LSE study of the last 50 years of tax policy: keeping taxes low on the rich doesn't boost the economy, it just increases inequality

[DMC]

Damn, WH with the 14 consecutive post meltdown. You hate to see it.

One thing for sure, most people arguing for redistribution of wealth are like those arguing for recounts in elections - they personally only stand to gain.

[pgardn]

If the warehouse worker doesn't like working at amazon he should work somewhere else. If he doesn't have the skill to work somewhere else he might want to question the multitude of choices he has made since getting spit out of his mamas cooch.

Why on Earth would he not have the skill to go somewhere else? Surely people get a diverse education so they are very flexible in their ability to take on tasks?

[DMC]

If they don't that's on them.

[baseline bum]

Why on Earth would he not have the skill to go somewhere else? Surely people get a diverse education so they are very flexible in their ability to take on tasks?

Because fuck them, they're not real humans. Wage stagnation for the last few decades is their fault because they played Call of Duty and tried to fuck the neighbor girl in high school instead of studying all day like the kids do in China.

[BackHome]

So now even a flat tax would be class warfare against the rich?

I am for the Flat Tax make life so much easier for everyone- All the taxing the rich will not work as they just passed tax rates they didn’t do a damn thing with all the loop wholes that’s still exist.

[ElNono]

If the warehouse worker doesn't like working at amazon he should work somewhere else. If he doesn't have the skill to work somewhere else he might want to question the multitude of choices he has made since getting spit out of his mamas cooch.

Is it really only about choices made? You're not serious about this. You said yourself half of Americans don't make enough to pay federal taxes, they all made bad choices? really?

The guy replaced by a robot or because his factory was shipped out to Mexico or China, that guy made a bad choice? This whole blaming the victim thing is ridiculous. Just say you don't give a fuck, which is really what's going on.

[Adam Lambert]

One thing for sure, most people arguing for redistribution of wealth are like those arguing for recounts in elections - they personally only stand to gain.

Not true. You're just incapable of seeing past your own experience.

[CosmicCowboy]

Is it really only about choices made? You're not serious about this. You said yourself half of Americans don't make enough to pay federal taxes, they all made bad choices? really?

The guy replaced by a robot or because his factory was shipped out to Mexico or China, that guy made a bad choice? This whole blaming the victim thing is ridiculous. Just say you don't give a fuck, which is really what's going on.

Thanks for making the point that we are in a global economy. Unskilled labor is unskilled labor and there is a worldwide competition for those jobs.

[Adam Lambert]

Thanks for making the point that we are in a global economy. Unskilled labor is unskilled labor and there is a worldwide competition for those jobs.

Yeah that warehouse worker should just move to China!

Also, people are lazy and need to get off their asses and work.

These two claims balance each other completely and in no way reflect an elitist disdain for the working class.

[Winehole23]

Damn, WH with the 14 consecutive post meltdown. You hate to see it.

One thing for sure, most people arguing for redistribution of wealth are like those arguing for recounts in elections - they personally only stand to gain.you've not been paying attention. my argument is that everybody does better when everyone does better. you're also ignoring a fifty year trend of redistribution to the top end of the income scale.

which is hardly ideologically neutral. that's politics too.

[DMC]

Because fuck them, they're not real humans. Wage stagnation for the last few decades is their fault because they played Call of Duty and tried to fuck the neighbor girl in high school instead of studying all day like the kids do in China.

Just because they react to stimuli doesn't mean they are alive.

[DMC]

you've not been paying attention. my argument is that everybody does better when everyone does better. you're also ignoring a fifty year trend of redistribution to the top end of the income scale.

which is hardly ideologically neutral. that's politics too.

Thanks Karl

[DMC]

Yeah that warehouse worker should just move to China!

Also, people are lazy and need to get off their asses and work.

These two claims balance each other completely and in no way reflect an elitist disdain for the working class.

Easy solution: Let more unskilled immigrants cross into the US unfettered.

[Winehole23]

Thanks Karl*TILT*

[Winehole23]

Easy solution: Let more unskilled immigrants cross into the US unfettered.so-called unskilled work isn't so unskilled.

also, :tu

we could use the fresh blood.

[Winehole23]

Aside, my own salary plus my wife's -- currently a figure under $90,000 -- puts us roughly in the 58th percentile. I have little to gain personally from redistribution. We don't qualify.

[Winehole23]

Affordable healthcare would be nice, tho

[Winehole23]

Even making more than nearly 60% of Americans, we can't afford coverage appropriate for our age.

Must've been bad personal choices.

[ElNono]

Thanks for making the point that we are in a global economy. Unskilled labor is unskilled labor and there is a worldwide competition for those jobs.

I took exception to the notion that this is the little's guy fault and his/her decisions. You can blame a cutthroat global economy that couldn't give two shits about the little guy on anybody BUT the little guy.

We're not even talking unskilled labor here either, that's a copout. It's not like 50%+ of Americans are working unskilled jobs.

The reality is that salaries for the vast majority of people have not kept up with neither increased production nor inflation, regardless if we're talking about minimum wage or not.

[Winehole23]

Damn, WH with the 14 consecutive post meltdown. You hate to see it.Sorry you didn't like my recap. I notice you didn't respond substantively to anything in it, you just went with bullshit psychologizing and red baiting, like you do.

Oh, and suggesting that emphasis on equitability is just being poor and resentful. Big timing the topic.

[Winehole23]

How rich does one have to be in this country to get the goodies? What level of work compensation makes one worthy to receive them?

Kinda seems like you and CC judge people's social worth -- how much their lives are worth-- by how much they make.

[Winehole23]

That trash on the curb doesn't remove itself.

Who picks the greens for your salad and butchers your meat? Who turns your hotel bed? Society doesn't work without these people.

[Winehole23]

The warehouse man and the trucker, the stocker and the cashier at the store. Juvenile daycare, nurses and home healthcare workers.

Essential workers. Shit breaks down without them.

That's why they were exempted from the so-called lockdown. And you shit on them?

[Winehole23]

DMC has argued in the past that society is a fiction and the common interest is ersatz. There's only individuals against a doctrinally evil state. The essential problem is how to spirit whatever one can from the shipwreck of society to make a tolerable life for oneself from an immutably oppressive order.

Cheap cynicism fused with personal greed, elevated to principle.same with CC, tbh

[ElNono]

How rich does one have to be in this country to get the goodies? What level of work compensation makes one worthy to receive them?

What I don't understand is why put yourself through mental gymnastics like that? If you don't care, just say you don't care. If you're going to just pretend to care, you can do better than "half the country had it coming to them".

