Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, The Lever’s weekly feature exclusively for our supporting subscribers that quickly gets you up to speed on a pressing news matter. Each week, we will show you exactly what you need to know — including vital information corporate media is trying to cheat you out of learning.
Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Nothing is certain except death and taxes.” The founding father would have been wise to add a caveat: For the ultrawealthy, taxes are far from a certainty. And with the masses having recently endured the rigmarole of filing their taxes by Monday’s deadline — which included contending with bureaucratic backlogs that could delay refunds — there have been renewed calls to “tax the rich.” This week, we’re tackling the unfairness of our tax system: who is and isn’t paying up, how legal loopholes are leading to tax giveaways, and why more isn’t being done to hold accountable those who can and should be paying the most.
Read all about it in today’s Cheat Sheet below, exclusively for supporting subscribers.
When talking about a wealth tax it is ALWAYS important to point out that the U S has a wealth tax that is applied to the majority of the wealth of homeowners and landlords. It is called a property tax.
No kidding. As for the wealthy’s tax avoidance strategy, it’s simply more of the same, but so out of control the “unwealthy” are going to be left with private equity’s stranglehold on everything, benefits which will become illusory. (Healthcare, social security are on the chopping block.) The tax evasion of the rich is under our national acceptance of “it may be immoral but it’s not illegal”. I saw the most patently ridiculous piece of tripe re why the disabled are falling from the SDI roles. Pure propaganda. Ah! (Fewer “disabled”!) It’s quite simple: it’s almost impossible to get approved. Another safety net bites the dust.
Propterty taxes should be on a sliding scale to increase the tax rate based upon the number of houses an individual or corporation owns. This is because speculation in the field of home ownership is one of the leading causes of houses becoming unaffordable for workers if not the leading cause. Speculators engaging in competition in competitive urban markets bid up the cost of home ownership and ultimately leads to a crash in real estate values, so there needs to be a disincentive to counter-balance this negative impact on our economy. It also has a negative impact on morale, leading to high rates of depression and drug use among the lower classes.
In the early Roman Republic, after the king was overthrown, there was originally limitations on the amount of land ownership per person and after a conquest the land conquered was re-distributed to the younger soldiers who did not own land, rather than allowing the wealthy to buy the land.
Of course, this early egalitarian policy was eventually removed during the Punic Wars, but the initial success of the tiny Roman Republic had something to do with its empahsis on egalitarianism and the morale this created among the younger males who were required to serve in the front line in military formations. There was also a draft, which is of course another egalitarian concept.
I am not recommending military conquest, but egalitarianism is good for morale and efficincy in any culture.
Interesting. Thanks. But a tiny tweak suggested: there are no 'kings" in a republic - even though the Roman one had "emperors" eventually.