Facts about billionaires. They don't have bank accounts like we do...

They have art collections, yachts, mansions and stocks.

None of it is taxed until they sell it. So they don't sell it; they borrow against it instead. They then live off the loans and pay almost nothing.

Then when they die, their children inherit it, all tax-free.

Their wealth never gets taxed. It just gets passed down.

For the rest of us:

We're taxed when we earn money.
We're taxed when we spend money.
We're taxed when we save money.
And we're taxed when we're dead and our children inherit our money.

Billionaires borrow against their wealth, and skip all four.

Same country, different rules.

And Americans wonder why the inequality gap keeps getting wider.

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LamontCranston · M

The loans have to be paid back.
You left that out.
Most placesa also have inheirtance/estate taxes. Yo left that out too.
Oh, yes, and their income was taxed in the first place.

Waveney · MNew

@LamontCranston Er, I DID mentione inheritance. The fact that billions can pass almost entirely tax-free to their kids is the point. You’re acting like adding “loans get paid back” or “estate taxes exist somewhere” suddenly makes the system even. It doesn’t. Loans are just a way to access cash without triggering capital gains tax, and estate taxes are tiny compared to the wealth that passes down.

Yes, SOME of their income was taxed once. But as I also said the bulk of billionaire wealth isn’t from salary. It’s from assets that appreciate massively over decades without being taxed until sold, and often never sold.

I’m not ignoring details. I’m highlighting the loopholes that let ultra-rich wealth dodge multiple layers of taxation, while the rest of us get taxed on earnings, spending, savings, and inheritance.

Ynotisay · M

@LamontCranston What's interesting is that you clearly don't understand how that game is played on that level. How money really gets handled at the billionaire level. But you instinctively defend the very people making your life, and the lives of ALL "regular" Americans, worse.
Why is that? What's in it for you?

Waveney · MNew

@Ynotisay I just don't understand how people slavishly defend the billionaire class.. I really don't.

Ynotisay · M

@Waveney I used to think that they thought that maybe, jusssst maybe, they'd see real wealth too. It's clearly a fools game but now I think it's just a reflexive action.

Trickle down economics, at its core, is dependent on the very rich moving the money down so it reaches the "regular" people. But that's not what happens. Yet that's what fed to them.

Those who beat their chests about being strong are purposefully putting themselves in a position to be dependent on others. But it's so easy to feed them "data" that supports trickle down and that's all it takes.

But the big one is "enemy." ANYTHING the comes from outside their bubble is to be discounted, dismissed and beaten back. It truly is a systematic brainwashing and it's led us to Trump.

It's the bastion of the weakest and most malleable. Those who want authoritarian rule and want to be dependent on others. And they will always explain it away as evidenced by some of the comments here.

Elon Musk sees revenue roughly around $20 to $30 million an HOUR. And the richest man in the world has killed the poorest children in the world through DOGE. But they stand up to defend him with ferocity. The SAME man they used to hate. Just like how they used to hate the big money New Yorkers like Trump. But now they are like "them." I just can't wrap my head around it.

Heartlander

@Waveney What I don't understand is how some people slavishly trust the government class more than they trust their rich neignbors.

LamontCranston · M

@Waveney You are backing and filling, Bozo. I do not dispute that it is better to be rich than poor. But that does not make your "analysis" in any way correct.

LamontCranston · M

@Ynotisay Actually, I do know, although "how the game is played" is a loaded way to express it, placing you in the same know-nothing camp as OP.
By the way, Elon has done more for society and the general welfare than you have.
.