People like Dennison are the embodiment of this shit. Never worked an honest job in his life, was born with a silver spoon, dodged the draft, "only borrowed 1 million" from daddy, and gets rewarded with the US Presidency and eventually control of of the GOP.

A crook, a charlatan through and through. What were the "good decisions" he made? Getting born into a rich family? smh

[Winehole23]

What I don't understand is why put yourself through mental gymnastics like that? If you don't care, just say you don't care. If you're going to just pretend to care, you can do better than "half the country had it coming to them".Bad conscience begs for justification.

[Winehole23]

Paper wealth: untouchable

Paper losses: a gold mine

1468207874002329602

[ElNono]

Huge 20-Year Study Shows Trickle-Down Is a Myth, Inequality Rampant

Inequality has remained persistently high for decades, and a new report shows just how stark the divide is between the richest and poorest people on the planet (https://www.businessinsider.com/how-bad-is-inequality-trickle-down-economics-thomas-piketty-economists-2021-12). Insider reports: The 2022 World Inequality Report (https://wir2022.wid.world/), a huge undertaking coordinated by economic and inequality experts Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman, was the product of four years of research and produced an unprecedented data set on just how wealth is distributed. "The world is marked by a very high level of income inequality and an extreme level of wealth inequality," the authors wrote. The data serves as a complete rebuke of the trickle-down economic theory, which posits that cutting taxes on the rich will "trickle down" to those below, with the cuts eventually benefiting everyone.

They argue in the new report that the last two decades of wealth data show that "inequality is a political choice, not an inevitability." For instance, when it comes to wealth, which accounts for the values of assets people hold, researchers found that the "poorest half of the global population barely owns any wealth at all." That bottom half owns just 2% of total wealth. That means that the top half of the world holds 98% of the world's wealth, and that gets even more concentrated the wealthier you get. Indeed, the richest 10% of the world's population hold 76%, or two-thirds of all wealth. That means the 517 million people who make up the top hold vastly more than the 2.5 billion who make up the bottom. The world's policy choices have led to wealth trickling up rather than down.

One group in particular has seen its share of global wealth swell. The report notes that "2020 marked the steepest increase in global billionaires' share of wealth on record." Broadly, the number of billionaires rose to a record-number in 2020, with Wealth-X finding (https://www.wealthx.com/about-us/press-news/2021/global-billionaire-population-surged-by-13-4-in-2020/) that there are now over 3,000 members of the three-comma club. Billionaire gains are a well-documented trend: The left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness found that Americans added $2.1 trillion to their wealth during the pandemic, a 70% increase. Some of the solutions that the authors propose to help alleviate this disparity center around taxation. "It would be completely unreasonable not to ask more to top wealth-holders in the future, especially in light of the social, developmental and environmental challenges ahead," they write.

That means expanding wealth taxes like property taxes to all different types of wealth, and to make taxes progressive -- meaning they increase with net worth.

[CosmicCowboy]

I will cut and paste since most of you guys probably don't have a subscription to the WSJ

Max Ramirez knew he had a problem when he found out about the truck.

About two years ago, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -0.53% employees rigged a vehicle to carry a makeshift billboard advertising starting pay of roughly $16 an hour. They drove the truck all over the small Texas city where Mr. Ramirez helps run a rival warehouse operation.

Within a few months, a handful of the employees at his company, mattress manufacturer Serta Inc., had decamped to Amazon. “We had no choice but to compete,” he said. The company raised its starting pay by roughly $2 to about $15 an hour and has since raised it about another dollar, he said.

As companies across the U.S. fight to find workers, Amazon is emerging as a de facto wage-and-benefit setter for a large pool of low-skilled workers. Business experts have long researched what is known as the Amazon effect in disrupting traditional retailers. Now Amazon’s every move is causing ripple effects well beyond the retail space in local markets throughout America, including on inflation, regional job markets and labor standards, according to an examination of federal labor data and interviews with economists, researchers, local employment officials and current and former Amazon employees.

The nation’s second-largest private employer is planning mock fulfillment centers in high schools to plant the seeds of future careers, sending recruiters to local fairgrounds and bombarding job boards with promises of large sign-on bonuses and pay—in some cases nearly triple the federal minimum wage.

The effect is magnified because Amazon churns through hundreds of thousands of employees each year, creating an even more voracious appetite for labor that often compels the company to push up compensation or improve recruitment in other ways—especially during peak times such as the holiday shopping period now under way.

“Amazon has the economies of scale,” said Jesse McCree, a workforce development official in Harrisburg, Pa., an area of the country where Amazon is competing heavily with other large logistics and warehouse companies. “They are influencing the market because of scale and name recognition and can afford to pay more than the smaller guys. As they go, even the big companies are going to pay attention.”

Similar effects are evident in areas near Austin, Los Angeles, Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky., according to a Journal review of local data and interviews with employers and workforce officials.

At produce distributor Castellini near Cincinnati, Chief Executive Brian Kocher can’t get away from Amazon. The company has wrapped job advertisements around cars, buses and billboards. And recently, when Mr. Kocher went to play his favorite Solitaire game on his iPhone, Amazon ads popped up there, too.

Castellini in the past year has raised wages three times, with its pay now starting around $16 an hour. Since many of its employees in the area are Spanish speakers, Castellini has recently focused on hiring and promoting managers who speak the language to better connect with workers. The company also implemented $750 bonuses for any employee who refers family and friends to work there.

Amazon has had a significant impact on the area since 2017, when the company struck a deal with the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to open a $1.5 billion air hub. Paul Verst, chief executive of Verst Logistics, which provides warehousing, transportation and packaging services for clients such as manufacturers and consumer-goods companies, said construction costs have risen by at least $30 a square foot to a range of about $90 to $100 due to increased demand for building space.

Mr. Verst recently gave employees a $3-an-hour raise to compete with Amazon. Starting pay now ranges from $16 to $19 an hour. He said his family-owned company aims to retain employees by connecting with them personally. He signs a birthday card for each worker. Tenures for many workers have averaged 10 to 15 years, he said. Still, the company has lost a handful of employees to Amazon, which has advertised pay of $20 or more an hour and $1,000 sign-on bonuses in the area.

“It was for economic reasons that they left,” he said.

There have been about two job openings for every unemployed person in Cumberland County, the Harrisburg-area county where several Amazon facilities are located. Warehouse competitors include pet food retailer Chewy Inc., United Parcel Service Inc. and food and agriculture giant Cargill Inc.

Wage wars in the area have been fierce ever since Amazon raised its starting pay nationally by several dollars to $15 an hour in 2018, local officials said. Much of the battle for hourly employees has played out near a stretch of the area’s Interstate 81 highway, where companies have erected billboard after billboard advertising sign-on bonuses and “immediate openings.”

