From the technological Olympus of Silicon Valley to the urban canyons of Wall Street, a narrow club of vastly wealthy plutocrats sits on a ballooning share of the nation’s resources. One percent of Americans at the apex of the economy are hoarding over 31% of the nation’s total wealth, a cool $55tn in net worth.
Getting them to share with the rest of society, to fund redistribution or pay for public goods, is proving pretty much impossible. Their ability to move resources around, hide profit across jurisdictions, and minimize income to hoard wealth until they die appears to put them beyond the reach of taxation.
One recent research paper found that the country’s richest 384 oligarchs paid only 24% of their economic income in 2025, compared with 30% for the average taxpayer. And not all of them are getting top notch tax advice. Reporting by ProPublica revealed that some of the richest Americans – like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Michael Bloomberg – live largely tax free.
Well it’s not going to happen. Here in California, we are about to reject a billionaire tax, and vote for what will essentially mean privatization and the end of many social services.
Here in Massachusetts our “millionaire tax” has been well received and widely supported. Probably helps that the extra income is partly targeted toward stuff that directly helps people: school lunches, free tuition, transit…… but here on Lemmy I see people bitching about our governor “taxing everyone for everything”
Wolf, I always thought California had a level head