Why Taxing the Rich Won’t Solve the US Debt Crisis

[hermanmunster]

The illegal drug trade is the most lucrative business in America yet it pays "zero" taxes. The IRS is gearing up with hiring 80, 000 new agents. I doubt that these and all of the existing agents will be going after the rich and businesses that are already paying taxes in accordance with the Federal, State, and Local taxes. Have you ever wondered why the Federal Tax Code which is over 6, 000 pages? It's because it is written by politicians who want to shelter their fortunes and investments. It is not possible to tax the nation out of debt. Reducing the size of government, cutting spending, and balancing the budget is the practical way to reduce the debt....however, that does not buy votes, does it?

[malikmalak]

Taxing the rich is how the US paid for all interstate highways. Taxing the rich is a must. The problem is that the higher up government employees are also rich. So it's not to their advantage to increase the tax rate. In addition to that they spend the money now subsidizing the rich. Rich people collect more government welfare than any one else in America.

[SkinnyDevilMusicLab]

This would be better if he explained the mechanism by which revenues decrease.

[logangalimi]

In their book, Good Economics for Hard Times, 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics winners Banerjee and Duflo explain that the reason for this phenomenon is because the rich suddenly report they have less money--i.e. the rich try and get around the tax rate increase. BUT, after more than a year later, things tend to go back to normal and the government does indeed get more revenue.

[makisxatzimixas]

Even though I agree, it is still hard to believe this is true. It would be nice to see where he got the data.

[fleebertreatise]

Taxing is pretty fundamental, and there’s a lot of data on how the tax cuts over the past years have grown the national debt. If you just tax the rich that’s not going to be the long term solution, but it’s part of it

[darthhodges]

The complexity of the tax code is entirely because every member of Congress is in the top one percent and, therefore, a rich person. Base congressional salary is above the 1 percent line but very few members of Congress depend entirely on that salary for income. They have side businesses managed by others, they write books, they charge for public appearances, they register as lobbyists or consultants and get paid by special interest groups for those services, they use campaigns funds for personal purchases and expenses, the list goes on. They will never willingly increase their own tax rate, so they pretend to while writing in exemptions and deductions for themselves. But since they can't get away with putting their own names in the text of the tax code they write generic exemptions and deductions that other rich people with professional accountants exploit as well. That's why taxing the rich doesn't work, we don't actually do it and we never will.

[therighthandmann]

Sorta reminds me of Tom Sellek explaining why Reverse Mortgages are a good deal for old people (during times of huge inflation in the housing market)....LOL

[bro]

Wrong! It may not completely help but it sure is a good start.

[luisabrunhosa]

Yes
Cos they know how to play the game

[Jackson-lr]

What’s fascinating about Bitcoin, is if you received 10 Bitcoin 7 years ago, it is still .000048% of its total max supply today. Must be how genuine money retains its value ?🤔

Fascinating how everything looks from a Bitcoin system perspective.

[khandallah]

who knows how to spend your money better than you?

[rachelsarmientotack]

This shows corelated trends, but explains nothing... why would recorded capital gains decrease when collected revenue increases?

[metalheadhippie]

In order to avoid neo-fudualism the rich must be taxed. It's a mathematical necessity. Otherwise the banks, and land owners will end up owning everything as they are set to do. If anyone has another way to stop neo-fudualism then I would genuinely like to know.

[roblovely]

I love how everyone is bashing this video..

[homewall]

The rich tend to get most of the collected taxes and the debt created.

[Martial-Mat]

The actual data from one city. Possibly.

[thatsmean]

Except taxes have only gone down on the ultra rich as time has gone on.