I find the term "soft corruption" is more appropriate since hard corruption involves breaking actual laws. So, for example under so-called "corporate personhood" what we understand to be corruptuon is perfectly legal. Also, with the Janus scotus decision in 2018 that stripped public worker unions of political speech, the idea that "corporate personhood" is about free speech falls flat.
The existence of a loophole means there are no taxes which are "theirs" to pay. What does it mean to pay your taxes? It means paying what the law requires. If there's a loophole in the law that reduces your tax bill, then "paying your taxes" just means paying the lesser amount.
Very true @andrewj22 - however, the laws could always be changed to reduce the number of loopholes. But since it's often the rich that influence these laws, they keep the loopholes in place for their own benefit. Not that I believe that all rich people are only out for themselves. There's at least some that actually care about humanity and their fellow human beings... not sure if it's a very high percentage though.
@@rodsmediaroom835 The greater a person's lifestyle is beyond what's necessary, the less it makes sense to say they care about others. In other words, the rich are inherently sociopaths. Only a sociopath would hoard that much money when it could be used to do so much good for others.
@@Michelle-hh5de TBF, since then, they've been untouchable for 120yrs now... they regularly slip passed every possible consequence for every possible evil they commit... they have private security, bunkers, private jets to escape with; far as they're concerned, they are and will be untouchable, and they will believe that right up until they're disabused, which is unclear if it will happen anytime soon, even if it IS inevitable...
Far more likely to eat each other these days--with basically half our political lines happily shining the shoes of the rich with their tongues in hopes of someday being rich (they won't be).
@@scifirealism5943 The only time I’ve found myself doing a job that I wasn’t allowed to quit, was when I wore a shirt with patches saying “US Army” on my chest.
While i make $10.50/hr as a cashier, $900/semester as an intern, can't afford community college, and use welfare, and 43% of the population lives in poverty, then no, I'll never support the existence of a single billionaire.
Fill out the Federal Application for Student Aide. If you are as poor as you say you are, you will qualify for the PEL grant. $7400. That will pay all books, tuition, fees at any community college with money left over. Then live off your 10.50 and hour and intern money. Keep doing what you know is right and good things will happen. They always do.
@@douglastovey2685 I lost Pell grants because of bad grades. When I first went to college, I had to rely on Medicaid because higher education doesn't offer healthcare. But because welfare isn't an unconditional cash transfer, I couldn't use my health coverage to take care of my sick mom. She was sick for six years and ultimately passed away. The stress from this caused my grades to drop, lose financial aid, and not get it back despite the financial aid office knowing what happened to my mom.
There should be restitution, something towards making it right for those harmed by their actions. Or just taking care of the workers versus the shareholders in the first place. Funny how money corrupts. Everything is for sale including Extreme Court Justices!
@@kevinmetcalfe7126 ABSOLUTELY! At most, people generally get a few dollars for years worth of lawsuits (even if what the company did was illegal). The cost to do the wrong should should be SO EXPENSIVE that it's not worth it. And I also agree about jail time. OR if corporations are PEOPLE (yeah, we need to fix Citizens United) then CORPORATIONS should be in jail for bad stuff done on their behalf. If not literally, then they should LOSE a LOT of rights and privileges. Those who know businesses and economy better than I do (it's sooo convoluted now) would know the best way to do so with minimal pain to most of the workers and hold those who made the bad decisions (or who mandated it) pay.
How it s a myth? I can cite athletes, entertainers, as well as business man who have achieved this. You are a naive and silly fool to disparge the efforts others have made just to make you feel less small...
Or a really popular artist. J. K Rowling (for a short time, anyway) comes to mind, and so does Sir Paul McCartney. If he's not a billionaire he's really close and could be tomorrow if so desired. Two in 8 billion... I'm not that good with a keyboard or a bass.
