70% top tax rate for incomes over $10 million gains traction

squarepush3r

squarepush3r

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
The way things are right now, the wealthy can pass on their fortunes virtually free of taxes. This means their families can continue to dominate the economic and political scene for generations. Another word for this phenomenon is 'aristocracy'. Our Founding Fathers rightfully hated it and were convinced it was the enemy of democracy. I agree with them and so I want to see large fortunes cut down to size when they pass from one generation to the next. This makes sense from another standpoint, as well; our current tax code defers the payment of tax on capital gains from the increase in value of property like land and stocks. If the wealth is passed on, it never gets taxed at all and that's wrong.

Trump is a prime example of the kind of human being that aristocracy creates.
Click to expand...
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2019/01/two-ways-system-is-rigged-hft-and.html

Sunday, January 20, 2019
Two Ways the System Is Rigged: HFT and Oligarchic Inheritance
The net result of a rigged system is the vast majority of the gains in income and wealth flow to the very tippy-top of the wealth/power pyramid.
We often hear how the system (i.e. our economy) is rigged to benefit the few at the expense of the many, but exactly how is it rigged? Longtime correspondent Zeus Y. recently highlighted two specific mechanisms that favor the top 0.01%: high frequency trading (HFT) and oligarchic inheritance, the generational transfer of immense wealth and the power it buys.
High frequency trading (HFT) is a mechanism only available to the few at the top of the wealth/power pyramid to skim money from markets--please watch the videos below for further explanation of how HFT works.
As for inheritance--we're not talking about leaving a house or a small business to one's offspring, or even a couple million of dollars; we're talking about tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. Some states impose an estate or inheritance tax, but at the federal level, the exemption of $11 million per person means a married couple can leave $22 million tax-free.
The number of people with more than $11 million to pass on is extremely small:
Estate tax in the United States
In 2018, the exemption doubled to $11.18 million per taxpayer due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. As a result, only approximately 2,000 people (or 0.0006% of the population) in the US are currently liable for estate tax.
The mega-bucks families and billionaires practice the fine art of philanthro-capitalism, leaving their vast fortunes in so-called charitable trusts that enable power and wealth to be transferred generationally.
Here are Zeus's video recommendations and comments:
These two videos, four and two years old, brought something that had escaped my attention about the fundamental distortion of high frequency trading (HFT). These consequences have not come due yet, but it is a preview for how it will happen (flash crash).
Michael Lewis: Nobody Understands the Stock Market (13:19) (2014)
Brad Katsuyama: The Stock Market had become an Illusion (18:44)
Here is another video (Bill Moyers interviewing Paul Krugman) on Thomas Picketty's book Capital in which Krugman admits he did not see the most important feature of systemic inequality-- inherited wealth, which combined with the above, since wealth gives access to asymmetric information that blatantly rigs the system, generates oligarchy.
What the 1% Don't Want You to Know (24:30)
Both of these points really forecast a financial collapse in which the separation and concentration of wealth reaches critical levels, and as Yanis Faroukakis says "idle cash" has no where to go, as all the avenues of wealth generation are monopolized by predators and regular people either become moribund or victimized.
Progressive International: Yanis Varoufakis (20:28)
This goes back to what my book Transforming Economy: From Corrupted Capitalism to Connected Communities forecast that the real change and turn will come when people are "exhausted" in two senses:
1) "used up" as all pension funds become savaged to pay fees and pretend to be solvent without having backing capital to meet obligations when people actually start drawing on them (which creates sell orders, received first by HFT and then amplified as they sell first, leading into a death spiral), and
2) "being tired" as in fatigued to play and hope to win and stay in a rigged game, thus bringing down the illusion of a sunny retirement. This is just a matter of time, which is always the case when fundamentals no longer exist and are increasingly substituted with opportunistic illusion. As with all con schemes and pyramid games, they become unmasked and the illusory wealth evaporates to be replaced by IOUs that can never be paid.
Once that happens, it will be interesting to see how we respond.
I don't think we have very many years until this reckoning thanks to Trump's almost autistic savant abilities to unmask and blow up the facades surrounding the global elites.
This does not mean I favor him or the inevitable pain that will result from this unmasking, but I can appreciate anything that casts light on our currently bankrupt system.
The net result of a rigged system is the vast majority of the gains in income and wealth flow to the very tippy-top of the wealth/power pyramid where it concentrates ownership of productive assets and political power.
Please note that this is an apolitical reality; neither party has made any serious move to eliminate HFT and similar skimming operations, or limit philanthro-capitalism or onshore/offshore tax evasion--another mechanism that's only available to the top .01% and above.
The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens (book)
United States Net Worth Brackets, Percentiles, and Top One Percent in 2017(households)
Net Worth Percentile 2016 Dollar Cutoff
90.0% $1,182,390.36
95.0% $2,377,985.22
99.0% $10,374,030.10
99.5% $16,115,373.00
99.9% $43,090,281.00
 
