Back in my 30s I worked part time for a medium rich guy in NYC doing light administrative work. The stories this guy would tell me were bananas. He owned a few apartment buildings with wealthy residents, and the lengths they would go to to not pay their rent was crazy. And then he would get mad at me when I wouldn't ditch work to go hang out with him and his wife at their box at Yankee stadium. One day he told me they were gonna move to Vermont and they wanted me to come with them and manage the Starbucks store they were opening and live in their guest house. That was a weird time for me, hanging out with those people.
Any time I see a photo of some room that rich people think is great I just see an awful, fugly, room filled with junk with no thought whatsoever for efficiency, comfort, style, or design. Just storage areas for old, ugly expensive crap.
I am a small business owner who has an honest accountant. I do not fear the IRS. I applaud the IRS for holding these wealthy cheaters accountable. Damn, they get the privilege of living in a system that enabled them, or their ancestors, to acquire huge wealth, and then they show their gratitude to America by shirking their contribution? The ones who vilify the IRS, including GQP politicians, are enabling the cheaters and are probably cheaters themselves
Notice, also, that that 25,000 are not people who *have* a million, but those who have had an income of a million in one year.
It's not really impossible for normal people who have had good jobs, were reasonably careful with their money, had some good luck in the housing market when they sold the house after the kids grew up, and more good luck in not having anything catastrophic happen healthwise or otherwise, to have a million in assets. You could call them millionaires, and while they are comfortable and not worried about money, they're not what we think of when we mean 'rich'. You most likely know people like this if you are not one yourself. And they mostly pay their taxes.
I am one of the people you describe in your 2nd para and I have gladly paid my fair share of taxes all of my adult life because I want things like: public education, roads, fire departments, functional civilized society, and an IRS that is funded and enabled to hold cheaters and parasites accountable.
Ta, Robyn. The only way the 1% will ever pay their fair share is if we eliminate (or raise very substantially) the cap on Social Security and tax the wealthy fairly. That will only happen when Biden-Harris gets the trifecta, and it's up to US to make that happen. VOTE! and GOTV!!
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, or kicking a dead horse, I would just like to add "why TF didn't Obama do this, and oh so much more, when HE had a trifecta from 2008-2010.
They decided to concentrate on health care. It took all their effort to get the ACA passed, and then it was the midterms. I'm sure glad we got what we did.
Only uninformed (or misinformed) White people ask questions like that.
If you're going to be a responsible citizen you should already both know the answer to it and, better yet, understand the politics behind the answer (and clearly how long it takes to get ANY kind of law passed in this racist misogynist country).
What a raving fuss they made, too, about that imaginary ruthless armed 87,000 "extra" tax agents who would be breaking down poor average citizens' doors and terrorizing them to make them cough up a few dollars each.
When really, they would just have been replacing the IRS people who were removed over the years by Republicans, and they would largely have been lawyers and accountants, not pistol-packin' jackbooted thugs. Billionaires and even mere multi-millionaires maintain entire staffs of such people to ensure they will NOT have to pay the taxes they owe - and that's the taxes they ALREADY owe under present laws and regulations, not imaginary new crushing ones. It takes vast staffs of similar people to counter the super-rich's cheating, and they will rarely be going after waitresses with kids to support who omit to report their tips.
Makes one think of Donald Trump's ludicrous claim, "They are trying to destroy me in order to get to YOU, because I am all that protects YOU from THEM."
And, presumably, if he had to pay taxes he would no longer be able to protect his followers from tyranny.
And people wonder why there seems to be an organized effort to push Biden out. Take a quick look at who owns most of the media in this country and how much they are worth. Still wondering why there seems to be a feeding frenzy or have any doubts whether or not it's organic?
Been beating this drum since just before the debate. Joe is winning, because taking away rights is bad government. And the GOP is doubled and tripled down on that as their platform. "That right you like, it would be a shame if something happened to it"
But because rich fatcat media owners can buy their way into any right they might like, tax breaks and a government handcuffed from reigning them in, is what they want.