On occasion, Chewy workers have left the company to work at Amazon almost immediately after receiving new training, according to a former area manager. During the Covid-19 pandemic, a period when Amazon hired workers as aggressively as any company in modern history, Cargill was at times so short of employees that it flew workers in from other locations, according to the company. Both Chewy and Cargill now advertise pay near $20 an hour in the area.

Employee turnover in Cumberland County rose after Amazon’s arrival spurred competition among local firms for workers. Three years ago, around the time when Amazon bumped its starting pay to $15 an hour, wages for warehouse employees in Cumberland averaged from $10.50 an hour to $12.50 an hour. Now, they range between $15 to $21 an hour, according to the Cumberland Area Economic Development Corporation.

[CosmicCowboy]

“Amazon is the standard-bearer,” said Zach Pasquariello, a former Chewy area manager in the region. “Chewy was always following in Amazon’s footsteps and trying to do what Amazon does, but we were always a little bit behind.” Chewy declined to comment.

Job openings across the U.S. outnumber the people who are unemployed, Labor Department figures have shown, demonstrating an unusual tightness in the labor market that has seen a sharp rise in wages. How much of this is due to Amazon’s influence is difficult to pinpoint, due to limited data and the unique influence of the pandemic.

But as Amazon’s footprint has grown rapidly across the country, the potential for the company to influence wages or other market dynamics has increased, economists say. Amazon, which had around 1.4 million total employees at the end of September, hires hundreds of thousands of people every year, putting it on pace to surpass Walmart Inc. as the nation’s largest employer in a matter of years.

“If they are not leading [a wage increase], they are reinforcing it,” said Lynn Reaser, a professor at Point Loma Nazarene University and longtime economist at financial institutions that include Bank of America Corp. “Everyone is comparing job offers, and they always have Amazon as a benchmark.”

Even Amazon’s own internal employee challenges ripple through the market. The company’s turnover rate has exceeded more than 100% across many of its facilities, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

Amazon has recorded higher injury rates than the national average, and its speedy delivery requirements can quickly burn workers out. The company has faced lawsuits, union challenges and government intervention related to the treatment of its workforce, which has pushed it to introduce new safety measures such as body mechanics training for employees and vows from its top leaders to better listen to workers.

Amazon has said it is working to better understand the needs of its employees and has opposed unions because it prefers to negotiate with workers directly. The company also has said that many of the people it adds are re-hires, demonstrating that many workers return to the company after having earlier left.

Amazon’s wage increases pass through to workers outside the company, researchers have found, as many employers raise their own pay to combat churn. In September, Amazon announced that its starting wage now averages $18.32 an hour, an amount that’s nearly triple the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

To fight off Amazon, competitors have tried to offer lighter workloads, more flexible schedules, bonus pay and other perks. But Amazon is rolling out new plans to compete in those areas as well.

Amazon wants to use its size and scale to make its jobs as flexible as possible, J. Ofori Agboka, an Amazon senior human-resources executive, said in an interview. Having hundreds of thousands of employees makes it easier to offer workers different work hours, a perk many have requested, he said. Amazon recently broadened a program that allows some employees to switch schedules and pick their own work hours, or cancel a shift at the last minute. The company also offers a child-care network to employees and flexible hours for a few weeks for employees transitioning back to work.

“What does flexibility mean for each employee, and how can we meet that?” Mr. Agboka said.

Candidates are now essentially being hired on the spot, Mr. Agboka said, with many workers able to see their start date less than half an hour after beginning an application online. Amazon is also working to fix common retention issues, he said, such as employees who are dismissed after a minor incident like missing work due to an emergency.

It is too early to know how well some of Amazon’s new initiatives to increase flexibility will be felt in the labor force, but its pay increases are already having a widespread impact.

LaShay Moran, who lives near Louisville, joined Amazon during its current hiring spree. Ms. Moran, 42, left her job at auto parts distributor Premier Performance LLC in part because Amazon offered more money—$17.50 an hour versus $16 at Premier—and a $3,000 sign-on bonus.

“Everybody knows what it is,” she said of Amazon’s name recognition

A 10% increase in Amazon’s advertised hourly wages in 2018 led to an average increase of about 2.6% among other employers in labor markets where Amazon is located, according to a paper this year by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Brandeis University.

Amazon’s influence on wage increases had a big effect because a large fraction of similar jobs then were below $15 an hour, researchers concluded. In comparison, when Walmart and Target Corp. announced $9 starting pay in 2015, the effect was smaller because there was a larger fraction of employers that were already at or above that pay level. Walmart in September raised its minimum wage to $12 an hour.

At the same time, the researchers found Amazon’s increase in pay failed to raise overall employment levels and actually led to a small decline. While some employers that raised wages hired additional workers, others cut back on employment or hours. In Amazon’s case, the company’s increase to $15 an hour led to an average decrease in “probability of employment” by 0.8 percentage point, the paper says. Other research showed similar results.

In response to its overall effect on employment, Amazon has previously pointed to the billions it has invested in infrastructure and the amount of jobs it creates.

In San Marcos, Texas, Amazon established its first fulfillment center in 2016 and soon approached the nearby Texas State University as the area’s largest employer.

Other warehouse operators in the area quickly felt the company’s presence. Amazon advertised on radio stations hundreds of miles away and attracted workers from competitors in short order.

Amazon staffs more than 4,500 workers in three facilities throughout the surrounding Hays County, and a fourth site recently opened that will employ at least hundreds more. The company has added more than 2,000 employees during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to local data.

Worker churn has been high at the facilities. Turnover in Hays County, which is located southwest of Austin, swelled to 101% in 2017, the first full year Amazon operated there. The rate plunged to 68% by 2019, according to a Journal analysis. That decrease happened after Amazon reduced the number of employees at the San Marcos warehouse, according to the Greater San Marcos Partnership, a local business group.

Since Amazon raised its starting pay in 2018, wages in the San Marcos area are also up substantially. Pay for employees in the warehouse and storage industry in Hays County grew by 12.7% in the two years after Amazon’s move to $15, compared with 4.3% in the two years preceding it, according to labor market research firm Emsi Burning Glass.

Walmart and others matched and sometimes exceeded Amazon’s pay at their facilities to stay competitive, said Jason Giulietti, president of the Greater San Marcos Partnership. A large sign recently hung from a Walmart distribution center south of Amazon’s San Marcos facility advertising pay of up to $20 an hour.

At lighting manufacturing giant Signify, which has a warehouse in Hays County, plant manager Haiver Montenegro said he competes with Amazon using flexible schedules, including usually not requiring employees to work on weekends.

