Should Billionaires Even Exist?

[OnePercenter]

and why do you think that happened? any idea?

it started when people assumed that their insurance should pay for all medical expenses. So the medical providers could raise prices since the insurers would just pay up and raise premiums on the people.

same reason that college tuition went up when the government started guaranteeing student loans of any amount.

Its not complicated if you actually think about it for a few seconds.

Actually, the government underpays doctors and hospitals for their patients. Some are actually refusing new Medicare and Medicaid patients. The increases by the providers are because of government. If the government only pays 2/3 of the bill for a doctors visit, no big deal, but on a 500K surgery? That's a problem. They have to recoup that money somehow.

That's why when a provider closes down, it's usually in lower income areas where there are few private and insurance paying customers. It's mostly government covered customers.

Since insurance companies own or derive profit from 95% of providers and hospitals in the US, isn't it the insurance companies themselves refusing to accept government assignment?

I don't understand the question. If you are on Medicare or Medicaid, those are government programs and have nothing to do with insurance companies, although, when I was working in medical, the government did hire Prudential to do some of their billing for them.

Medicare pays insurance companies, but according to insurance companies they don't pay enough, so insurance companies have products that you can buy. Pretty sweet for the insurance companies.

Anything is better than Gov't control.

Before deregulation of the HMO Act I paid $2,400.00 per year, per employee. Today I pay $15,000.00 per year, per employee. I'll take the regulation.

 

[OnePercenter]

You know what’s not cool anymore? Billionaires.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren believe some Americans have too much money, and they’re not alone.

Their very existence is now the subject of political debate, sparked most recently by tax-the-rich proposals from two prominent politicians.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposed placing a 2 percent tax on wealth over $50 million and 3 percent on assets over $1 billion. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she wants to increase the marginal tax rate on those earning more than $10 million a year.

Their ideas went viral, starting a mainstream conversation about inequality and wealth.

This kind of talk has always existed among a certain group of hard-core progressives and left-leaning economists, but heading into next year’s presidential election, the idea that the super-rich should pay their fair share is gaining real momentum.

Marshall Steinbaum, a research director at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, has advocated taxing the rich at higher rates for years. “We do not need billionaires,” Steinbaum told HuffPost. “The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past.”

For Steinbaum, higher taxes on the wealthy would mean freeing up more money for everyone else. If you think of the economy as a pie, right now, billionaires are getting just about all of it, while we’re all left splitting just one slice.

If you raise taxes on the richest, their incentive to grab at every morsel declines. The theory is they’ll fight a little less hard to depress everyone else’s wages if they know that every extra million is going to get taxed away. A high-paid CEO has less incentive to keep workers’ wages low so he can get a bigger payday.

Billionaires were once a rare breed. In the past few decades, as the U.S. has slashed tax rates, their numbers have exploded, far outpacing inflation.

Since 2008, the number of billionaires in the world has doubled, according to a report published last week by the anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam. In just the last year, billionaires raked in an astonishing $2.5 billion each day.

In 1982, the first year Forbes debuted its list of the 400 richest Americans, there were about a dozen billionaires. The richest man in the U.S. back then was an 85-year-old shipping magnate with an estimated worth of $2 billion, or $5.2 billion in today’s dollars.

"We do not need billionaires. The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past."
--Marshall Steinbaum, Roosevelt Institute​

Nowadays, Forbes’ list is entirely billionaires. The richest is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, worth $160 billion.

More: Should Billionaires Even Exist?

I agree! Billionaires aren't cool anymore! The playing field is tilted like the Titanic before it went down. There is no logical reason for so few to have so much. What do you think?

HMMMM....1% pay 35% of all income taxes..................What do you think the total tax rate should be?

 

[OnePercenter]

It has been increasing for a very long time, sorry to burst your bubble.

See for Yourself If Obamacare Increased Health Care Costs
In 2017, U.S. health care costs were $3.5 trillion. That makes health care one of the country's largest industries. It equals 17.9% of gross domestic product. In comparison, health care cost $27.2 billion in 1960, just 5% of GDP. That translates to an annual health care cost of $10,739 per person in 2017 versus just $146 per person in 1960. Health care costs have risen faster than the average annual income.1 Health care consumed 4% of income in 1960 compared to 6% in 2013.

