So I’m reading Harari’s latest, Homo Deus, and I come across one of these mind-blowing fun facts. 62 Billionaires own the same wealth as the bottom 50% of the entire world’s population. Incredulous, I checked. It’s true. (Source: https://www.cadtm.org/spip.php?page=imprimer&id_article=12882#:~:text=The%20poorest%2050%25%20of%20the,of%20the%20richest%2062%20persons. )
Who are 10 richest people in the world? 9 are from the US and 1 from France.
- Elon Musk
- Jeff Bezos
- Bernard Arnault
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Bill Gates
- Larry Ellison
- Larry Page
- Steve Ballmer
- Sergey Brin
- Warren Buffett
(Source: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/012715/5-richest-people-world.asp)
Together, they have net worth of more than a $1.7T (trillion). The US national debt is about $33T. Wrap your head around that; these 10 people have net worth equal to 5% of our entire US national debt. US tax revenues in 2024 were a little over $4.4T. Wrap your head around this too; these 10 people have net worth equal to 38% of all the taxes collected from all the businesses and people in the US.
Suppose your family is 5 kids, a spouse, and yourself. 7 people. Suppose you want each person to have annual income of $12M (million) after taxes. That’s a million a month tax free. In what world does a person need more than $1M per month?
Suppose muni bonds earn 5%, tax free. $240M of muni bonds will earn $12M per year. So, give each person in your family $240M. That’s 7 times $240M = $1.68B (billion).
These richest people each have net worth over $100B so they wouldn’t even notice gifting $1.68B . I don’t begrudge any of them their wealth. They worked hard and were successful. They earned it. I also acknowledge many (or all) of them are big time philanthropists. They also buy islands and professional sports teams.
But, when I look at the whole picture, that’s why some kind of ultra-millionaire tax makes sense to me.
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