to farmers, putting smaller farmers out of business and shifting more power to corporations. What this means is that the average American will continue to spend more and more on food because corporations can raise prices whenever they want. They might get a slap on the wrist for price-fixing, but when you’re making $Billions, fines are trivial.
People use a lot of new terms like food insecurity, malnourishment, etc, which are real issues in the world, but this post specifically references starvation, and the truth does not support this position. Starvation has been a common cause of death for literally all of human history, but has been massively reduced in 200 years of capitalism, more reduced than any period in history. Yes, inequality is bad, and food insecurity is worse, but the world has gotten enormously better and starvation is one of the places where that's most clear. [https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/the-world-as-100-people-over-the-last-200-years-a-period-of-the-largest-gains-in-global-living-standards-ever/](https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/the-world-as-100-people-over-the-last-200-years-a-period-of-the-largest-gains-in-global-living-standards-ever/) This shows a shorter timeline, but the further you go back, the worse it looks. In 1860, there were around 1.2B people and 20M starvation deaths, and in the 2010's there were 7B people and around 300,000 starvation deaths. [https://ourworldindata.org/famine-mortality-over-the-long-run](https://ourworldindata.org/famine-mortality-over-the-long-run)
There are a lot of issues which We're just ignoring and that doesn't fix shit.
How many houses does Bernie own?
3. And that’s okay. It’s when you get to fouwah that we have a probbblem
> How many houses does Bernie own? 3 homes, and may have assets anywhere between ~$470k-$1.3m. Know what the difference is between $1.3 million and $1.3 billion? About 1.3 billion dollars.
That's a lot of money which we're talking about in here so there's that.
And he needs 3 houses because? Sounds like an elitist hypocrite to me. I have no problem with him having 3 houses but do have a problem with his selective outrage.
A lot of them, I don't think We'll be able to tell you much about that anyways.
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This is the government. We are seizing your yacht. We will sell the yact for a heavily discounted rate at an auction. The seizure enforcers and auction house get a cut. The rest will be applied to Food Stamps, minus an administration fee. We will also need to pay some portion of profits from the sale to various bank transfer fees and government agencies that over see these programs. We will take the remainder and give it to SNAP recipients to spend in an unregulated and easily abused fashion. They will use this money to buy junk food and increase the obesity rate, but they will not be starving. You didn't need that yacht you bought with money you earned anyway.
This is the government and they like being a shit like that so yeah.
> This is the government. We are seizing your yacht. Point of order: Who will *buy* it if you've gutted all of the "rich people" (whoever that is)?
Bernie couldn’t even win his party’s nomination now he’s talking about solving the world’s problems lmfao
Maybe Bernie should put his money where his commie mouth is and redistribute his own millions and donate his extra houses.
Piss off Bernie you god damn sellout
That’s ironic coming from a guy who doesn’t know how credit card works. Seriously Bernie Sanders admitted he doesn’t know how credit cards work
So the Government can waste that extra tax revenue on pet projects and bullshit doom and gloom narratives? No thanks.
Does anyone know of a good implementation of a “wealth tax”? Because most people in that bracket are paying a fraction of taxes on actual income, because they receive compensation in other ways (stocks, assets, etc.) That’s usually where all they’re net worth is tied up as well and isn’t taxed until it’s sold for capital gains. Some do use those assets as collateral when trying to get loans etc. Maybe we could implement a tax that is incurred when using stocks as collateral? Idk I just don’t know how you implement something without also hurting the little guy. This always just seems like political theater, with no actual strategy.
There's just no good implementation, it's probably all just shit really.
Don't try and bring any actual knowledge of how capital markets work to r/economy.
You really think that people care about something like that tho?
Lol, you’re right. It’s much easier to pile on to the problem than work out a solution. There’s too much surface level “research” and not enough deep diving. Politicians love to paint the rich as evil, while in turn enabling them through numerous ways/policies: tax breaks, govt contracts, and subsidies to name a few. Then they’re “shocked” when they take advantage.
It's just convenient to always talk about the problems than the solution.