Fogdog

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
squarepush3r said:
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2019/01/two-ways-system-is-rigged-hft-and.html

Sunday, January 20, 2019
Two Ways the System Is Rigged: HFT and Oligarchic Inheritance
The net result of a rigged system is the vast majority of the gains in income and wealth flow to the very tippy-top of the wealth/power pyramid.
We often hear how the system (i.e. our economy) is rigged to benefit the few at the expense of the many, but exactly how is it rigged? Longtime correspondent Zeus Y. recently highlighted two specific mechanisms that favor the top 0.01%: high frequency trading (HFT) and oligarchic inheritance, the generational transfer of immense wealth and the power it buys.
High frequency trading (HFT) is a mechanism only available to the few at the top of the wealth/power pyramid to skim money from markets--please watch the videos below for further explanation of how HFT works.
As for inheritance--we're not talking about leaving a house or a small business to one's offspring, or even a couple million of dollars; we're talking about tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. Some states impose an estate or inheritance tax, but at the federal level, the exemption of $11 million per person means a married couple can leave $22 million tax-free.
The number of people with more than $11 million to pass on is extremely small:
Estate tax in the United States
In 2018, the exemption doubled to $11.18 million per taxpayer due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. As a result, only approximately 2,000 people (or 0.0006% of the population) in the US are currently liable for estate tax.
The mega-bucks families and billionaires practice the fine art of philanthro-capitalism, leaving their vast fortunes in so-called charitable trusts that enable power and wealth to be transferred generationally.
Here are Zeus's video recommendations and comments:
These two videos, four and two years old, brought something that had escaped my attention about the fundamental distortion of high frequency trading (HFT). These consequences have not come due yet, but it is a preview for how it will happen (flash crash).
Michael Lewis: Nobody Understands the Stock Market (13:19) (2014)
Brad Katsuyama: The Stock Market had become an Illusion (18:44)
Here is another video (Bill Moyers interviewing Paul Krugman) on Thomas Picketty's book Capital in which Krugman admits he did not see the most important feature of systemic inequality-- inherited wealth, which combined with the above, since wealth gives access to asymmetric information that blatantly rigs the system, generates oligarchy.
What the 1% Don't Want You to Know (24:30)
Both of these points really forecast a financial collapse in which the separation and concentration of wealth reaches critical levels, and as Yanis Faroukakis says "idle cash" has no where to go, as all the avenues of wealth generation are monopolized by predators and regular people either become moribund or victimized.
Progressive International: Yanis Varoufakis (20:28)
This goes back to what my book Transforming Economy: From Corrupted Capitalism to Connected Communities forecast that the real change and turn will come when people are "exhausted" in two senses:
1) "used up" as all pension funds become savaged to pay fees and pretend to be solvent without having backing capital to meet obligations when people actually start drawing on them (which creates sell orders, received first by HFT and then amplified as they sell first, leading into a death spiral), and
2) "being tired" as in fatigued to play and hope to win and stay in a rigged game, thus bringing down the illusion of a sunny retirement. This is just a matter of time, which is always the case when fundamentals no longer exist and are increasingly substituted with opportunistic illusion. As with all con schemes and pyramid games, they become unmasked and the illusory wealth evaporates to be replaced by IOUs that can never be paid.
Once that happens, it will be interesting to see how we respond.
I don't think we have very many years until this reckoning thanks to Trump's almost autistic savant abilities to unmask and blow up the facades surrounding the global elites.
This does not mean I favor him or the inevitable pain that will result from this unmasking, but I can appreciate anything that casts light on our currently bankrupt system.
The net result of a rigged system is the vast majority of the gains in income and wealth flow to the very tippy-top of the wealth/power pyramid where it concentrates ownership of productive assets and political power.
Please note that this is an apolitical reality; neither party has made any serious move to eliminate HFT and similar skimming operations, or limit philanthro-capitalism or onshore/offshore tax evasion--another mechanism that's only available to the top .01% and above.
The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens (book)
United States Net Worth Brackets, Percentiles, and Top One Percent in 2017(households)
Net Worth Percentile 2016 Dollar Cutoff
90.0% $1,182,390.36
95.0% $2,377,985.22
99.0% $10,374,030.10
99.5% $16,115,373.00
99.9% $43,090,281.00
Click to expand...
So we need to get Republicans out of office.

