• Schal330@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I was having a chat with a friend recently about the cost of living in the UK. I mentioned one issue is the wealth inequality and billionaires are the problem.

    “If we do a wealth tax they’ll leave!”

    Sent this link https://equalitytrust.org.uk/evidence-base/billionaire-britain-2025/ to explain how a large proportion of billionaires just extract wealth.

    Not entirely sure they were convinced. They have the mentality that billionaires create jobs for everyone and are super hard workers that worked their way up.

    I don’t want to just sit back and call people who look up to billionaires idiots. I want to be able to have strong compelling points to make them change their mind.

      • godsammitdam@lemmy.zip
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        22 hours ago

        Dude…just google it, it’s a myth. The people that want you to believe it are the ones thaf benefit from you believing it.

        Heck, look at the interview Bezos just did. Notice how there wasn’t even the possibility in his worldview of him being taxed more. Meanwhile, he lies about how much he pays and parrots the cherrypicked statistic of 40% of income taxes are paid by the top 1% of income earners. Guess what Bezos is? Not one of those. He takes an income of 80K, a little above average in terms if income earners. His wealth isn’t taxed while he does fuck all and his employees toil away and he generates wealth off of their labor.

        Shit, in America alone the top marginal rate was over 90%. They’re still here.

        This also misses the point that the level of wealth consolidation is a failure of the system to provide for its people. They shouldn’t exist in the first place.

        And they should be happy that most people are saying to tax them more. But these dipshits equate that to terrorism and racial slurs, so yeah, let’s see just how deluded they are and just how much pain the people can put up with.

          • godsammitdam@lemmy.zip
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            13 hours ago

            😮‍💨

            A literal book of research published from Stanford

            https://www.sup.org/books/sociology/myth-millionaire-tax-flight

            https://taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/what-republicans-and-democrats-can-learn-myth-millionaire-tax-flight

            While everyone seems aware of a handful of high-profile millionaires decamping to low-tax states for tax reasons, in truth few move in response to state tax rates. Young examined tax data from every millionaire in the United States over thirteen years. He found that, even over that long time horizon, only 0.3% of all millionaires, on net, moved to a lower tax state. A larger share—about 2.5 percent-- move from one state to another each year, but most do not migrate for tax reasons.

            Millionaires are not very mobile, and when they do move across state lines, taxes play a small role in the decision. Tax-induced migration among millionaires is not zero, but it is fairly close to zero.

            https://ips-dc.org/release-wealth-expands-after-higher-state-taxes-on-high-income-earners/

            Two years into Massachusetts’ millionaires’ tax and a higher tax rate on $250,000 in capital gains in Washington state shows that the millionaire class grew by 38.6 percent in Massachusetts and 46.9 percent in Washington, respectively. Their wealth grew by more than $580 billion in current dollars in Massachusetts and $748 billion in Washington state between 2022 and 2024.

            Wealth flight fears are misguided. The number of wealthy individuals and their cumulative wealth grew after the enactment of higher taxes on high earners in Massachusetts and a progressive capital gains tax on high-wealth Washingtonians.

            And when it comes to the followup argument of “bUt It DoNt BrInG ReVenUE” it was largely not due to flight but instead from exemptions and tax breaks and poor policing of taxes on said wealthy individuals and being generally too broad and policy in place making those who were highly mobile to move.

            https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/news/publication-study-wealth-taxation-including-net-wealth-capital-and-exit-taxes-2026-04-15_en

            And some lessons from Norway who have had wealth taxes since 1892, and by which they implememted a 37.8% wealth tax if you do choose to leave. If you really want the parasites to stay, make it worth their while, they only know how to speak money after all. After bleeding our system dry and profiting off of our labor and tax dollars through subsidies and utilizing our public services to pay workers less, it’s the least they can do for us allowing them to exist in the first place.

            https://www.aol.com/articles/analysis-norways-wealth-tax-trades-050140872.html

            • MyVeryRealName@lemmy.world
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              4 hours ago

              I’m not saying that people would leave to boring states just for tax benefits. I’m saying that people would leave to different countries.

              I don’t understand how Norway implements it’s wealth tax.

              • godsammitdam@lemmy.zip
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                1 hour ago

                If you’re not willing to read and understand then your opinion is worthless, we have no reason to listen to someone so malignantly uninformed. You ask for sources, implying there are none, then when shown you backtrack and ask questions that the sources themselves answer.

                Continue aiding Trump and the billionaires, I’m sure if you work hard enough you’ll be one one day.

      • Ddub@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        And then what? If they want to take their wealth with them they’d need to sell up, so the job creation would remain, the assets would remain, possibly the currency would be slightly weaker, and so importa would be slightly more expensive, which would encourage the local economy… What is the awful outcomes you’re imagining from the ultra rich leaving?

      • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        Did you not read the comment you’re responding to? Them leaving would be a good thing dumbass

          • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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            1 day ago

            Try reading the article linked in the comment you were responding to you fucking moron

              • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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                1 day ago

                It explains in great mathematical detail how they cost more than they’re worth, fucking duh, learn to read

                  • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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                    1 day ago

                    I absolutely can blame them, those billionaires have gone well out of their way to buy up every single major media platform and my goddamned government so they can dismantle what’s left of the the US education system and spread their propaganda unopposed. Anyone who doesn’t blame them for that is either an incurable fucking moron or morally compromised.