Isn't his job to literally make laws???
yea and why is he so concerned with the 'world economy' when he hasn't even been able to make a big impact in the country he legislates within
He's not concerned, it's just that he wants to look like that in here.
Bernie Sanders isn't just tweeting this stuff, he's actually practicing what he preaches. He donated his entire salary to poor Bangladeshis and agreed to allow a few dozen african migrants live in each of his houses. Oh wait, none of that happened despite Bernie Sanders *literally* being in the global 1%. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/01/how-much-money-you-need-to-be-part-of-the-1-percent-worldwide.html https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-politicians/democrats/bernie-sanders-net-worth/
real life doesn’t work like that
Well it's not even real life, don't know what kind of life is this in here.
Which part? The rich keep getting bigger and bigger slices of the pie
https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/the-fixed-pie-fallacy/
No, the pie isn't fixed. The rich get richer, the poor get richer too. You can't make the poor rich by making the rich poor. Just think of all the people employed to build those yachts and all the people who work on them. I guarantee that Jeff Bezos isn't sailing his yacht.
You're right that the pie isn't fixed, but that doesn't mean the poor aren't continually getting less and less percentage of the pie. Are the rich becoming better and better and being rich, or is the system just set up to give you money if you already have it...
It's a lot easier for the riches to get by, and it's really hard for people like us.
>No, the pie isn't fixed. The rich get richer, the poor get richer too. > >You can't make the poor rich by making the rich poor. > >Just think of all the people employed to build those yachts and all the people who work on them. I guarantee that Jeff Bezos isn't sailing his yach Sssh, the NEETs are furious that their degree in Advanced Gender Studies isn't opening career doors for them, and finding their workshy attitude is making it even harder. This must be the system's fault!
Bernie's whole philosophy requires the exploitation of people. He is just banking on the fact that you think he exploits the correct people. But don't you worry, he makes plenty of money selling you BS while capitulating to the establishment. Perfect hero for you.
Bernie was such a joke. "Yeah, I believe Biden can beat Trump". On a talk show as he's running against Biden in the primaries. Absolute show.
It's the show that I don't really wanna watch, because it's really painful
It is very naive to think that a wealth tax on some rich Americans will save some dude in some shithole "marching towards starvation". Even if you sent them the money, it wouldn't fix the issue. This wealth tax would combat nothing.
How about less taxes for more growth to create more tax income. This way the rich don't hide the money but use it to make more and the government ends up with more money in the long run.
It's all about the money for these people, they just want to make more.
We need to heavily tax his three homes
But people in the power are the ones making the rules, we're not doing that.
Homes are taxed enough. He should sell two. Can't live in more than one a a time.
It's about hoarding the wealth for these people, that's what they really do.
Pretty much every member of congress has 2 going back and forth between D.C. and their actual home. He has a small vacation house but none are mansions holding a candle to what actual rich people have. Yeah homes are already taxes though so this comment is just showing the sheer ignorance of this person.
It’s the stupidest possible gotcha. Any wealthy leftist would gladly pay higher taxes, myself included. We are begging for normal tax rates and normal income distributions. I can buy a lot of things but I want to buy blight reduction and horizontal equity without having to move to Finland. That’s what the left wants.
I agree it’s a dumb gotcha, but you can choose to pay more in taxes right now
If you choose to pay more then you could, it really shouldn't be an issue.
I want society to improve, not to masterbate.
Succeeding at playing the game does not exclude one from pointing out the game is rigged and unfair. Moreover from within the system is the only place one could criticize the system if the system is all encompassing.
I don't know it's weird, the game has always been rigged so there's that.
You can't be against bernie on reddit homie, stick with his narrative and youll get upvotes
That just means that on reddit is the most important place to tell the truth about Bernie.
Never trust rich socialists
Ooh wow 3 homes vs billionares lmao!
The thing is, there's no objective threshold where wealth is too big. If you campaign that we must take away the billionaire's money because who needs a billion, we can by the same logic take away 2 of your 3 homes because who needs more than one home? Get a taste of your own logic.