“If we were just to compete with hourly rates with Amazon, we would never get there,” he said. “The biggest discussion around resources in this area has to be around what an employer has to offer as a whole package.”

Still, he is short about 15 production associates, with roughly 120 manufacturing employees at the warehouse, according to the company. Signify recently raised starting wages there to around $15 an hour in part because of Amazon’s wage hikes, and he is considering putting up job advertisements on billboards for the first time.

[Winehole23]

Businesses competing for workers, you love to see it. :tu

[CosmicCowboy]

I had no idea they had 4500 employees in San Marcos and hiring more...

[Winehole23]

The 50 year trend of wage contraction won't be rolled back in a day or a month, but the current advantage job applicants have now is very welcome.

The minimum wage would have to be around $25/hour to match what it was in the late 1960s, adjusted for inflation.

[Winehole23]

Loopholes for rich parsons shift the burden in Texas

1470054586052452353

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FHtEiMaUYAAYASg?format=png&name=900x900

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/28/business/tax-break-qualified-small-business-stock.html

[Winehole23]

trickling down

https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1479139864360587266/vermhj_4?format=png&name=900x900

[Winehole23]

Downstream in the same thread, recurs to demand pull inflation and the theme of super-rich people borrowing at zero-interest.

Rinse, lather and repeat.

1462932470437859339

[baseline bum]

trickling down

https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1479139864360587266/vermhj_4?format=png&name=900x900

Boomers have really fucked millennials over. They only have <5% of the wealth of this nation and 2% is that is that faggot Zuckerberg.

[Winehole23]

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/convexity.asp

1445575176251318277

[boutons_deux]

Boomers have really fucked millennials over. They only have <5% of the wealth of this nation and 2% is that is that faggot Zuckerberg.

the vast majority your fucking "boomers" are not in the wealthy oligarchy.

[baseline bum]

the vast majority your fucking "boomers" are not in the wealth oligarchy.

But they voted for it starting with Nixon.

[boutons_deux]

But they voted for it starting with Nixon.

who votes for devastating inequality?

The oligarchy bribed/bribes Congress for tax cuts, loopholes, subsidies, etc that enrich themselves, and block others enrichment.

Inequality exploded after the oligarchy/VRWC got Useful Idiot St Ronnie elected.

Professional actor's facade but he had no idea, thanks, Alzheimer's, the damage that his Repugs were doing to America's well being.

[Winehole23]

1482750744071655429

[Winehole23]

Or hire more IRS agents to go after the cheats. Seems like a pretty big win as far as cost/benefit goes, amaright?that's not the American way

1501583230943862792

[SnakeBoy]

More than half of American households paid no federal income tax last year due to Covid-relief funds, tax credits and stimulus, according to a new report.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/25/57percent-of-us-households-paid-no-federal-income-tax-in-2021-study.html

How many of you were freeloaders last year?

[Winehole23]

Tech billionaires and heirs of wealthy people are two other large cohorts in this ProPublica rundown of the top 400 US earners and what they pay in taxes.


About a fifth of the top 400 earners were managers of hedge funds, making them the largest group we identified. Because their companies are typically set up as private firms, the income they make each year from trading stocks, options and other financial instruments flows directly to them.


Executives and founders of private-equity firms also stood out. These people generally make their money by buying companies and reselling them for a profit.https://projects.propublica.org/americas-highest-incomes-and-taxes-revealed/

[Winehole23]

Many of the top 400 hit the sweet spot of high incomes and low taxes on much of that income — landing them in the cluster to the right on this chart. Their income mostly stems from stock sales taxed at the lower rate. Since 2013, that long-term capital gains rate has been 20%, about half the top rate on ordinary income (37% in 2018).

[Winehole23]

Tax wealth and vacant housing, yes, but at some point providing more housing at reachable prices needs to be a policy priority. Reforming zoning to allow more single-occupancy dwellings in cities would help too.

1542189652093829120

[Winehole23]

Given that wages have been stagnant for 50 years, having financial stability tied to ownership of an asset that is always supposed to appreciate has some downsides.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYXZoMUWYAAj4lr?format=png&name=900x900

[baseline bum]

Given that wages have been stagnant for 50 years, having financial stability tied to ownership of an asset that is always supposed to appreciate has some downsides.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYXZoMUWYAAj4lr?format=png&name=900x900

LOL our birthrates are going to end up just like Japan's. And then our economy will crash just like theirs' too.

[Winehole23]

1555832837663858689

[Winehole23]

Corporate tax cuts may not boost growth either

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292122000885

[Winehole23]

1556155247340400646

[Winehole23]

Pink newspaper touts land tax.

1622282524599910401

[Winehole23]

To him who has, even more will be added.


The Federal Reserve’s latest survey of consumer finances (SCF) shows that (https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scf/dataviz/scf/table/#series:Retirement_Accounts;demographic:nwcat;popu lation:all;units:have) among the poorest 50 percent of families, less than a third participated in a tax-subsidized retirement plan in 2019, while 91 percent of families in the wealthiest 10 percent did.

The federal data (for technical reasons) excludes traditional company pensions, which have been increasingly replaced by “defined contribution” plans like 401(k)s and 403(b)s that shift the savings burden from employer to employee. And while that shift may account for some portion of the chasm in savings, the vastness of today’s retirement wealth gap is largely the result of a string of Wall Street–backed tax incentives that have been a mother lode for the rich but of little use to the poor. Based on the SCF results, Steven Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, calculated (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/mega-iras-reflect-mega-legislative-mistakes) that the average family in the bottom half of the wealth spectrum held just $6,900 in retirement savings, including individual retirement accounts (IRAs), while the wealthiest 10 percent of families averaged $861,300.

This 125-to-1 disparity is astonishing, considering the vast amount of revenue tax collectors give up in the name of helping families build their nest eggs. Retirement-#related incentives will cost (https://www.jct.gov/publications/2020/jcx-23-20/) a total of $1.9 trillion from 2020 to 2024, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), making them the US government’s single biggest tax-related expense—more than twice the $1.85 trillion price tag of the 10-year Build Back Better plan that Sen. Joe Manchin rejected in December, and more than the cost of federal tax breaks for dependents, charitable donations, and capital gains combined.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/02/retirement-savings-plans-favor-rich-wealth-gap-tax-incentives-portman-cardin-congress-secure-act/

[Winehole23]

It isn’t too hard, on the other hand, for high-income Americans to afford the maximum retirement contributions the law allows. Some have even found creative ways to game the system. Take Silicon Valley mogul Peter Thiel, who reportedly used (https://www.propublica.org/article/lord-of-the-roths-how-tech-mogul-peter-thiel-turned-a-retirement-account-for-the-middle-class-into-a-5-billion-dollar-tax-free-piggy-bank) pre-IPO stock options valued at a fraction of a penny per share to amass more than $5 billion in a Roth IRA, a type of tax-free retirement account theoretically closed to people who make more than $144,000 a year. As the JCT discovered last year (https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/7.28.21%20JCT%20Mega%20IRA%20Data1.pdf), more than 28,000 Americans had tax-#subsidized IRA balances of more than $5 million—nearly 500 of them, Thiel included, had holdings exceeding $25 million. “IRAs were designed to provide retirement security to middle-class families, not allow the superwealthy to avoid paying taxes,” lamented (https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/wyden-neal-release-new-data-showing-explosion-in-use-of-mega-ira-accounts-by-wealthy) Oregon’s Ron Wyden, the Democratic chair of the Senate’s finance committee.