So, they sculpt the narrative to get it. Hence, "Joe is old".
and get us fighting among ourselves, the easiest way to beat us. Don't bother arguing policy, they have none, except ones they dare not speak aloud, or only to the other cannibals. Keep the focus on Joe and fracture the resistance.
My Dad (whom I miss every day, but hey, he'd be 107 if he had somehow lived) was one of those egghead professors who protested the Veet-Nam war. We marched on the Pentagon in 1967, in the march Norman Mailer wrote about in "Armies of the Night".
And sure enough, in around 1971, he was audited by Nixon's IRS, despite not being a rich person. Apparently "weaponizing the IRS" was one of those things lurking in the background as a charge against Nixxon, but it never came to fruition because he quit before he could be impeached and tried, and then Gerald Ford decided that Nixon had suffered enough.
I don't know if Ford was the only President ever who never stood for election as President or Vice-President, but I wouldn't be surprised. Whip inflation now, kids!
Also, if you're like most Americans, your income is easy to track so audits are relatively straightforward and you probably don't have an army of lawyers to contest the audit results. Thus you're far easier to chase down than multi millionaires. So don't screw up.
Back in my 30s I worked part time for a medium rich guy in NYC doing light administrative work. The stories this guy would tell me were bananas. He owned a few apartment buildings with wealthy residents, and the lengths they would go to to not pay their rent was crazy. And then he would get mad at me when I wouldn't ditch work to go hang out with him and his wife at their box at Yankee stadium. One day he told me they were gonna move to Vermont and they wanted me to come with them and manage the Starbucks store they were opening and live in their guest house. That was a weird time for me, hanging out with those people.
Any time I see a photo of some room that rich people think is great I just see an awful, fugly, room filled with junk with no thought whatsoever for efficiency, comfort, style, or design. Just storage areas for old, ugly expensive crap.
Jonathan Winters had it right. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VpX1fRHsM1w
I am a small business owner who has an honest accountant. I do not fear the IRS. I applaud the IRS for holding these wealthy cheaters accountable. Damn, they get the privilege of living in a system that enabled them, or their ancestors, to acquire huge wealth, and then they show their gratitude to America by shirking their contribution? The ones who vilify the IRS, including GQP politicians, are enabling the cheaters and are probably cheaters themselves
Yay! I keep track of the abuse of the IRS by Republicans in order to argue with shits online.
Give these folks individual Medals of Freedom! Unless they are some IRS skells who didn't make an effort.
Notice, also, that that 25,000 are not people who *have* a million, but those who have had an income of a million in one year.
It's not really impossible for normal people who have had good jobs, were reasonably careful with their money, had some good luck in the housing market when they sold the house after the kids grew up, and more good luck in not having anything catastrophic happen healthwise or otherwise, to have a million in assets. You could call them millionaires, and while they are comfortable and not worried about money, they're not what we think of when we mean 'rich'. You most likely know people like this if you are not one yourself. And they mostly pay their taxes.
Income of a million is a totally different level.
I am one of the people you describe in your 2nd para and I have gladly paid my fair share of taxes all of my adult life because I want things like: public education, roads, fire departments, functional civilized society, and an IRS that is funded and enabled to hold cheaters and parasites accountable.
Yep. We're talking about lazy moochers who take in interest and dividends from Daddy and Mommy's investments, and vote Republican.
Tax income (including unrealized capital gains) received by people who control assets of $100,000,000 or more at a rate of 90% on every dollar.
Tax income (same) received by people who control over $1,000,000,000 or more at a rate of 100% on every dollar.
We would slowly bleed the fuckers dry. Well, OK, drier.
The thing is, you wouldn't actually bleed them dry. They would still have more many than they could spend.
Thus "drier". Maybe "not quite as full of tons of money".
It's pretty fucking fair, alright.
Ta, Robyn. The only way the 1% will ever pay their fair share is if we eliminate (or raise very substantially) the cap on Social Security and tax the wealthy fairly. That will only happen when Biden-Harris gets the trifecta, and it's up to US to make that happen. VOTE! and GOTV!!