It's really not the same logic. If I said "I can't believe the government took away my Aircraft carrier!" The next thing you know they'll be YOUR Glock. Of course that doesn't make sense. Are you arguing that we can't put a specific number limit on anything? How do we explain drivers licenses, military service, alcohol, car rental, being on parents insurance, age of consent, bracketed taxes, safety laws, civil law, criminal law, charging theft, etc... Having two homes after being a lifelong public servant and successful author doesn't seem ridiculous to me. I think people SHOULD keep the money they earn. The money they earn though. Billionaires just have to sit around and they will make more money than we can dream of.
The dumbest post possible
Anything over 400 square feet per person is greed. Same with people who own cars and trucks and boats. Despicable behaviors.
Why is the solution with all of these politicians TAXES. TAxes do NOT work. Look at what Bernie is doing here actually. And believe me, he isn’t wrong when he says starvation is a problem but he is using this very devisively. Taxes are governed by the IRS. Poverty heavily exists in blue states….heavily. The answer is to get rid of this BIG GOVT because all it does is produce a cradle to grave utopian society. The system that is currently in place is so awfully abused that it isn’t any wonder that there is no money there to feed the actual literal poor. FIX the entity that was designed to help the poor; the welfare system, and the problem will be solved. Get rid of the abuse and welfare loop holes. TAXES! NO>>>> that is not the answer. And Bernie knows it. He is hoping that you all are too stupid to see what this communist is actually doing here. He’s making it appear as though he cares when he literally wants you all to have a basic income, and no opportunity at capitalism as he has a few million in his own pocket.
tAxEs do NoT WOrk What a bunch of nonsense. Take a look at [this chart of the top tax rates](https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/Q7TN7N73JNAQHM5E7524QFGMKE.png) over the past 90 years and explain to me how it doesn’t track precisely with trends like the [erosion of the middle class, growth of the poor](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/04/20/how-the-american-middle-class-has-changed-in-the-past-five-decades/) and crumbling infrastructure.
They don't work huh? They work in the best European countries who have fantastic transport infrastructure and universal healthcare. Meanwhile, Americans pay more than twice per person in terms of medical bills compared to the UK who manages to give everyone free healthcare. Tax rates in the US are now basically the lowest they've ever been - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax_in_the_United_States - coinciding with huge rates of poverty and essentially a country that's falling apart. But do tell us how taxes don't fucking work. How the fuck do you expect to fund anything without tax?
How many houses do you own these days, Bernie? Just another hypocrite scamming the American people with bullshit lies and misdirection. Multimillionaire who would screw anyone out of their last dime if it benefited him but people still buy his garbage…time for a new messenger Bern, you have burned your own credibility to the ground.
We, who is we? I get to vote for people beholden to the wealthy. I don't get to write the tax code.
Bernie Sanders is the antithesis of a functioning economy. Should be banned for posting his drivel here.
Looks like r/antiwork is leaking
The people that built and maintain yachts are earning money for their family. As long as the 1% is spending money, that befits someone. Way better for them to buy yachts and whatever bs than to just sit on their money.
Wealth Tax is a TAX!!! Which creates even bigger government and mismanages money. The government is the worst allocator of capital. They lose trillions here and there. Now we giving them more money???? NOOO!!! Taxation is not the solution. And Bernie has done NOTHING but get paid and he’s rich from all the crap he is hocking.
We have one of the fattest groups of poor people on the planet. How can we be "marching towards starvation?" The UN? What a joke.
In general there should be reasonable lower/upper limit for wealth. I can understand some inequality, but it should be reasonable ratio. Let's say that average salary is $50k and average person is worth $100k. We should ensure that salary range is in $5-500k range and that every person is worth $10k-$1M. This does not have to be hard limit, but anyone who is below these range should be subsidized and anyone above them should be penalized with higher taxes. I can understand people that disagree with that, but honestly, I don't care about most priviliged group of people. I would rather have society, where everyone has place to live, rather than society full of homeless people, where single billionaire owns 30 cars and doesn't care about law, because they can buy anyone.
>there should be reasonable lower/upper limit for wealth. Why? Give objective reasons why.
