World's first trillionaire

@AverageJoe1 said
I’m with you. So it would follow that if he has all that money, and pays very little income tax, as does Warren Buffett, who I think pays 11 or 12%, is that OK with you?
We are getting somewhere!! I think it is ok, myself.

He should pay taxes on it.

@wildgrass said
He should pay taxes on it.

We agree, pay taxes on income. So what is the problem? Keep in mind that one percent of our population already pays 50% of the income taxes collected by the government.

@AverageJoe1 said
We agree, pay taxes on income. So what is the problem? Keep in mind that one percent of our population already pays 50% of the income taxes collected by the government.

Oh, no. This again? Stop using that dumb statistic and making that dumb argument. Of course people with the most income pay the most taxes, duh, stop it.

Take that Forbes top 100 billionaires list. Let's find one guy on that list who pays even close to the average percentage paid by the vast majority of Americans. I don't think you can find one.

Warren Buffett? Less than 1% of his income is even taxable. Most of those tech company founders only pay themselves $1 in salary. That's the amount of taxable income they have. None of them even crack into your "one percent of our population" nonsense. They hardly pay any taxes at all.

These rich guys aren't on your list of one percenters of tax payers. I think they should pay taxes.

Edit: They don't earn or deserve preferential treatment for tax purposes. They buy it, literally, through massive lobbying efforts and campaign contributions. They also ghost write editorials and fund economic studies that only serve to show how important they are and how taxing them more like the rest of us would be bad. They convinced you that they are so important to society that they get to pay lower tax rates than you do. They use the same roads, but pay lower tax rates. That's not cool, man. Not cool.

@wildgrass said
Oh, no. This again? Stop using that dumb statistic and making that dumb argument. Of course people with the most income pay the most taxes, duh, stop it.

Take that Forbes top 100 billionaires list. Let's find one guy on that list who pays even close to the average percentage paid by the vast majority of Americans. I don't think you can find one.

Warren Buffett? Less t ...[text shortened]... rates than you do. They use the same roads, but pay lower tax rates. That's not cool, man. Not cool.

You are right, no sense going over this old saw again. But I’m not sure about your statement they get preferential treatment, but what you really want is for them to be punished. Punished for the success. One of them may have five yachts. If you were president, you would make them get rid of a lot of their stuff. I do not believe in punishing someone’s success. You sure do worry a lot about money that other people have.

And get this. If we had all of those billionaires that you speak of pay 39% in income taxes , that would mean probably that the top 1% of the taxpayers this country would be paying maybe 60% of the taxes.
60%You fellas like the word fair. That does not seem very fair to me 1% of our citizens would shoulder half of the taxes in this country.
That is such an imbalanced number that even you cannot get your arms around it
But don’t worry, your new leadership, people who really don’t know anything, will fix all of that. The Alvarez woman wants to nationalize the airline industry. Are you mad?
Before I let you go, does socialism work, can it work in the United States? Asking for myself.

@AverageJoe1 said
You are right, no sense going over this old saw again. But I’m not sure about your statement they get preferential treatment, but what you really want is for them to be punished. Punished for the success. One of them may have five yachts. If you were president, you would make them get rid of a lot of their stuff. I do not believe in punishing someone’s success. You sure d ...[text shortened]...
Before I let you go, does socialism work, can it work in the United States? Asking for myself.

But I’m not sure about your statement they get preferential treatment, but what you really want is for them to be punished

Punishment? No no no no no. Of course it's preferential treatment. Warren Buffet pays less than 1% effective tax rate while the rest of us suckers and losers pay 14.5% on average.

The people who pay the most taxes are the people with the highest salaries. The earners. Those are not the same people as the Buffet's and Musk's and Zuckerburg's and Soros' of the world, the Forbes billionaires. These guys don't pay taxes.

You're right, if these jabronies paid taxes they'd only be sliiightly poorer than they are is now. But they don't pay very much in taxes at all. It's clearly, obviously, preferential treatment. The billionaire class bribes politicians with a lot in campaign contributions and lobbyists to keep it that way, to fleece the average American taxpayer so they can keep their wealth.