this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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UK billionaires have total a net worth of about ยฃ170 billion. Would it be nice to have some of that? Sure, but it's less than two years of pension spending (ยฃ120 billion, and going up by the minuite).
We can tax the millionaires too, but eventually you get to the upper-middle class who are already paying a 45% marginal tax rate.
A dose or two of socialism might get us from 71 to 69 (nice), but honestly I think we're all going to have to suffer from the economic mistakes made over the last 14+ years.
Upper middle class is a made-up term to make those in the working class who earn the most think they're not in the same boat as "the poors". If everything comes crumbling down, they'll be waiting in the food lines like the rest of us. Millionaires and billionaires will not have the same problems.
We've seen from things like the Panama Papers that the rich are far richer than they'd have you believe. I'm sure they'll be just fine being taxed a bit more.
Also, ยฃ120 billion of pension money is likely to wind up straight back in the pockets of the same billionaires anyway as they own the major companies that pensioners are going to be buying everything from anyway.
Spreading doom and gloom that we'll just all have to suck it up and suffer the consequences of past decisions is a shite position. Don't repeat past mistakes of letting the rich off with it, eat the rich, enjoy retirement at a reasonable age, spread socialism.
Ok, then what do you call a professional wage-labourer ("working class", in the marxist definition) who is nonetheless a millionaire? A high-paid professional on 100k can quite easily become a millionaire in their lifetime. If they are mere workers, same as the rest of us, that just strengthens my argument because a socialist regime would have to tax them less.
On the Panama Papres: double it, triple it. Doesn't stop eating the rich from not being a panacea, that's all I'm saying. At the risk of "englightend centrism" there's a middle-ground between rothbardian economics and utopian thinking.
That is... not how money works. In order to tax the Billionaire wealth (which primarily is the companies they own) you are either forcing them to sell (by taxing them x% of wealth, leaving them without liquid assets to pay the tax) or seizing assets and re-selling. You can't tax the rich and expect them to stay rich forever by virtue of taxing them.
They just need to redo the tax brackets to account for people earning much more at the top. Currently tops out at 125k but there are people earning millions.