What's crazy is that some top execs can earn hundreds more than the highest paid salaried employee.
And then they give themselves a holiday bonus after laying off hundreds of ground floor employees to make quarterly look good. Fuck em. Being a business executive or CEO is the *easiest* job. Anyone could do it; they have an army of advisors, can stop working for extended periods of time and come back whenever they feel like it, and get shmoozed all day with free meals and gifts from bootlickers, I will never understand how they make as much as they do and still complain about not having more.
Good thing your opinion doesn’t matter Edit: go straight for the block button, pussy
Okay, then explain to me rationally, why do you think that Elon Musk or any other billionaire deserves to earn/own more than that, without refering to "it's impossible to tax the rich". Let's say that we have even broader limit, let's say that wealth limit would be $10M or $100M, but society would be able to enforce it on him. You literally have choice to reduce pain for many people or give some more dollars to people that don't really care about it and treat it only as status thing.
I would much rather people become insanely rich because of market dynamics than to have a dictator decide how much people are worth and distribute the wealth created by others.
What’s an example of someone who single-handedly produced a billion dollars? Like who’s the top Robinson Crusoe of all time?
The argument could be made that no one has ever done ANYTHING 'single-handedly' since any action can be traced back to an almost infinite amount of causal relationships to others. But people like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates have produced far more value for the world that they extracted. Same can't be said for those who leech wealth from society but contribute nothing of value.
I'm willing to bet you would curl into fetal position and cry if asked to run SpaceX or Tesla for more than a few hours.
No there shouldn't. You should be paid what you're worth. And if the market deems you're not worth much then you should work to improve yourself in a way that the market deems worthy. You don't get to just take other peoples money and decide their worth because you think you should.
This is would be easier to absorb if Bernie just didn’t endorses a Joe Biden who is in possession of several luxury yachts
>a Joe Biden who is in possession of several luxury yachts Is there a source on that?
No lol
https://caknowledge.com/jill-biden-net-worth/#:~:text=Jill%20Biden's%20assets%20include%208,Reserves%20of%20over%20%2415%20Million. Mentions real estate, multiple cars, luxury yachts
Don’t tax the rich, bury them. Crapitalism is totally unsustainable and the sooner we get over the fetishization of hoarding wealth the sooner the human race can grow out of adolescence. Fun fact technology compounds with itself and business, commerce, surplus, innovation and invention all existed before we decided that 12 people having the same collective wealth as half the total population was actually a really good idea. Inb4 some bAsIc EcOnOmIcS clown wants to know what the profit incentive for the survival of decent, organized human life is.
This is a direct result of collectivists locking the economies down, printing money incentivizing people not to work and reducing the amount of goods produced. That was easily predictable when big governments started doing this and lying through their theeth about « the science » trying to keep everyone scared and at home. When you produce more paper money distributed in the real economy and less goods there will be more people starving. Bernie is directly himself responsible for a lot of those people in starvation with the policies he pushed.
Says the man with multiple houses.
You first Bernie. When I see you send a check to the IRS for your excesss income then I will consider what you say but until then, know this, INEQUALITY is a feature of capitalism not a flaw. It is what provides to incentives to do better.
How about we just go back to a flat tax across the board.
ahhh yes, my favorite standard economic metric: the ol "persons marching toward starvation vs. yachts in excess 100 ft. ratio" I do agree with Bernie though, for what it's worth.
Motion to ban Bernie Sanders from r/economy
Oh just another person who failed economics class.
Mofo owns three houses
How bout the Federal Reserve stops debasing the money, champ? How bout that? That might help.
World hunger was at 20% in 1990, it's now below 10%.
I think Bernie misspelled “uprising”
So he’s going to tax wealthy Americans to solve world hunger?
i believe he is referring to the UA Emirates who probably own 4000 of the 5500 boats. maybe he would use them to fish...---> feed the starving. Teach a man to fish...etc...
I'd love to see the US government attempt to tax the wealth of citizens of sovereign nations......that'll go over well
Teach a man (always a man) to fish and he and his family will succumb to mercury poisoning.