You don’t think 10+ billion a year is a good amount to deduct from the rest of the countries taxes?
Comment on But how would they be able to live on that?
John_McMurray@lemmy.world 6 months ago
You’re not wrong (in that they’d survive), it’s that it does nothing. I’d be surprised if every penny Musk has can run the American government for a day.
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
John_McMurray@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I think people dont understand the scale. 10 billion is nothing. Nobody would notice the slightest reduction in their taxes.
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
10 billion for these three individuals. If you taxed all billionaires are a higher tax rate, you’d be talking about hundreds of billions.
And yeah, while most wouldn’t notice a 30 dollar difference in taxes, it’d likely still be nice.
EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 6 months ago
Maybe not the whole government, but all of those fuckers mentioned above individually could end homelessness, and could make sure everyone has enough to eat and make sure everyone has the healthcare they need. And they could fix Flint Michigan’s water, and fix all those water supplies around the country that can set their tap water on fire.
John_McMurray@lemmy.world 6 months ago
No. They can’t. Throw as much money as you want at homelessness, it doesn’t end without locking people in an asylum.
EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 6 months ago
You should be mad the literal government with exponentially more money isn’t doing its job instead of worrying someone isn’t doing it for them.
Actually I’m mad about that too. And I wasn’t talking about giving money directly to homeless people, I was talking about building small, bare-bones apartment complexes with just the basic stuff inside them for homeless people to live in for free. Because that would be cheaper than doing what we do now.
dream_weasel@iusearchlinux.fyi 6 months ago
Well, if you take the current US “budget” as $4T per year, it’s a bit over $10B per day. So yeah it runs for more than a day.
Of course, this should be treated the same way as if you were to lose your job: you probably cut your expenses so as not to spend all your money in the first 2 weeks. Maybe the US would finally stop paying for tanks the army doesn’t want?
force@lemmy.world 6 months ago
More like stop paying for the maintanence of shitty half a century old equipment that the military doesn’t use anymore that was outdated as soon as it was introduced (cough cough A-10 cough)
dream_weasel@iusearchlinux.fyi 6 months ago
True fact. That said, where I live A10s fly out of Grissom AFB still all the time.
John_McMurray@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I said every.penny he has, not every dollar if he sold every asset today.
dream_weasel@iusearchlinux.fyi 6 months ago
Sorry I guess then I don’t understand the distinction you’re making? It’s not as though stocks are not liquid (or that margin loans are not) or that stocks are all funny money. I suppose if the tax rate was so exorbitant that selling stock would tank the share prices these ultra wealthy folks are holding them I see your point. I don’t think these numbers are that high though.
I agree if you’re saying that the cash-out net worth of these people is lower than their market valuations, but I doubt that it’s so much lower that they are no longer ultra rich. Besides, stocks are still assets to borrow against which is how the game is played at that level, so while the number is “fake” it’s also kinda not.
John_McMurray@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Jesus bud. That was not a complicated statement. Your type never knows what to do with those.