Thanks for finally agreeing.
 
Fogdog

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
squarepush3r said:
its not really a political party issue. Most of the wealth inequality recently happened under Obama, its overly simplistic to try to pin on a political party.
Click to expand...
It's Republicans who did that stuff. The main driver for much of the financial disparity that has grown over time are those damn tax cuts that Republicans keep enacting. First Reagan, then Bush jr, then Trump.

Have you heard one peep out of Trump's government about income disparity? Do you actually think that any Republican will do anything to shift the balance? The only way we can achieve rebalancing income and wealth disparity will come from Democrats.

You sound like tty here.
 
squarepush3r

squarepush3r

Well-Known Member
Fogdog said:
It's Republicans who did that stuff. The main driver for much of the financial disparity that has grown over time are those damn tax cuts that Republicans keep enacting. First Reagan, then Bush jr, then Trump.

Have you heard one peep out of Trump's government about income disparity? Do you actually think that any Republican will do anything to shift the balance? The only way we can achieve rebalancing income and wealth disparity will come from Democrats.

You sound like tty here.
Click to expand...
I'm not trying to blame parties, middle class income has been declining under all presidents, and the aftermath of the financial crisis saw the largest spike with the Federal reserve QE programs

 
Last edited:
Fogdog

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
squarepush3r said:
I'm not trying to blame parties, middle class income has been declining under all presidents, and the aftermath of the financial crisis saw the largest spike with the Federal reserve QE programs

Click to expand...
Yes, the country as a whole has been generally taken over by right wingers who applied the hopelessly disproven theory of trickle down economics that included reducing taxes on the wealthy. Most states in this country are afflicted with right wing believers and the situation only gets worse when you see the deal George W cut for wealthy people at the end of his presidency. So, we need to reverse that.

Are you really trying to equate Trump's corrupt, gluttonous and wasteful GOP government to Bill Clinton's administration? That's your argument? Do you see that deflection beginning in the mid nineties? That was Bill's. Sandwiched before and after him where things resume their slide? Yup, Republicans. So, this says what about the current situation? You use this to say that Republicans are same as Democrats?

I think you should reconsider and come up with something better than bad logic.
 
Last edited:
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
squarepush3r said:
its not really a political party issue. Most of the wealth inequality recently happened under Obama, its overly simplistic to try to pin on a political party.
Click to expand...
No. This problem existed long before Mr Obama arrived on the scene. I will agree that he let it get worse on his watch.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
squarepush3r said:
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2019/01/two-ways-system-is-rigged-hft-and.html