[Winehole23]

"wash sales" help rich folks stiff the taxman


Over and over, Ballmer sold and bought stocks in roughly equivalent amounts, as on that July day, when he swapped around $200 million worth. A month later, he did it again, landing at least $23 million in tax-reducing losses. Similar efforts that December brought $26 million more.

ProPublica estimates that from 2014 through 2018, Ballmer was able to generate tax losses totaling $579 million without changing his investment portfolio in a meaningful way. The tax savings from these losses amount to at least $138 million.


The scale of Goldman’s feat was remarkable, but Ballmer was just one client pursuing such a strategy. And Goldman was just part of an industry that helps the ultrawealthy report billions in losses — and save billions in potential taxes — even as their fortunes rise.

[SpursforSix]

"wash sales" help rich folks stiff the taxman

That's an IRS oversight issue and not a Ballmer issue. Anyone, regardless of wealth, can try to do this. I'm shocked that the IRS doesn't have a better method of catching this.

[Winehole23]

That's an IRS oversight issue and not a Ballmer issue. Anyone, regardless of wealth, can try to do this. I'm shocked that the IRS doesn't have a better method of catching this.you're not wrong, but the thread title relates to tax policy, which includes legislation and enforcement. both favor the well off, by political choice.

[Winehole23]

redistribution to the tippy top of the income scale is at an all-time high

1627666904092487680

[boutons_deux]

Boomers have really fucked millennials over. They only have <5% of the wealth of this nation and 2% is that is that faggot Zuckerberg.

it's not generational Warfare

it's class Warfare

it's the wealthy class versus non wealthy class

wealthy Boomers have fucked over the non-wealthy Boomers, and everybody else

[Winehole23]

1637884833719263240

[Winehole23]

Industrial scale tax avoidance

1656376037259857927

1656379549729300481

[Winehole23]

Auditing richer folks pays.

1668951177122177024

[Winehole23]

Context: wage earners in the US have been getting fucked over for 50 years


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2N88tcXsAE-Rsm?format=jpg&name=small

[Thread]

When you eye ball & put a country/Russia on-the-spot like we did after II., in order to create a boogeyman & facilitate the MIC that we've accomplished then taxes are going to be a persistent, sustained problem. But, we had a choice after II., whether to kill them/Russia on-the-spot, or, create the aforementioned MIC. In the view of government, American government,,,we chose wisely.

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6j26FjbQAADMFK?format=jpg&name=large

[Thread]

When you eye ball & put a country/Russia on-the-spot like we did after II., in order to create a boogeyman & facilitate the MIC that we've accomplished then taxes are going to be a persistent, sustained problem. But, we had a choice after II., whether to kill them/Russia on-the-spot, or, create the aforementioned MIC. In the view of government, American government,,,we chose wisely.

Dale

[Winehole23]

The escalator is broken, too many people can't reach the first step. Looks like there's a big downside to real estate growing faster in price than inflation and wages.

1704970888838307903

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_E91RHWIAArYwa?format=jpg&name=small

[Winehole23]

The top decile of the top decile doesn't need more tax breaks but pols would like bigger donations and more enthusiasm from naive partisans who don't benefit whatsoever from Tax cuts.

Aside, tax cuts aren't deficit neutral, conservatives prefer to overlook that now that the trickle down theory has been exposed as vaporware. The mere existence of a trickle down theory implies bad faith and insecurity about the direction of the equities.

https://x.com/GunnelsWarren/status/1731496079554670875?s=20

1731496079554670875

[Winehole23]

it didn't trickle down, it was never designed to


While the five years that the IPS put under the microscope may feature some of the most flamboyant examples of this wretched excess, it’s important to remember that none of this happened in a vacuum—this widening gyre of inequality is decades in the making. As the IPS study notes, “When corporate taxes made up 21.8 percent of all federal revenue in 1965, the average CEO-to-median worker pay ratio was 21 to 1. By 2022, corporate tax receipts had fallen to just 8.7 percent of federal revenue and the average pay ratio had risen to 344 to 1.”https://newrepublic.com/article/179867/ceo-pay-tax-dodging-corporations

[Thread]

When you eye ball & put a country/Russia on-the-spot like we did after II., in order to create a boogeyman & facilitate the MIC that we've accomplished then taxes are going to be a persistent, sustained problem. But, we had a choice after II., whether to kill them/Russia on-the-spot, or, create the aforementioned MIC. In the view of government, American government,,,we chose wisely.

Let us proceed...

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMvUeYtbMAAhRHm?format=jpg&name=small

[Thread]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMvUeYtbMAAhRHm?format=jpg&name=small

I'll boil it down for ya, Chief. Come 1.20.25, we're in a for a tax hike(s) that'll astound us, sweetheart. "Get your people back and their heads down. It's gonna be a big one." American fighter pilot...-Apocalypse Now-

[Winehole23]

Tax cuts aren't revenue neutral and have become a drag on the economy. When government uses the power of spending to bring down the cost of living/doing business, it makes the country more prosperous and competitive.

The Trump tax cut would raise taxes for all but top 10% earners and blow up the deficit.

The Harris tax cut would only raise taxes on people making >$400,000k/year. Every other bracket would see their taxes go down.


1850167104068108691

https://x.com/BharatRamamurti/status/1850167104068108691

Kamala Harris wants to invest and cut the cost of living, says Bharat Ramamurti (https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2024/10/25/kamala-harris-wants-to-invest-and-cut-the-cost-of-living-says-bharat-ramamurti)

[CosmicCowboy]

Lot of angst on red or blue tax proposals. Most on either side are bullshit pandering and will never become law. Odds are we are looking at a divided house and senate leading to stalemate no matter who is president. One thing we can count on though..2 trillion+ annual deficits as far as we can see. Neither side has the balls to fix it.