We're living a lot longer. And I don't mean like 2-3 years since 1960. More like 15 years. And the boomer generation which is huge is aging and it is a huge generation of people. So yeah, more health care is needed. That doesn't mean these are the only reasons for it going up and being a greater portion of the GDP but it's a very large chunk of it.

It's the most expensive healthcare system in the world, and we don't live the longest....

Longevity is not a direct result of our healthcare system. We have drugs killing over 90,000 Americans a year now, and that's not including the thousands of murders that take place over drug sales in the streets. We drive more than most other people around the world, and we lose a lot of people in traffic accidents; 27,000 last year alone. Professional women have children much later in life than women in other countries. The later a woman gets pregnant, the more likely she is to lose the child after birth.

Not gonna dispute it's the most expensive eh? Pretty sure other countries have drugs and cars and all manner of ways to die too.

we are not the most expensive and we are the best. Would you rather pay 55% of your income to the government and have to wait months for routine care? Thats what they have in countries with socialized medicine, ask any Brit, Swede, or Canadian how the government run medicine works for them. It sucks.

We have the most expensive healthcare, and the 11th best.

Which countries have the best healthcare systems? | APRIL International

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

It is not HAVING the money. It is the EARNING that is fun. If one is the type able to do it in the first place.

Yes, people who end up being millionaires and billionaires have a different mindset that's for sure.

Yes. Some people forget that they create JOBS.

The government creates jobs.

The government creates nothing. It produces nothing and creates nothing. It expands and spends more money thereby needing to fill more seats as it get more and more bloated with more and more programs.

The government is a tax on our Products and Services (GDP) the private sector produces.

The government is blood sucking overhead and the larger it gets, the less competitive we are in the global market.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

 

[OnePercenter]

Yes, people who end up being millionaires and billionaires have a different mindset that's for sure.

Yes. Some people forget that they create JOBS.

The government creates jobs.

The government creates nothing. It produces nothing and creates nothing. It expands and spends more money thereby needing to fill more seats as it get more and more bloated with more and more programs.

The government is a tax on our Products and Services (GDP) the private sector produces.

The government is blood sucking overhead and the larger it gets, the less competitive we are in the global market.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Yes. Some people forget that they create JOBS.

The government creates jobs.

The government creates nothing. It produces nothing and creates nothing. It expands and spends more money thereby needing to fill more seats as it get more and more bloated with more and more programs.

The government is a tax on our Products and Services (GDP) the private sector produces.

The government is blood sucking overhead and the larger it gets, the less competitive we are in the global market.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

Everybody uses infrastructure. It's not one entities responsibility to fund most of it. People who drive cars use our infrastructure, people who ride bicycles, kids who get around on skate boards or roller skates, trucks who deliver and pickup products that pay a ton of road taxes.

As for businesses, besides their product or service, they create jobs. Where would we all work if there was nobody to do that?

Given the fact every single American uses infrastructure for one reason or another, everybody should pay equally.

 

[OnePercenter]

The government creates jobs.

The government creates nothing. It produces nothing and creates nothing. It expands and spends more money thereby needing to fill more seats as it get more and more bloated with more and more programs.

The government is a tax on our Products and Services (GDP) the private sector produces.

The government is blood sucking overhead and the larger it gets, the less competitive we are in the global market.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

Everybody uses infrastructure. It's not one entities responsibility to fund most of it. People who drive cars use our infrastructure, people who ride bicycles, kids who get around on skate boards or roller skates, trucks who deliver and pickup products that pay a ton of road taxes.

As for businesses, besides their product or service, they create jobs. Where would we all work if there was nobody to do that?

Given the fact every single American uses infrastructure for one reason or another, everybody should pay equally.

Taxed based infrastructure make everyone's life easier and makes business possible.

 

[San Souci]

Yes, people who end up being millionaires and billionaires have a different mindset that's for sure.

Yes. Some people forget that they create JOBS.

The government creates jobs.

The government creates nothing. It produces nothing and creates nothing. It expands and spends more money thereby needing to fill more seats as it get more and more bloated with more and more programs.

The government is a tax on our Products and Services (GDP) the private sector produces.

The government is blood sucking overhead and the larger it gets, the less competitive we are in the global market.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

By ripping off people who EARN money?

 

[San Souci]

Yes. Some people forget that they create JOBS.

