Welcome to Progressive Politics! A place for news updates and political discussion from a left perspective. Conservatives and centrists are welcome just try and keep it civil :)
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He's not going to do it once he gets into office, these posts are just made to keep people trusting in two party system where both parties are against socialism and for bombing a new middle east country
It's not going to happen and by the time americans realize it they'll be distracted by invasion of bolivia and accepting that you can't punish people for lying by ousting them like said bolivia
Eh, it's a compromise, but I can live with it.
What's with the obsession for each side to promise a big check for everyone? Surely the money is better spent on public services rather than bribery...
I think 99% of people agree with this - that Bernie Sanders wants to do it. Do they support it, though?
No. I never agree with anyone using engagement bait titles.
And yet you engaged
Yes.
Only 5%? Mine is approaching 30% and I can't afford shit.
Also sending out checks is fucking stupid. Just lower our taxes.
It's 5% of wealth, not income. But still, anything short of 100% will not stop the parasites. But its a nice gesture, if nothing else
It's so crazy to me that people eat stuff like this up. Pages like this make BANK slapping some text on a bunch of image while adding absolutely nothing to the conversation.
Everything they make exists not to make a difference but to drive page views to their stupid accounts. It's so, so transparent.
And in this house, we hate all ads
I'll pass on the check and stick with student loan forgiveness, Medicare for all, well funded public schools, housing for the homeless, etc...
No, it should be 10% at least.
We could tax a billionaire 95% of their wealth, and they would still have more money than you or I could reasonably spend in a lifetime.
Oh yeah, I'm a big proponent of no more billionaires. But it appears to a lot of average people smaller amounts are more palpable because they think they'll ever be that rich.
I have the same amount of power to make this happen as Bernie Sanders has.
I hate using this term because I don't think he's stupid but the phrase is "useful idiot"
If you think of the machine that is politics he serves a purpose. Allowing him to vocalize this message essentially is a pressure release valve. His existence and beliefs although not wrong are keeping more aggressive views at bay. He's basically keeping a segment of the population docile by making them think "he speaks for me. I don't have to do anything"
Hate to say it but AOC as well. They're part of the machinery. They are not disruptors at all.
They keep the left in the Democratic Party so that a viable alternative doesn't form.
You seem to be advocating that no one American even talks about taxing the wealthy so that there isn't a "pressure relief valve"?!
In the world of shit that is American politics right now, your solution, out of all the things that possibly change, is to silence anyone suggesting that just maybe there's a better way?
THIS?! This is what you would change? Remove even the discussion of anything even slightly left of the Clintons?!
Are you insane? Are you Nancy Pelosi? Are you JD Vance?
Do you hate the Democratic party so much that you want to remove all traces of progressive politics from it?
I've got news for you. The water is boiling and the lobster isn't climbing out. Putting the lid on and turning up the heat isn't going to work. Throwing younger lobsters in the pot isn't going to work. And silencing the only people talking about turning the heat down isn't going to fucking help.
Polish government decided to send check to all parents as a way to promote having kids.
You know what happened? All the products needed by young kids suddenly rose in price. Sending checks to americans will do the same - all necessities will just become expensive exactly by amount of money they got.
Want to change the world? Tax the debt machine (5 or 10% of every transaction involving stocks and obligations, including using them as a loan security) and treat companies like people (as in - tax them on income, not on profit).
It's supply and demand, if your raise the demand of course the products cost more. What did they expect?
I don't know.. why is medical care so expensive in the first place? Why are teachers wages so low? Why is there such a huge wealth disparity?
Seems like these are systematic problems which need to be solved with a full system restructuring rather than throwing money at it. Not to dunk on Bernie, but If I were American, I'd be hoping for more concrete solutions.
5% tax sounds nice (imo, its no where near nice enough lol) but what are we taxing here exactly? Billionaires don't actually have any money. There's a systematic problem to solve right there.. how can people be filthy rich, yet have no actual money to tax?
Like this, a very 'American idea' to me is 'student loan forgiveness'. You borrow money from a bank (for profit institution), you pay it to get educated at a university (for profit institution) and get the loan forgiven by the government (tax payers). Systematic problem. Just make universities public and they get funded by the tax payers directly.
Feels like a band aid on a dismembered limb imo..
I get your misgivings but... Changing it for the better has gotta start somewhere.
Even this idea is way too "progressive" to have any chance of coming to pass
Feels like a band aid on a dismembered limb imo..
Would you rather bleed to death?
5%?! How about 50%, for starters.
So your wealth is halved every year?
Somebody's Facebook sphincter-scrapings aren't a very good source. Here's an article on the subject: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5764783-bernie-sanders-ro-khanna-tax-billionaires/
America is deeply, heavily in debt
Normally when this happens the rich are forced to take a haircut
25% of the global assets of anyone worth over 250 million
If they do much as complain seize their entire global assets and imprison them and their families
That's America's money take it back
I am pretty sure that there are no democracies left.
Of course but I go further and want to outlaw anyone to "earn" a billion dollars. Think wealth should be capped at 100 million everything after that seize and used for the greater good.
And if a corporation gains a value cap of billion it is broken the fuck up into smaller companies.
The fact they had to ask says a lot.
No. I don't agree. I don't want a wealth tax. I want a wealth CAP. 1000x the median household income should be the maximum allowable fortune. That would be something like $80 million today.
I like that number because 1000x the median income is a good approximation for the largest honest fortune a person can earn by their own work. Imagine you had a married couple:
Even in such an extreme scenario, two people in a couple working highly paid jobs and saving and investing nearly everything they could. Even then, they would struggle to die with a fortune 1000x the median income. The only way you can earn more money than this is if you inherit it or if you arbitrage the labor of others. You need to start a business, be an executive, or have other means of scalping the surplus off of other people's labor.
1000x the median income is the largest honest fortune. It's the largest fortune you can earn through an ordinary salary and prudent individual investing. And it's well below the level where you have so much money you're becoming a threat to society. No one should have an individual fortune so large that they can sway nations through their own wealth. That is just too much power for one individual to have. We don't let people own nuclear bombs. We shouldn't let people be billionaires.
I don't want to tax billionaires. I want to eliminate them entirely. I would make all fortunes over 1000x the median income taxed at 100%. And if you secretly amass a larger fortune? There would be escalating criminal penalties. To the point where having a fortune 10x the legal limit would get you in as much legal trouble as if you tried to acquire your own nuclear bomb.
Sounds affordable.