@@danielwilliams8346 Who cares....I dont care about the success of someone else if they did it legally. That is why when people attack Bezos I laugh or Gates or Jobs...these guys pioneered whole industries and they DESERVE the money they earned. They are a goal for others to reach. But its not just them, athletes can make Billions, so can entertainers, like Swift. Are you telling me, THEY dont earn their money? Course not. So people need to stop with the jealousy and desire to steal...
@@Nemesisnxt It's clear they meant 1,000 people with $1,000,000 considering that one billion dollars is 1,000 times greater than one million dollars. Have whatever opinion you want but intentionally obtuse bad faith arguments don't help anyone.
That much is true. But add one stark truth: CONservatism in both parties is our problem. CONservatism= No taxes on the rich, but definitely tax & screw the regular folk in our country! THAT'S WHAT "TRICKLE-DOWN IS!"
Everybody should pay one flat tax of 10%, regardless of income. "Thou shalt not covet" (10th Commandment). We must cut Federal spending 70%. "Thou shalt not steal" (8th Commandment).
@@davidlafleche1142 generally it should be poorer people pay a lower % of there own income, richer a higher %, as poorer individuals really cannot afford even smaller taxes while the ultra rich can easily sneeze away a much larger percent and still be fine.
Billionaires shouldn't exist. Any property above 1 billion should be taxed at an EXTREMELY high rate. Watch them pay their workers more fairly if that happens.
'property' is one thing. You can't liquidate $100,000 worth of a factory and make a down payment on a car. But that much in stocks and other volatile financials? Perhaps these should only be available after a tax man signs off on the transaction, buy, sell, or trade. Close loopholes, no shells, shadows, wights, ghost, or wisp corporate entities... and a fair tax.
If it is true, that many billionaires are psychopaths, nothing said will effect them. It would take hard work, commitment and persistence. They won’t go down to poor multimillionaires easily.
Add to all this that Billionaires just sit on most of their cash... and when money stagnates, the economy suffers. A healthy economy requires the movement of money.
I'm in favour of equality, but I'm not sure this particular argument makes sense. I doubt most billionaires are keeping piles of cash under their mattresses.
"A healthy economy requires the movement of money" -- I agree; there must be a healthy circulation of it. That reminds me of the line from Thornton Wilder's play, The Matchmaker: "Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow."
Billionaires move huge amounts of money around whether it be in stocks or property or funding projects. And creating companies If they didn’t they wouldn’t have become billionaires.
@@Psuedo-Nim Read the part of all. They can have some. But not all of it. They have way to much in comparison to rest of us. You are on the billionaire side of things.
Well said!! But, BUT way too many ppl, especially in our capitalistic society are swept away, idolize whoever the person is driving that exotic car, wearing designer clothes, sporting big chunky gold jewelry and truly believe they must be god sent to earth. Tell me I have this wrong. I dare you.
Nobody has a problem with billionaires, just people that skirt the system. If you skirt taxes with off shore accounts, you're not supporting your country.
They do pay taxes, and I want people to stop using idiotic terms like fair share, and ACTUALLY define what they mean...WHAT do you consider fair. Dont use a slogan, use a number or percetange. THEN meaningful discussion can happen.
@@shadowmancer99 Did you not watch the State of the Union speech where Joe Biden gave the percentage income tax that billionaires pay compared to the average American. I don't recall the exact percentage for billionaires, but it was ridiculously low.
that's what the Trudeau government in Canada is trying to do now, make the very wealthy at the top contribute their fair share to the common public good. but sadly, as expected, the greedy rich are vehemently opposed and have unleashed their media attack dogs and far-right wingnuts, accusing our government of being 'fascist' 'communist' 'dictator' blahblahblah 🙄 as if asking the super rich to pay a teensy bit more in taxes, instead of hiding & hoarding vast fortunes and not contributing is somehow is akin to communism 🤷🏻♂ considering they are millionaires & billionaires who can easily afford to pay up, and still be obscenely rich.
Familial wealth has created a neo aristocracy. A super upper class of people that seem to grow wealthier every year. And they use their financial power in many ways. This is completely counter to our belief in a meritocracy and the benefits it bestows upon our society.