The government creates jobs.

The government creates nothing. It produces nothing and creates nothing. It expands and spends more money thereby needing to fill more seats as it get more and more bloated with more and more programs.

The government is a tax on our Products and Services (GDP) the private sector produces.

The government is blood sucking overhead and the larger it gets, the less competitive we are in the global market.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

If so ,then all TAX should be EQUAL. Such as 15% for everyone. That includes the worthless poor.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Yes. Some people forget that they create JOBS.

The government creates jobs.

The government creates nothing. It produces nothing and creates nothing. It expands and spends more money thereby needing to fill more seats as it get more and more bloated with more and more programs.

The government is a tax on our Products and Services (GDP) the private sector produces.

The government is blood sucking overhead and the larger it gets, the less competitive we are in the global market.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes

So, to make your claim more accurate, the taxpayers provide modern infrastructure.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

The government creates nothing. It produces nothing and creates nothing. It expands and spends more money thereby needing to fill more seats as it get more and more bloated with more and more programs.

The government is a tax on our Products and Services (GDP) the private sector produces.

The government is blood sucking overhead and the larger it gets, the less competitive we are in the global market.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

Everybody uses infrastructure. It's not one entities responsibility to fund most of it. People who drive cars use our infrastructure, people who ride bicycles, kids who get around on skate boards or roller skates, trucks who deliver and pickup products that pay a ton of road taxes.

As for businesses, besides their product or service, they create jobs. Where would we all work if there was nobody to do that?

Given the fact every single American uses infrastructure for one reason or another, everybody should pay equally.

Taxed based infrastructure make everyone's life easier and makes business possible.

That's what I just said, but you leftists always claim that industry should pay more for it than others. That was my point.

 

[Persistence Of Memory]

You know what’s not cool anymore? Billionaires.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren believe some Americans have too much money, and they’re not alone.

Their very existence is now the subject of political debate, sparked most recently by tax-the-rich proposals from two prominent politicians.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposed placing a 2 percent tax on wealth over $50 million and 3 percent on assets over $1 billion. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she wants to increase the marginal tax rate on those earning more than $10 million a year.

Their ideas went viral, starting a mainstream conversation about inequality and wealth.

This kind of talk has always existed among a certain group of hard-core progressives and left-leaning economists, but heading into next year’s presidential election, the idea that the super-rich should pay their fair share is gaining real momentum.

Marshall Steinbaum, a research director at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, has advocated taxing the rich at higher rates for years. “We do not need billionaires,” Steinbaum told HuffPost. “The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past.”

For Steinbaum, higher taxes on the wealthy would mean freeing up more money for everyone else. If you think of the economy as a pie, right now, billionaires are getting just about all of it, while we’re all left splitting just one slice.

If you raise taxes on the richest, their incentive to grab at every morsel declines. The theory is they’ll fight a little less hard to depress everyone else’s wages if they know that every extra million is going to get taxed away. A high-paid CEO has less incentive to keep workers’ wages low so he can get a bigger payday.

Billionaires were once a rare breed. In the past few decades, as the U.S. has slashed tax rates, their numbers have exploded, far outpacing inflation.

Since 2008, the number of billionaires in the world has doubled, according to a report published last week by the anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam. In just the last year, billionaires raked in an astonishing $2.5 billion each day.

In 1982, the first year Forbes debuted its list of the 400 richest Americans, there were about a dozen billionaires. The richest man in the U.S. back then was an 85-year-old shipping magnate with an estimated worth of $2 billion, or $5.2 billion in today’s dollars.

"We do not need billionaires. The economy’s done better without billionaires in the past."
--Marshall Steinbaum, Roosevelt Institute​

Nowadays, Forbes’ list is entirely billionaires. The richest is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, worth $160 billion.

More: Should Billionaires Even Exist?

I agree! Billionaires aren't cool anymore! The playing field is tilted like the Titanic before it went down. There is no logical reason for so few to have so much. What do you think?

HMMMM....1% pay 35% of all income taxes..................What do you think the total tax rate should be?

OK. I now know that you can paste a pic from the internet. Any other tricks you have?

 

[OnePercenter]

The government creates jobs.

The government creates nothing. It produces nothing and creates nothing. It expands and spends more money thereby needing to fill more seats as it get more and more bloated with more and more programs.

