Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, could be taxed NINETY-NINE POINT NINE PERCENT of his net worth, and STILL be worth a BILLION dollars. Let that sink in. $10M is pretty wealthy. $100M is pretty crazy. “Just” $1B is ludicrous. He is worth $110 BILLION. It just seems to me that — at some point — the country that set the stage for him to be this wealthy — like, say, oh I don’t know… giving Amazon a TOTAL PASS on sales tax for 20 years — needs to get some of that back to help the rest of society.
I know that makes me seem like a communist to some people, but I promise this is only small-“S” socialist thinking. This is just too far out of whack. I think it’s time to go back to more steps of substantially-steeper marginal tax rates. At this point, the top 400 wealthiest people in the country are paying less than anyone else, on a marginal basis.
I know, I know. I hate our country. If I don’t like it, I can leave. Yada, yada, yada.