Jim, Rob, and Alice Walton are each worth more than $60 billion. Here in Western Pennsylvania I have seen with my own eyes estates inherited by heirs of fortunes made in steel, coal, oil, gas, timber, and beer. These people have their own private clubs and frolic at upscale resorts. Never have to work a day in their life. Don’t have to make mortgage and car payments. Much of the wealth hoarded by the elite, regardless of its source, could be very useful to the non-elite who want to go to college or start a business or buy a house at an affordable price or get their teeth fixed or pay for a much-needed operation. Serious reforms need to be made. There really needs to be a cap on how much wealth an individual can have.
I'm a poor, self supporting college student using welfare to get by. If I had a full ride scholarship or grant, I wouldn't need welfare and could compete with rich students.
Their is no pie. Except mother nature. That is the pie. A wealthy person can be greedy or not. A poor person can be greedy or not. Just because a person is wealthy doesn't make them greedy and just because a person is poor doesn't make them not greedy. Money is a tool we freely use to trade for this and that. Great invention really. My experience with bartering always usually leaves a little bit of a bitter taste in my mouth as if I have been taken advantage of. With money I can easily decide what works for me in terms of the value for my work. Sooo easy. And as a side note and a good practice to put things in perspective, the next time you think something is expensive try and make it yourself from scratch. I mean mining the material, processing that material, engineer and design it, throw away your mistakes, remake it 10 more times until you get something you can use and make all the tools you need to build the thing. You get my point. It's a matter of perspective. Things are actually too cheap that we have become a culture of greed and entitlement. But somehow we are not fulfilled as a whole.
A bunch of whiners like I've never seen. Go out and make your own money and stop counting other people's money and waxing on about how much of that you should have. Just pathetic. Create something!
I'm so happy I made productive decisions about my finances that changed my life forever,hoping to retire next year.. Investment should always be on any creative man's heart for success in life
Thanks for the advice! I'm new to financial planning and wasn't sure where to start. Any tips on finding a reliable financial adviser or resource to guide beginners?
Truly, investing has changed my perspective on how one can succeed in life; working multiple jobs isn't the optimal way to attain financial freedom and unfortunately, we discover this later in life. Currently earn as much as 12 grand weekly and this has improved my financial life
YES! that's exactly her name (Stacey Macken) I watched her interview on CNN News and so many people recommended her trading skills, she's an expert and I'm just starting with her....From Brisbane Australia
Wow. I'm a bit perplexed seeing her been mentioned here also Didn't know she has been good to so many people too this is wonderful, I'm in my fifth trade with her and it has been super
No. I think once you make about 20 million, you should be given a "I won capitalism" trophy, and be unallowed to make any more money. They won! They're done.
That’s coming from a “what about me” point of view. If all the people who created wealth quit at 20 million where would that leave us. What companies would remain. I believe Robert has watched too many movies where the evil Corporations and Billionaires are involved in conspiracies to rule the world. Most take pride in product a good product that provides something consumers/the masses want and need.
If we had ACTUAL taxes on the rich and we fixed loopholes, I believe we'd still have billionaires. But THESE billionaires would much more likely have either done something tremendous for society (via hard work and or creativity) OR benefitted from some rare stroke of luck/act of God that they wouldn't be able to perpetuate the myth of the "self-made billionaire." The way we currently have it, it's more about exploitation and gaming the system than hard work or innovation.
No one should have Billions as profit. Money is a scarce resource yet essential, no one should horde billions when most have so little. We are on the hand of extreme rich people ever since the dawn of society and the world is always shit.
How much is enough? At some point, it just gets so absurd. When you die with all that money that you did nothing with, you could have just pretended you had all that money and accomplished the same thing. Do some good in the world with it.
Sure. As long as they are held to the same standards as mom and pop up the street. Pay the same 13% fed and 8% state taxes. If they go to prison when they break laws. And there are anti-corruption laws that are enforced.