The government is a tax on our Products and Services (GDP) the private sector produces.

The government is blood sucking overhead and the larger it gets, the less competitive we are in the global market.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

If so ,then all TAX should be EQUAL. Such as 15% for everyone. That includes the worthless poor.

Not going to happen. We wealthy pay much less than 15%.

 

[OnePercenter]

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

Everybody uses infrastructure. It's not one entities responsibility to fund most of it. People who drive cars use our infrastructure, people who ride bicycles, kids who get around on skate boards or roller skates, trucks who deliver and pickup products that pay a ton of road taxes.

As for businesses, besides their product or service, they create jobs. Where would we all work if there was nobody to do that?

Given the fact every single American uses infrastructure for one reason or another, everybody should pay equally.

Taxed based infrastructure make everyone's life easier and makes business possible.

That's what I just said, but you leftists always claim that industry should pay more for it than others. That was my point.

Firstly, I'm not a leftist, I'm a corporate racketeer.

Secondly, I've NEVER promoted that "industry" should pay more, I've promoted that "industry" should pay the same percentage of all the money they make as you do.....which they don't.....not even close.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

The government creates nothing. It produces nothing and creates nothing. It expands and spends more money thereby needing to fill more seats as it get more and more bloated with more and more programs.

The government is a tax on our Products and Services (GDP) the private sector produces.

The government is blood sucking overhead and the larger it gets, the less competitive we are in the global market.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

If so ,then all TAX should be EQUAL. Such as 15% for everyone. That includes the worthless poor.

Not going to happen. We wealthy pay much less than 15%.

How much does your Nevada Corporation pay?

 

[Persistence Of Memory]

The government creates nothing. It produces nothing and creates nothing. It expands and spends more money thereby needing to fill more seats as it get more and more bloated with more and more programs.

The government is a tax on our Products and Services (GDP) the private sector produces.

The government is blood sucking overhead and the larger it gets, the less competitive we are in the global market.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

If so ,then all TAX should be EQUAL. Such as 15% for everyone. That includes the worthless poor.

Not going to happen. We wealthy pay much less than 15%.

Where in the F do you get your info???

The top 1% pay 37%
50% pay 97%
50% pay 3%

Where are all these made up facts from??? I see a lot of ass pulling facts here on this place.

Summary of the Latest Federal Income Tax Data, 2018 Update

 

[OnePercenter]

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

If so ,then all TAX should be EQUAL. Such as 15% for everyone. That includes the worthless poor.

Not going to happen. We wealthy pay much less than 15%.

How much does your Nevada Corporation pay?

In federal tax, 1.5% of revenue.

 

[OnePercenter]

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

If so ,then all TAX should be EQUAL. Such as 15% for everyone. That includes the worthless poor.

Not going to happen. We wealthy pay much less than 15%.

Where in the F do you get your info???

The top 1% pay 37%
50% pay 97%
50% pay 3%

Where are all these made up facts from??? I see a lot of ass pulling facts here on this place.

Summary of the Latest Federal Income Tax Data, 2018 Update

WOW! So you think that the wealthy have to pay 37% individually to pay 37% of the total?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

If so ,then all TAX should be EQUAL. Such as 15% for everyone. That includes the worthless poor.

Not going to happen. We wealthy pay much less than 15%.

How much does your Nevada Corporation pay?

In federal tax, 1.5% of revenue.

Where did you read that Nevada Corporations pay taxes on revenue? Link?

 

[San Souci]

The government provides modern infrastructure without which business wouldn't exist.

Government is awesome!
Where did they get the money to pay for that infrastructure that they so thoughtfully provide?

Taxes, which is why you don't pay a toll when you leave your driveway, and more importantly for you, get a bill from the fire department for fire suppression when your meth lab explodes. ;-)

If so ,then all TAX should be EQUAL. Such as 15% for everyone. That includes the worthless poor.

Not going to happen. We wealthy pay much less than 15%.

Where in the F do you get your info???

The top 1% pay 37%
50% pay 97%
50% pay 3%

Where are all these made up facts from??? I see a lot of ass pulling facts here on this place.

Summary of the Latest Federal Income Tax Data, 2018 Update

WOW! So you think that the wealthy have to pay 37% individually to pay 37% of the total?

No. I say we need a flat TAX of 15%. And the POOR have to pay also.