[Winehole23]

Lot of angst on red or blue tax proposals. Most on either side are bullshit pandering and will never become law. Odds are we are looking at a divided house and senate leading to stalemate no matter who is president. One thing we can count on though..2 trillion+ annual deficits as far as we can see. Neither side has the balls to fix it.One obvious solution is right there on the revenue side. More taxes.

For sure nobody has the balls to do that either.

[vy65]

The whole concept of the "top 1%" is incredibly misleading. It groups together people who make $400k/year with the Bill Gates and Elon Musks of the world. The $400k/year earner is closer to someone making minimum wage than they are to someone who has an 8-figure net worth. From some internet sleuthing (so very rough, raw numbers), 2.6% of all US households make over $400k/year. Households making over $1 million/year total up to 0.5%. So, 2.1% of all US households or 2.76 million households, make less than a million but more than $400k a year - with the majority of those households grouping together closer to $400k than to $1 million.

Those 2.76 million households aren't retarded rich. They shoulder an atronomical tax burden relative to their income, literally paying hundreds of thousands of dollars per household to the USFG. They're shouldering this burden while losing out on assistance like the SALT deduction (capped at $10k now).

Income inequality exists. Billionaires, hundred-millionaires, even tens-of-millionaires should shoulder more of a burden - especially since their wealth is typically tax avoidant. But I'd like someone to explain to me why a dude making $400k should be treated the same tax-wise as Elon.

[Winehole23]

we talk about the 1%, but it's really the top decile of that -- the top 0.1%

[CosmicCowboy]

we talk about the 1%, but it's really the top decile of that -- the top 0.1%

So who is next after you take theirs? That might balance the budget for a year or two. You do know money is mobile, don't you?

[ChumpDumper]

So who is next after you take theirs? That might balance the budget for a couple of years.Let's do it and find out.

[CosmicCowboy]

Let's do it and find out.

Spoken like a true Socialist.

[ChumpDumper]

Spoken like a true Socialist.That's not socialism and I'm not calling for socialism tbh.

Let's just start by letting their Trump tax breaks expire like everyone else's.

[CosmicCowboy]

LOL, you don't usually back track that soon. Going from confiscating the top .1% wealth to ending the trump tax cuts is a big swing.

[Winehole23]

So who is next after you take theirs? That might balance the budget for a year or two. You do know money is mobile, don't you?sure, it's well known rich people are adept at cheating and shirking their taxes.

btw, I didn't say that others don't need to pay more taxes too.

tax revenue relative to GDP has shrunk 3% since 2000, I'd call that chronic underinvestment.

[CosmicCowboy]

sure, it's well known rich people are adept at cheating and shirking their taxes.

btw, I didn't say that others don't need to pay more taxes too.

tax revenue relative to GDP has shrunk 3% since 2000, I'd call that chronic underinvestment.

How has spending grown relative to GDP?

[Winehole23]

when conservatives talk about the national budget, they act like one whole side of the ledger can always go down and never go up. that's unrealistic, and it shortchanges everyone in the long run -- except for people who make money in their sleep.

[Winehole23]

How has spending grown relative to GDP?don't know, maybe you can provide information about that data point

[CosmicCowboy]

don't know, maybe you can provide information about that data point

Just saying there are two sides to that coin. Would love to stay and spar but gotta get ready to go see David Gilmour ar at the Hollywood Bowl tonight. Bye.

[Winehole23]

Just saying there are two sides to that coin. Would love to stay and spar but gotta get ready to go see David Gilmour ar at the Hollywood Bowl tonight. Bye.enjoy!

[ChumpDumper]

LOL, you don't usually back track that soon. Going from confiscating the top .1% wealth to ending the trump tax cuts is a big swing.I said let's start there and I never said "confiscate" anything.

LOL you're so defensive on behalf of the super rich. I'm sure they appreciate your effort.

[ChumpDumper]

Just saying there are two sides :lmao every fucking time

Your side is "we'd better do nothing!" which is why we are in this situation right now.

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdZUmQ-XoAAdKqx?format=jpg&name=900x900

[Winehole23]

https://archive.is/fn2kx/44302e250b88c456938f0b621cac4221440b52c0.avif




Many Americans are pinching pennies, exhausted by high prices and stubborn inflation (https://archive.is/o/fn2kx/https://www.wsj.com/economy/cpi-inflation-january-2025-interest-rate-34aa95db). The well-off are spending with abandon.
The top 10% of earners—households making about $250,000 a year or more—are splurging on everything from vacations to designer handbags, buoyed by big gains in stocks, real estate and other assets.


Those consumers now account for 49.7% of all spending, a record in data going back to 1989, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. Three decades ago, they accounted for about 36%.


All this means that economic growth is unusually reliant on rich Americans continuing to shell out. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, estimated that spending by the top 10% alone accounted for almost one-third of gross domestic product.


Between September 2023 and September 2024, the high earners increased their spending by 12%. Spending by working-class and middle-class households, meanwhile, dropped over the same period.


“The finances of the well-to-do have never been better, their spending never stronger and the economy never more dependent on that group,” said Zandi, who oversaw the analysis, which was based on data from the Federal Reserve. The analysis runs through the third quarter of 2024 because that is the most recent data available.


Taken together, well-off people have increased their spending far beyond inflation, while everyone else hasn’t. The bottom 80% of earners spent 25% more than they did four years earlier, barely outpacing price increases of 21% over that period. The top 10% spent 58% more.
https://archive.is/fn2kx#selection-2767.0-2787.278

[Winehole23]

pinning social mobility to the continual appreciation of one asset class has created barriers to entry

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:6m7rbdgaz5vyg4bnbefi7kh6/bafkreiguxqercyreerjl7uqbarhqbwz35kpj3geolw3xj52g5 kejttuwpi@jpeg

[Winehole23]

"Buy, borrow, die"


While most Americans live in a world where income is earned, taxed, and then spent, billionaires operate in an entirely different financial universe:




They build wealth through assets that appreciate without creating taxable income
They never sell these assets, avoiding the capital gains taxes that would trigger
They tap into their fortunes by borrowing against their holdings at rock-bottom rates
When they do have income, they slash it through sophisticated deductions
They create "charitable" structures that serve dual purposes of tax avoidance and control
They pass their empires to heirs completely tax-free through the stepped-up basis loophole



The result is a financial magic trick: enormous wealth growth with minimal tax obligations. It's a system so advantageous that it explains what might otherwise seem irrational—billionaires' willingness to support policies that create market volatility and potentially harm their investments.
https://data4democracy.substack.com/p/buy-borrow-die-how-billionaires-legally

[Winehole23]

meanwhile, everyone else struggles


Key Takeaways


National Purchasing Power Decline: Real wages declined 3.2% between December 2020 and December 2024 as prices (+21.2%) outpaced nominal wages (+17.3%).
Regional Differences: Baltimore (-14.0%), Dallas (-12.1%), and Boston (-11.2%) experienced the steepest declines in real wages.
Positive Outliers: Tampa, Florida (+3.5%) and Houston (+6.3%) were the only major metros where wage growth outpaced inflation.
Public Sentiment: 71% of Americans say it is harder to get by now than a decade ago, citing rising housing and grocery costs.


https://upgradedpoints.com/news/inflation-vs-wages/

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ldlzqtvra3aylogmq4jqnvhm/bafkreibt6r5hvv36vttqkb6hgxemjmrp2ljdge2bllttvos6g jegeblbyu@jpeg

[Thread]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ldlzqtvra3aylogmq4jqnvhm/bafkreibt6r5hvv36vttqkb6hgxemjmrp2ljdge2bllttvos6g jegeblbyu@jpeg

"last year" Bide...I mean Obama was President.