Unless income is taxed in a graduated manner, as percentage, increased as income increases, the wealthy become increasingly free to spend amounts far beyond, exorbitant compared to ANY OTHER INDIVIDUAL. This is Not in the interest of a community, as the wealthiest wields autocratic power.
Great analysis. The huge amount of money billionaires have came from somebody. Think about all the regular people working hard with low wages to produce things.
@@meeraj-4774 Right. Like 25% interest on credit cards. It is true that a lot of people got a big advantage with good education and family wealth. And once at a high level there are plenty of ways for the rich to get richer. Regular people know very little about the complex financial system possibilities and scams. They are not in that world. I would be somewhat satisfied if public education was properly funded and there was a medicare for all type system so everybody could at least get medical treatments when needed. Me. I am not complaining for myself. I am doing OK. I have no credit card debt but a lot of guitars. Maybe $1 billion is enough for one person.
The org RepresentUs helps people bring small changes to their towns, like anti-corruption laws, with the goal of achieving nationwide critical mass. Like eating an elephant: one bite at a time.
My biggest gripe with billionaires is the undo burden it puts on an economic system. It creates imbalance. Probabilities and statistics (and chaos theory?) will tell you that a NO system can survive or run smoothly until it reaches an equalibrium. And they have no redeeming social value. We you get that big/rich, you're screwing over somebody.
I don’t know if “immoral” is the best term… I think the individual wealth of billionaires is better described as “harmful to society” rather than “immoral.” Morality is subjective and difficult to define precisely, but the harms of excessive concentration of wealth is easily demonstrated, while the benefits to society are elusive, so one is on much more solid ground arguing to redistribute wealth to reduce the harm to society, rather than arguing to do it to be morally correct.
@@KevinThomas-ok2ev No, its a matter of maintaining the implicit social contract which holds society together. Greed and greedy people share much in common with pathogens.
@@KevinThomas-ok2ev Please. 99.9% of all US law isn't explicitly IN the constitution. Where are semi-autos and cartridge ammo in the 2nd amendment? Wanna be literal? OK. Then only melee weapons and muzzle loaders are protected by 2e.
@@scifirealism5943 Not without the constitution being amended, and we have a process for that. Good luck in getting it passed. It’d be an idiotic change, to impose either a minimum OR a maximum wage.
@@justinwilliams3483 “Why do some people have money when I don’t. It’s not fair, they should give that money to me.” And you guys say billionaires are evil, you literally support state sponsored theft.
There's only one question to ask...and only one correct answer to it. Which is better for an economy, all conditions being equal; 100,000 individuals with $100 million each, or 100 million individuals with $100,000 each?
Capitalists spend their money on increasing their capital, and in buying the state. Only a very small portion of their profits go into productive investment. This is especially true because financial speculation and usury is more profitable than industry. That's why we are dismantling all our industry, our roads are crumbling, etc. Working class people spend their wages on the necessities of life, which increases demand in the real economy. However most of our wages actually go to landlords, monopolists and usurers, which causes a spiral of decreasing demand and a slowing economy. Which is why more than a few political economists are arguing that our present system is becoming more like feudalism in several respects. It's all geared toward unproductive rent extraction.
@@DoremiFasolatido1979 I was speaking colloquially. What actually matters is the allocation of society's finite labor. As command over that labor naturally concentrates, the result is an increasingly parasitic, empty economy, and a state apparatus ever more firmly in the hands of a ruling oligarchy. We are watching the West de-industrialize and collapse as finance continues to cannibalize society, and usher in a second medieval era. We could give 100k to each of 100,000,000 people, and although that would make things better for a time (eg the mid 20th century), it wouldn't change the underlying mechanisms and we'd end up here again in time.
The tax rate for the highest income bracket was 93% under President Eisenhower. We need to bring those tax rates back. With a caveat that money paid back into business growth and employee profit sharing will not be taxed. Incentive to invest their money back into the business to be in a lower tax bracket.