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, or kicking a dead horse, I would just like to add "why TF didn't Obama do this, and oh so much more, when HE had a trifecta from 2008-2010.
They decided to concentrate on health care. It took all their effort to get the ACA passed, and then it was the midterms. I'm sure glad we got what we did.
Only uninformed (or misinformed) White people ask questions like that.
If you're going to be a responsible citizen you should already both know the answer to it and, better yet, understand the politics behind the answer (and clearly how long it takes to get ANY kind of law passed in this racist misogynist country).
What a raving fuss they made, too, about that imaginary ruthless armed 87,000 "extra" tax agents who would be breaking down poor average citizens' doors and terrorizing them to make them cough up a few dollars each.
When really, they would just have been replacing the IRS people who were removed over the years by Republicans, and they would largely have been lawyers and accountants, not pistol-packin' jackbooted thugs. Billionaires and even mere multi-millionaires maintain entire staffs of such people to ensure they will NOT have to pay the taxes they owe - and that's the taxes they ALREADY owe under present laws and regulations, not imaginary new crushing ones. It takes vast staffs of similar people to counter the super-rich's cheating, and they will rarely be going after waitresses with kids to support who omit to report their tips.
Makes one think of Donald Trump's ludicrous claim, "They are trying to destroy me in order to get to YOU, because I am all that protects YOU from THEM."
And, presumably, if he had to pay taxes he would no longer be able to protect his followers from tyranny.
'So, what is the very barest minimum we could do to enforce a tax code on the richest?'
'Send them a letter?'
'Well, don't even do that anymore'
That reminds me – is the IRS finished with PAB's tax returns yet? Will they be released in time for the election THIS time?
If I'm not mistaken the SCOTUS has recently empowered Biden to release PABs tax returns at any time.
He'll release them right after infrastructure week.
In two weeks…
And people wonder why there seems to be an organized effort to push Biden out. Take a quick look at who owns most of the media in this country and how much they are worth. Still wondering why there seems to be a feeding frenzy or have any doubts whether or not it's organic?
I'm looking forward to the calls to the White House next February:
Jamie Who? Jamie Diamond? Chaste Bank? Never heard of it.
George Cooney? Oh, Cluny. Are you French? Oh, CLOONEY. Related to Rosemary?
Been beating this drum since just before the debate. Joe is winning, because taking away rights is bad government. And the GOP is doubled and tripled down on that as their platform. "That right you like, it would be a shame if something happened to it"
But because rich fatcat media owners can buy their way into any right they might like, tax breaks and a government handcuffed from reigning them in, is what they want.
So, they sculpt the narrative to get it. Hence, "Joe is old".
and get us fighting among ourselves, the easiest way to beat us. Don't bother arguing policy, they have none, except ones they dare not speak aloud, or only to the other cannibals. Keep the focus on Joe and fracture the resistance.
Rich people seldom have one certain thing—-enough.
My Dad (whom I miss every day, but hey, he'd be 107 if he had somehow lived) was one of those egghead professors who protested the Veet-Nam war. We marched on the Pentagon in 1967, in the march Norman Mailer wrote about in "Armies of the Night".
And sure enough, in around 1971, he was audited by Nixon's IRS, despite not being a rich person. Apparently "weaponizing the IRS" was one of those things lurking in the background as a charge against Nixxon, but it never came to fruition because he quit before he could be impeached and tried, and then Gerald Ford decided that Nixon had suffered enough.
I don't know if Ford was the only President ever who never stood for election as President or Vice-President, but I wouldn't be surprised. Whip inflation now, kids!
Well, technically Ford "stood" for election in 1976 but was beat by Jimmy Carter.
My wife and I meticulously pay what we owe, on time, because heavens! -- we could be audited!
Or, evidently, not, it seems. But (a) we're risk-averse and (b) it's The Law, and reasonably fair for the most part.
Also, if you're like most Americans, your income is easy to track so audits are relatively straightforward and you probably don't have an army of lawyers to contest the audit results. Thus you're far easier to chase down than multi millionaires. So don't screw up.