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cg7alibijrwuacoq6q5mdji4/bafkreiayd32g3gh3nntmw54qtstg4s4d3zw5xyuh5lr5ma4bq qi7rk63zi@jpeg

[Thread]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cg7alibijrwuacoq6q5mdji4/bafkreiayd32g3gh3nntmw54qtstg4s4d3zw5xyuh5lr5ma4bq qi7rk63zi@jpeg

Ruh, roh.

[Winehole23]

The average age of U.S. homebuyers is now 56, up from 49 last year.

In 1981, the year trickledown economics began, it was 31.

[SnakeBoy]

Average age was early 20's before FDR's New Deal

[ChumpDumper]

Average age was early 20's before FDR's New DealWhat year was that?

Or are you too emotionally fragile to post a number?

[Winehole23]

since 2020, this trend has accelerated


This is not some back-of-the-napkin approximation. According to a groundbreaking new working paper by Carter C. Price and Kathryn Edwards of the RAND Corporation (https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA516-1.html), had the more equitable income distributions of the three decades following World War II (1945 through 1974) merely held steady, the aggregate annual income of Americans earning below the 90th percentile would have been $2.5 trillion higher in the year 2018 alone. That is an amount equal to nearly 12 percent of GDP—enough to more than double median income—enough to pay every single working American in the bottom nine deciles an additional $1,144 a month. Every month. Every single year.

Price and Edwards calculate that the cumulative tab for our four-decade-long experiment in radical inequality had grown to over $47 trillion from 1975 through 2018. At a recent pace of about $2.5 trillion a year, that number we estimate crossed the $50 trillion mark by early 2020. That’s $50 trillion that would have gone into the paychecks of working Americans had inequality held constant—$50 trillion that would have built a far larger and more prosperous economy—$50 trillion that would have enabled the vast majority of Americans to enter this pandemic far more healthy, resilient, and financially secure.

As the RAND report [whose research was funded by the Fair Work Center (https://www.fairworkcenter.org/about-us/)which co-author David Rolf is a board member of] demonstrates, a rising tide most definitely did not lift all boats. It didn’t even lift most of them, as nearly all of the benefits of growth these past 45 years were captured by those at the very top.
https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/

[Winehole23]

The top decile of the top decile doesn't need more tax breaks but pols would like bigger donations and more enthusiasm from naive partisans who don't benefit whatsoever from tax cuts.

Aside, tax cuts aren't deficit neutral, conservatives prefer to overlook that now that the trickle down theory has been exposed as vaporware. The mere existence of a trickle down theory implies bad faith and insecurity about the direction of the equities.

https://x.com/GunnelsWarren/status/1731496079554670875?s=20

1731496079554670875


it didn't trickle down, it was never designed to

https://newrepublic.com/article/179867/ceo-pay-tax-dodging-corporations

[BadMotorscooter]

Whine Whore didnt ever talk about Obama adding more to the national debt than all the presidents before him COMBINED.......lmao.....and he wont talk about Cali and New York as the most moved out of states with those democrats flooding into red states like Texas because of taxes in those blue states.....lmao.

[ChumpDumper]

Whine Whore didnt ever talk about Obama adding more to the national debt than all the presidents before him COMBINED.......lmao.....and he wont talk about Cali and New York as the most moved out of states with those democrats flooding into red states like Texas because of taxes in those blue states.....lmao.

Prove it.

[Winehole23]

Whine Whore didnt ever talk about Obama adding more to the national debt than all the presidents before him COMBINED.......lmao.....and he wont talk about Cali and New York as the most moved out of states with those democrats flooding into red states like Texas because of taxes in those blue states.....lmao.you always want to change the subject

[BadMotorscooter]

you always want to change the subject

Because you never want to talk about democrat downfalls......but I will...and you dont like it....

[Winehole23]

Because you never want to talk about democrat downfalls......but I will...and you dont like it....You haven't been here for very long, Badmotorscooter.

I've had plenty to say about Biden and Obama that wasn't complimentary. I still say most of it.

You weren't here for it and you're still not here for it.

You're arguing with something in your own head.

[Winehole23]

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!U9WE!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff250023 7-482c-4541-a2ba-38b7397be4dc_550x434.png

[Winehole23]

is this good?


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:46e3r3fp37dl3alwheajaez7/bafkreighijns2rjatkd6u6l53p6knptkygikhiuvq5zdk3a22 ifwsbep7i@jpeg

[BadMotorscooter]

Whinehole with his bullshit scare tactics as usual....lmao. Its all the democrats have left....

[Winehole23]

I'm not scared of empirical measurement, are you?

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cmvp2dfgs7qrfjo5n27limmf/bafkreiggsjofbhvrgrp7jlbb3hfook7wgh6wpqkijso55uygl rt6s5sxqe@jpeg

[Winehole23]

THE MEDIAN AGE OF A U.S. HOME BUYER NOW SITS AT A RECORD HIGH OF 61 YEARS, PER NAR.

[Winehole23]

.

[Winehole23]

employers screwing workers for 50 years plus accumulated inflation are the affordability crisis


In the roughly 30 years following the end of World War II, the nation experienced an unprecedented period of broadly shared prosperity, with workers’ incomes rising in tandem with the nation’s growth in productivity. In 1947, workers captured 70 percent of the total national income; today, that has fallen to roughly 59 percent, while investment income has gained at workers’ expense. As a landmark 1995 study by economists Larry Mishel and Jared Bernstein for the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) revealed, a gap between the rise in productivity and the rise in median workers’ wages opened in the mid-1970s and has grown steadily wider since then; the difference between those two rates today is 55 percent (https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/). In the years between 1948 and 1979, when the egalitarian legacy of the New Deal was at its apogee, with high levels of unionization and progressive taxation and constraints on the financial sector, productivity grew by 108 percent and median worker’s compensation by 93 percent. In the years between 1979 and 2025, an EPI analysis (https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/) found productivity grew by 87 percent but median worker’s compensation by a bare 33 percent.