@@meeraj-4774 That can also be taxed, in a fair country. Change our tax laws. If/whenever unrealized capital gains (UCG) are leveraged financially in ANY way (let's say by taking a "loan" against the UCG's current value), then that UCG becomes fully taxable at the value it had at the moment it was "used" (taxed on the UCG's value exactly when the "loan" is initiated).
Simple answer: NO. Not good for anyone, really. The gulf between how we monetarily reward ‘a job well done’ - ANY job I assert - is obscene. No one’s time is worth that much more than anyone elses. The most valuable thing we have is time- and no one knows how much of that we have, including ourselves. There should be a ‘maximum wage’ as well as a ‘minimum wage’ and the difference should be at a scale we can all understand.
@edwardmeradith2419 I believe you may not realize the wealth of billionaires does not come from wages. It comes from "interest" income they receive from investments (like a stock's capital-gains, dividends, etc.). Sorry to say, capping wages using a 'maximum wage' will do almost nothing.The world is complicated, and requires complicated solutions -- like *taxing **_unrealized capital gains_** (UCG) when they're leveraged financially* in ANY way (let's say when leveraged by taking a "loan" against the UCG's current value).
@@keep-ukraine-free528 ‘the world is complicated and requires complicated solutions’ Absolutely- and you understand elements that I don’t pretend to understand- I wasn’t attempting to address unearned income and, what in my limited understanding, a ridiculous tax structure. My statement is more abstract in that it was meant to question how we put value on human’s limited amount of time here and reward the spending of that time working
I think that billionaires may have a _right_ to exist but only if achieved fully legally, ethically, AND morally. However, billionaires still have the responsibility to support our government and society at least as much as the rest of us, proportional to sources of income and wealth.
"ethically, AND morally"... this might be one of the most idiotic ideas I've seen in a long time... Just tell me, who defines what is ethical and moral?
Even 100 million is obscenely rich and undeserved by anyone, perhaps aside of such noble souls who actually reduced net suffering in the world. Too many to name but never enough. What I wonder is, why do these billionaires keep wanting more money? They already have all they could ever spend. I say, take a few million, and live the rest of your life doing something courageous, or at least, mind expanding.
You just gotta appreciate the animation they put alongside the facts he's preaching. It just makes it so much easier to digest of what would otherwise be a bland economics lecture
@@frances-if5fp Pfft, even here he talks some rubbish: Amazon has a monopoly? Ever heard of Walmart, aliExpress, TaoBao, Temu, Target...the list goes on.
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Yeah, financial advisors could make a lot of difference, particularly in a market such as this. Stocks are pretty unstable at the moment, but if you do the right math, you should be just fine. Bloomberg and other finance media have been recording cases of folks gaining over 250k just in a matter of weeks/couple months, so I think there are a lot of wealth transfer in this downtime if you know where to look. I have been using an FA since 2019, and I return at least $121k ROI, and this does not include capital gain.
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The national debt is 34 trillion. Not only are we slaves to the bank, but our children's grandchildren, will be slaves to the bank. We are living in a guilded cage, only with an illusion of freedom...
Most rich people stay rich by spending like the poor and investing without stopping then most poor people stay poor by spending like the rich yet not investing like the rich but impressing them
After I raised up to 325k trading with her l bought a new House and a car here in the states 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 also paid for my son's surgery (Andy). Glory to God.shalom.
Those that say "This person became a billionaire or multimillionaire even though their from a humble background". Sure, but they were born with phenomenal talent in business, entertainment, sports or tech that the overwhelming majority of us weren't born with. I'm not advocating laziness, & people should reap rewards from their labor. Once they reach this financial success though, they should not be allowed special tax breaks or other conduct that comes at the expense of others.
I work for a state agency and every year we have to take a mandatory ethics training course. In my position I have no influence or power. We are given a small limit on what can be accepted from clients under very strict guidelines. If we fail to follow these guidelines we could be fired, but those that wield the power to make laws are allowed to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from those that would benefit from those laws or them not making certain laws, without any consequences. There is definitely something wrong with this system.
