We, the unemployed, the homeless, the evicted, and the wage earners can all sleep soundly at night knowing the political elite are very clear on their priorities

The 25 richest Amerikkkans, collectively worth over $1 trillion by the end of 2018, paid an effective tax rate of 3.4 percent over a 15 year period. Warren Buffett paid 0.1 percent. Jeff Bezos paid less than one percent.[1]

Many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, amassing little wealth and paying the federal government a percentage of their income that rises if they earn more. In recent years, the median American household earned about $70,000 annually and paid 14% in federal taxes. The highest income tax rate, 37%, kicked in this year, for couples, on earnings above $628,300.

The confidential tax records obtained by ProPublica show that the ultrarich effectively sidestep this system.

America’s billionaires avail themselves of tax-avoidance strategies beyond the reach of ordinary people. Their wealth derives from the skyrocketing value of their assets, like stock and property. Those gains are not defined by U.S. laws as taxable income unless and until the billionaires sell.[2]

In 2018, those 25 richest Amerikkkans paid $1.9 billion in personal income taxes while wage earners paid $143 billion[3] and the rich in general have gotten drastically richer, especially during the pandemic.[4] They have the audacity to complain about a “labor shortage” when what they’re really complaining about is their recent relative inability to keep wages as close to zero as possible,[5] which, it turns out, very neatly explains why I haven’t been able to find a real job in twenty extremely long, extremely infuriating years.[6]

Wages generally have not kept up with productivity;[7] minimum wage would be $24 per hour if it had kept up with productivity[8] and it does not cover rent anywhere in the country.[9]

Bankers got bailed out in the financial crisis while homeowners and the unemployed were left to twist on the vine,[10] Congress refused to pass an increase in the minimum wage even to $15,[11] and now “the FBI and tax authorities are investigating” not the failure of the rich to pay anything like their fair share but rather the leak that exposed their tax information.[12]

But we, the unemployed, the homeless, the evicted, the wage earners can all sleep soundly at night knowing the political elite are very clear on their priorities.[13]

  1. [1]Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen, and Paul Kiel, “The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax,” ProPublica, June 8, 2021, https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax
  2. [2]Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen, and Paul Kiel, “The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax,” ProPublica, June 8, 2021, https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax
  3. [3]Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen, and Paul Kiel, “The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax,” ProPublica, June 8, 2021, https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax
  4. [4]Nick Hanauer and David M. Rolf, “The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%—And That’s Made the U.S. Less Secure,” Time, September 14, 2020, https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/; Charles Lane, “The rich got richer during the pandemic. We need to claw back their gains,” Washington Post, January 25, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-rich-got-richer-during-the-pandemic-we-need-to-claw-back-their-gains/2021/01/25/d17c8a44-5f32-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html; Lawrence Mishel and Julia Wolfe, “CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978,” Economic Policy Institute, August 14, 2019, https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-2018/
  5. [5]Eric Levitz, “5 Explanations for April’s Bad Jobs Report,” New York, May 7, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/jobs-report-explained-ui-childcare-seasonal-adjustment.html; Eric Levitz, “Letting the Economy Create Jobs for Everyone Is (Sadly) Radical,” New York, June 4, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/06/biden-full-employment-policy-labor-shortage-inflation.html; Heather Long, “It’s not a ‘labor shortage.’ It’s a great reassessment of work in America,” Washington Post, May 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/05/07/jobs-report-labor-shortage-analysis/; Jon Schwarz, “The Business Class Has Been Fearmongering About Worker Shortages for Centuries,” Intercept, May 7, 2021, https://theintercept.com/2021/05/07/worker-shortage-slavery-capitalism/
  6. [6]David Benfell, “About that alleged ‘labor shortage,’” Not Housebroken, June 4, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/05/09/about-that-alleged-labor-shortage/
  7. [7]Economic Policy Institute, “The Productivity–Pay Gap,” July 2019, https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/
  8. [8]Dean Baker, “This is What Minimum Wage Would Be If It Kept Pace with Productivity,” Center for Economic Policy and Research, January 21, 2020, https://cepr.net/this-is-what-minimum-wage-would-be-if-it-kept-pace-with-productivity/
  9. [9]Kate Gibson, “Minimum wage doesn’t cover the rent anywhere in the U.S.,” CBS News, June 14, 2018, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minimum-wage-doesnt-cover-the-rent-anywhere-in-the-u-s/
  10. [10]Binyamin Appelbaum, “Evaporating Unemployment,” New York Times, February 4, 2014, http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/evaporating-unemployment/; Neil Barofsky, Bailout (New York: Free Press, 2012); Thomas Frank, Pity the Billionaire (New York: Metropolitan, 2012); Yves Smith, “Over 1 in 6 Men in Prime Working Years Don’t Have a Job,” Naked Capitalism, February 6, 2014, http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/02/1-6-men-prime-working-years-dont-job.html
  11. [11]Burgess Everett, “8 Democrats defect on $15 minimum wage hike,” Politico, March 5, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/05/democrats-15-minimum-wage-hike-473875
  12. [12]British Broadcasting Corporation, “US super-rich ‘pay almost no income tax,’” June 9, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57383869
  13. [13]Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Winner-Take-All Politics (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010).

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