Sunday, January 20, 2019
Two Ways the System Is Rigged: HFT and Oligarchic Inheritance
The net result of a rigged system is the vast majority of the gains in income and wealth flow to the very tippy-top of the wealth/power pyramid.
We often hear how the system (i.e. our economy) is rigged to benefit the few at the expense of the many, but exactly how is it rigged? Longtime correspondent Zeus Y. recently highlighted two specific mechanisms that favor the top 0.01%: high frequency trading (HFT) and oligarchic inheritance, the generational transfer of immense wealth and the power it buys.
High frequency trading (HFT) is a mechanism only available to the few at the top of the wealth/power pyramid to skim money from markets--please watch the videos below for further explanation of how HFT works.
As for inheritance--we're not talking about leaving a house or a small business to one's offspring, or even a couple million of dollars; we're talking about tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. Some states impose an estate or inheritance tax, but at the federal level, the exemption of $11 million per person means a married couple can leave $22 million tax-free.
The number of people with more than $11 million to pass on is extremely small:
Estate tax in the United States
In 2018, the exemption doubled to $11.18 million per taxpayer due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. As a result, only approximately 2,000 people (or 0.0006% of the population) in the US are currently liable for estate tax.
The mega-bucks families and billionaires practice the fine art of philanthro-capitalism, leaving their vast fortunes in so-called charitable trusts that enable power and wealth to be transferred generationally.
Here are Zeus's video recommendations and comments:
These two videos, four and two years old, brought something that had escaped my attention about the fundamental distortion of high frequency trading (HFT). These consequences have not come due yet, but it is a preview for how it will happen (flash crash).
Michael Lewis: Nobody Understands the Stock Market (13:19) (2014)
Brad Katsuyama: The Stock Market had become an Illusion (18:44)
Here is another video (Bill Moyers interviewing Paul Krugman) on Thomas Picketty's book Capital in which Krugman admits he did not see the most important feature of systemic inequality-- inherited wealth, which combined with the above, since wealth gives access to asymmetric information that blatantly rigs the system, generates oligarchy.
What the 1% Don't Want You to Know (24:30)
Both of these points really forecast a financial collapse in which the separation and concentration of wealth reaches critical levels, and as Yanis Faroukakis says "idle cash" has no where to go, as all the avenues of wealth generation are monopolized by predators and regular people either become moribund or victimized.
Progressive International: Yanis Varoufakis (20:28)
This goes back to what my book Transforming Economy: From Corrupted Capitalism to Connected Communities forecast that the real change and turn will come when people are "exhausted" in two senses:
1) "used up" as all pension funds become savaged to pay fees and pretend to be solvent without having backing capital to meet obligations when people actually start drawing on them (which creates sell orders, received first by HFT and then amplified as they sell first, leading into a death spiral), and
2) "being tired" as in fatigued to play and hope to win and stay in a rigged game, thus bringing down the illusion of a sunny retirement. This is just a matter of time, which is always the case when fundamentals no longer exist and are increasingly substituted with opportunistic illusion. As with all con schemes and pyramid games, they become unmasked and the illusory wealth evaporates to be replaced by IOUs that can never be paid.
Once that happens, it will be interesting to see how we respond.
I don't think we have very many years until this reckoning thanks to Trump's almost autistic savant abilities to unmask and blow up the facades surrounding the global elites.
This does not mean I favor him or the inevitable pain that will result from this unmasking, but I can appreciate anything that casts light on our currently bankrupt system.
The net result of a rigged system is the vast majority of the gains in income and wealth flow to the very tippy-top of the wealth/power pyramid where it concentrates ownership of productive assets and political power.
Please note that this is an apolitical reality; neither party has made any serious move to eliminate HFT and similar skimming operations, or limit philanthro-capitalism or onshore/offshore tax evasion--another mechanism that's only available to the top .01% and above.
The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens (book)
United States Net Worth Brackets, Percentiles, and Top One Percent in 2017(households)
Net Worth Percentile 2016 Dollar Cutoff
90.0% $1,182,390.36
95.0% $2,377,985.22
99.0% $10,374,030.10
99.5% $16,115,373.00
99.9% $43,090,281.00
Click to expand...
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
I'm far from the only one who thinks extreme wealth inequality is a dangerous and destabilizing influence on world affairs;

 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Progressive taxation it's a 2500 year old idea, the ancient Athenians applied it to their society with positive results.

David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and financial reporter.
 
Padawanbater2

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
squarepush3r said:
its not really a political party issue. Most of the wealth inequality recently happened under Obama, its overly simplistic to try to pin on a political party.
Click to expand...
It is a class issue. It's not left v. right, as so many tribalists want you to believe. It's up v. down. It's always been up v. down

That's not to say that everyone who is wealthy fits the mold, that's a strawman argument

It is to say that there are people at work on the behalf of someone wealthy whose job it is to spread known lies and false information explicitly to divide the poor and the middle class so they don't focus on the actual problem. Their job is to distract people with other issues that tug at their emotions so they forget about who is really fucking them in the ass; the wealthy that sell propaganda. I have family members who fall for this hook, line, and sinker. They send me emails and texts about illegal immigrants, as if it's an actual problem..

Propaganda is a very effective political tool that not many people are even aware of when it's used. It's why you get chills as a young American kid when the national anthem is played. That's designed. That's on purpose.. And it works.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top