Robert, I have a couple books of yours and agree with you on everything I have seen you write and on your videos -- except this one nitpicky point: You suggest that if capitalism was working, we wouldn't have billionaires. But even Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations admitted that unregulated capitalism leads to wealth inequality. His only recommendation was that societies consider a wealth tax to mitigate it, while admitting he had no solution for it. He was admitting that this was a fundamental flaw of capitalism itself! It certainly isn't something that libertarians will admit, since, as Maclean pointed out in her book, Democracy in Chains, the very intent of libertarianism itself was to provide an intellectual justification for maintaining the wealth inequality that benefits the privileged. But you are right on all else: Billionaires shouldn't exist and your own suggestions for eliminating them are important. Thank you for bringing this, and so many other wrongs in our system, public.
I don't relate with that,since it's not my personal experience. The "Tax The Rich" dress cost more than I made in 2022, and was about four times my salary in 2023, yet I am still not a sex worker.
Cheap houses in California now cost a million. I can drive through a whole neighborhood that you'd call middle class in my city and every single house is either close to a million or over. In some states that's nothing. We're talking about the extremely wealthy who have taken their wealth by hurting their workers destroying the Earth.
$4M is top 2% in the country. Is robert really better than 98% of the American population? Should we not redistribute that down to lift the other 98% up?
We need to hire Top financial experts from the Best universities. Big industry pays these people $millions of dollars to start. We need to hire 100 or so of these very smart ppl and pay them millions and bonuses on the money recovered.
The estate tax should be a no brainer for everyone. No one deserves an inheritance and it is a just and straightforward way to fund reparations as well as the general ledger.
So someone who has worked their entire life shouldn't be able to pass that along to family or whomever they choose? So just take their money when they die?
A starting point for defining “fair share” would be to acknowledge that there will always be a “richest person” (or a small group of similarly very wealthy people), and there will always be a set of “poorest people” who have essentially nothing, and with that knowledge, we can devise a progressive tax system with the goal of redistributing wealth from the top, back down through the rest of the population such that the top 0.1% have no individual net worth that is more than 5,000 times the median net worth. (In practical terms, this would allow for a handful of billionaires, but not many, and should result in zero multi-billionaires) I don’t see how allowing for individuals to have *more than* _five thousand times_ more than the median person would be _more_ fair than what I’m suggesting, so I think my proposal is a reasonable first attempt at defining a “fair share” as no more than five thousand times the average share.
Of course billionaires have a right to exist. Some people just can’t help making piles of money. What would be great would be them paying their fair share of taxes, as well as being outrageously charitable to the needy. That just keeps things in balance. 🇺🇸💙
Love the way you think, Robert. And you always explain and lay things out for even the most simple of us to understand. Thank you for all you do to educate us and expose the fraud, waste and abuse. Been thinking this same thing lately. Exactly how much financial (and material wealth) does one need. Pure greed. 🤑
@@5353Jumper And who is the arbiter of whether or not she’s a bigot? Because she doesn’t agree with the fascist Newspeak that the current crop has agreed upon? She’s entitled to her opinion AND her money, the vast majority of which she’s donated away.
One of The greatest problems in the USA is that too many speak in admiration of the rich for the sole reason that they are rich. Many even so much as vote that person to be president of their country even though he has no merit whatsoever - just riches (much of it unfairly gained).
The federal government did not bailout J.P. Morgan. As with many recipients, the bank did not want or need the TARP funds it received. In fact, in March, 2008, it was permitted to buy Bear Stearns, a bank that was in trouble. Regulators don't let banks that are in trouble buy banks that are also in trouble. J.P. Morgan paid its TARP loans back early, with interest, resulting in a profit to the government (and the taxpayers) of $795 million.
I'm 100% with this video - does anyone else think intellectual property law has a place in this discussion? I understand wanting people to own a their IP long enough to profit from it ... but corporations are gaining ownership of IPs that lasts for almost a century. That does not seem "in the spirit" and does little more than incentive ownership over innovation.