The declining share of national income going to workers hasn’t entirely been the result of the shift from wage income to investment income. There’s also been a shift in the distribution of corporate income to the most highly paid employees, through stock options and other forms of compensation. A 2021 EPI study shows that between 1979 and 2019, real yearly wages for the bottom 90 percent of workers increased by 26 percent, while the wages of those in the 95th to 99th percentile increased by 75 percent, for those in the top 1 percent by 160 percent, and for those in the top 0.1 percent by 345 percent. Worker pay ratios over the past decade have shown that CEOs usually make about 300 times what their median-paid employee makes, a far cry from the 1960s, when the ratio was roughly 20-to-1.
https://prospect.org/2025/12/03/79-trillion-heist-worker-pay/

[Winehole23]

What would America look like if the gap between worker pay and productivity hadn’t opened? A RAND Corporation study from earlier this year found that the bottom 90 percent of wage earners received about 67 percent of all taxable income in 1975. In 2019, the last year for which this data was available, they received 46.8 percent. Had that bottom 90 percent continued during the past half-century to make the same share of the national income they’d had in 1975, RAND calculates that by 2023 they would have made an additional $79 trillion. Just in the year 2023, they would have made an additional $3.9 trillion. As the size of the bottom 90 percent of the U.S. workforce is roughly 140 million people, that means that the average earner would have made about $28,000 more in 2023 than they actually did.

[Winehole23]

As corporate earnings soar and the U.S. GDP balloons, the American workforce isn’t feeling the same boom. American workers are taking home less of the country’s overall wealth, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show, and employment in the U.S. is set to continue to slow.


Labor share, or the portion of the U.S.’s economic output that workers receive through salary and wages, decreased to 53.8% in the third quarter of 2025, its lowest level since the BLS started recording this data in 1947, according to its labor productivity and costs report (https://www.bls.gov/productivity/home.htm) published last week. In the previous quarter, labor share was at 54.6%. This decade, the labor share average was 55.6%.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-workers-just-took-home-214018586.html

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7scphm4odj3hfpdmm2bv3xfi/bafkreicu3iz2w5xizehl4qogrg4bn4zxoptjwud4inyimjrzp z3gktfju4@jpeghttps://gzucman.substack.com/p/standing-up-to-trumps-imperial-blackmail?triedRedirect=true

[Winehole23]

34 people have 12% of US income

[Winehole23]

commie WSJ echoes other posts in this thread


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ldb6hx3aef2vhrctg2xdepjw/bafkreiffxebnjmvjk2rbveewoomqzjfi35pj6l53grb6wzifs 74o2jzuxy@jpeg


Data from the Federal Reserve shows that only the richest 1% of households have grown their share of overall U.S. wealth since 1990. Their share hit a record 32% in the third quarter of 2025, equivalent to $54.8 trillion.


Gains made by the billionaire class, the very top 0.1% of households and a subset of the 1%, have eclipsed the merely extremely rich. This group’s share of U.S. net wealth has risen nearly 6 percentage points to 14.4% since 1990.


The impacts of this are visible in booming sales at businesses that cater to the ultrarich (https://archive.is/o/KQOed/https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/why-jewelry-is-outperforming-the-rest-of-the-luxury-world-4010930b). Wealth concentration is so intense that it is even causing a divergence among luxury-goods companies: Brands such as Cartier or Hermès (https://archive.is/o/KQOed/https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/FR/XPAR/RMS) that cater to the superwealthy are soaring, while sales at labels that rely on affluent middle-class consumers are slack.


Meanwhile, the bottom half of American households have lost ground. Their 2.5% cut of the country’s wealth has slipped from 3.5% in 1990. Also striking: The share owned by the decile of wealthy households that rank just below the top 1% has shrunk slightly.








The tax code may be one reason why billionaire households have raced so far ahead of mere millionaires. One argument used to push back against calls for the rich to pay more into the system is that 1% of the highest earners pay 40% of income taxes, while 40% of Americans pay no income tax at all. This is true, but billionaires aren’t captured by this picture because most of their wealth lies outside the income-tax system.


Billionaires have ways to lower their tax bills that aren’t available to most Americans. A common strategy is to avoid salaries, which are heavily taxed. Ray Madoff, a law professor at Boston College and author of The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy, points to Mark Zuckerberg’s dollar-a-year wage at Meta. Warren Buffett took an annual salary of $100,000 for decades.


Billionaires prefer to be paid in shares, which are subject to capital-gains taxes when sold. But they don’t need to sell to fund their lifestyles. Billionaires use borrowed money for living expenses, pledging their shares or other assets as collateral. The interest on the debt is much lower than a capital-gains tax bill would be, and their stock portfolios can continue accumulating paper gains.



A third of America’s billionaires have inherited their wealth. The ultrarich can use structures such as dynasty trusts to shield their assets from estate taxes for generations, while the step-up provision adjusts the cost basis of an inherited asset to its fair market value.


Amassing assets like stocks, borrowing against them rather than selling during the owner’s lifetime, and passing them to the next generation after death is sometimes called the “buy borrow die” tax-avoidance strategy



Billionaires put less into the tax pot as a percentage of their wealth than wage earners. One working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the effective tax rate for the U.S.’s 400 wealthiest individuals is 24%—compared with 45% for top labor income earners.


“Very well-off Americans with high incomes have come to see themselves in the same camp as the very rich, even though their interests align much more with the middle class,” says Boston College’s Madoff.


Wealth concentration is increasingly clear in economic data. The top fifth of wealthiest households now account for nearly 60% of personal outlays, up from 50% in the early 1990s, data from Moody’s shows.
https://archive.is/20260218110607/https://www.wsj.com/finance/billionaires-low-taxes-are-becoming-a-problem-for-the-economy-27a560ca#selection-919.0-927.205

[Winehole23]

the major inflection point in this graph is the Great Financial Crisis of 2008-9


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2rrp7amblhg3xoly5n5huiqv/bafkreibjhszpquychl37l3bemvxjfnydtlhptl2bdyskbpjgt a4zvwvbu4

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FA-2yM5VEBEP7k6?format=png&name=small

[BadMotorscooter]

Make all people making money pay taxes...then we'll talk about the 1%ers.

[ChumpDumper]

Make all people making money pay taxes...then we'll talk about the 1%ers.
They're the ones making money and not paying taxes.

Talk about them.

You aren't one of them.

You are their stooge.