It’s crucial to understand that BOTH currently “functional” political parties, at the national level, are utterly dedicated to protecting this system, no matter the cost to the American democratic experiment. Which, not surprisingly, is in its death throes, since this now quite naked commitment at the core of American governance to the creation and protection of unregulated wealth is absolutely inimical to government of, by, or for the people. We will NOT be allowed to vote our way out of this.
The term "Voting for the lesser of two evils"...I can NOT believe how crazy that is. You are spot on. Those government career politicians have not missed a beat. In all this bull.
Example: the Supreme Court will soon advance states' ability to reject election results. *Those kind of "justices" and "decisions" do NOT emerge from BOTH political parties.* *GOP=Greed Over People.*
@@terrionlacy976 Exactly! “Voting for the lesser of two evils” literally implies you’re voting for EVIL either way. There’s no moral, value, or principled compass of good vs evil in our political scheme. Both establishment Democrats and Republicans are two cheeks of the same ass!
True, but that's because both of them are Capitalist parties after all. However, if you thik that's a good excuse to vote for the greater of two evils, then you are fucked up. "But they are both bad" is such a dumb excuse to want to vote for the greater of two evil or enable the greater of two evils to win. If you vote for the greater of two evil and allow them to win, what need is there for the other party to change for the better, when clearly, so many people want the greater of two evils. The less evil party will see no choice but move more to the evil side, because clearly, that's what you people are voting for, so they try to appeal to the greater of two evils voters. You can't vote for the greater of two evils, or allow them to win by not voting and then make a surprised pikachu face.
You should also be pissed about civil asset forfeiture which SHOULD recover from criminals but most often steals from more average folks & makes you sue the Feds to prove your money isn't guilty. I'm pissed about all of it, don't get me started!
i actually thought this was common knowledge. It was spoken of 12 years ago by inequality economist Gabriel Zuckman and I believe is mentioned in his book "the hidden wealth of nations" that came out in 2008, so it is not exactly a state secret hence my bemusement at so many people who didn't know about these internal tax havens. I genuinely thought it was common knowledge.
I thought people generally knew that wealthy Americans live part-time in places like Jackson Hole, Wyoming. There’s a really good, long Daily Beast article from 2020 about Wyoming specifically operating as a tax haven for the billionaire class.
A few years ago, many small airports were given HUGE Fed funds to upgrade the facilities, navigation/communication infrastructure. Under the blanket of upgrading needed in remote Alaskan areas, without another means of transportation many times of the year. Under this cover.....many 'resort' airports became hi tech airports.
For those of you just finding out about this it was spoken of 12 years ago by Gabriel Zuckman and I believe is mentioned in his book "the hidden wealth of nations", so it is not exactly a state secret to my mind but it seems many dont know about these internal tax havens, isn't it odd how people from outside a given nation can know things about it that most within that nation do not. One can only imagine what outsiders see of my own that I miss or am never told of.
@ArmyOfAll, you are correct. However, the reason most people don’t know about this is because most people don’t have any wealth, therefore they are unable to “hi de” what they don’t have, but is important knowing about it.
We worry about Russia and China, but it's the Oligarchs we need to be talking about. Thanks for this. The US is an Oligarchy. DC is controlled by the doner class and some of the State houses too.
i don't worry about Russia and CHINA.They have the balls to stand up to us bully and globalists. the problem is insane super rich multi billionaires ruining the world and this country
For the middle class who own their homes, they should put their homes in an irrevocable trust so it can be passed to their children so that it stays in the family since most young people can no longer afford a home. A family member of mine plans to put their large family farm that has existed for 6 generations in a trust so it will remain in the family and will be passed on to future generations so that they can all benefit from it rather than fragmenting it and dividing it up which would be the end of it. Very small farms can no longer compete with large corporate farms so this is important.
A bank holding a trust also gets to put the money on their balance sheet. So the bank expands its liabilities (meaning the bank owes the money to the beneficiary) -- but the bank ALSO gets to expand its ASSETS.
“As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose--that it may violate property instead of protecting it--then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder.” Frederic Bastiat
it's obviously intentionally complex. It's written in code, the tax code. Define the word code, (words letters numbers or symbols arranged to obfuscate or HIDE the meaning of.) Lawyers are code readers.
People here have been hoodwinked into thinking obscene wealth is a virtue. We've got to help them see what the country could be like without the extreme wealth inequality.
Mind boggling, isn't it? Between the trillions squandered on perpetuating war and murdering people, and these greed infected fucks - the interest alone on this mountain of money would eliminate hunger and homelessness - not just in the US, but the world over.
What I get from this interview is that home wealth is being hidden in the form of Estate Taxation. Homes are being put into trusts so no Estate Taxes are paid when owner is deceased or if owner is sued. Are there any other use of trusts that I am missing?
Thank you! I had no clue. Imoo what ever your topics please try to have your guests always inform us how we can make change. So frustrating knowing a wrong but no clue how tofix it.
A few years ago in Canada (when the tax evasion reports came out), a lawyer who makes his living helping rich Canadians avoid paying taxes came out saying this was being done and the laws need to change so these taxes are paid even though he said he’ll continue to do so until that time, because if it’s not him it will be somebody else helping the rich.
Much like the zionist in Jerusalem saying if he didn't kick a Palestinian out on the street and steal his home, someone else would. Great fucking world. Great fucking people. Make mine a double, please! Wait, never mind - I'M BROKE.
my dad established a Trust to avoid estate taxes and when he passed, the designated Trustee in his trust document exploited the vague and fuzzy provisions to steal ["convert"] most of the money in the Trust bank account. I am a lawyer, and later found out about it. I failed to review my dad's Trust document when he was alive and when he told me about it because then I could have asked him to revise the unclear and sneaky stuff in the document. I could thus have easily prevented the Trustee's rip off. So my advice to anyone with a Trust particularly the designated Trust beneficiaries - typically the spouse and children - is to read the trust document and demand that whoever is the founding Trustee and his lawyer who drafted it remove any complicated, unclear or vague Trust provisions, or revise them so that they are clear to you and not against your interests.
Rich VS poor. Surviving on a disability program income, I was curious as to how many years I would have to save every income penny to become as rich as the richest person. It turned out to be a mere 32.5 million years. Yep, there does seem to be a tad bit on inequality.
Yeah The laws are to keep the working man poor, and it's a shameful situation.But the good thing is GOD will have the final payment for them. Iam not stingy with what little money I have I like to sleep at night LOL.thanks for the sharing this info my friends, enjoyed it much and have a wonderful day 👍🙏❤️
The money, land real estate and often stocks(bought early, cheaply), are put into trusts. These are the borrowed against In the form of low interest loans. Though the value of the holdings are now MUCH higher, the value as collateral is only recognized by the lender.
@@davidkyzer7045 I noticed afterwards that the cover of 'Billionaire enabler states' shows them in red. In addition to AK, TX, DE, FL & SD, the others are NV, WY, OH, TN and NH
Congress is responsible for creating/amending the tax laws at the federal level. Billionaires are just doing what the law allows them to do. And as you have said, billionaires have financial handlers whose job it is to reduce their taxes. And if Congress members and POTUS are taking donations from billionaires, they aren’t going to bite the hand that feeds them. The only way to change this for the 99% to push their reps in Congress to create fairer tax laws. Same for the state level.
So many comments I could not get through them all. Did anyone mention that places like Washington State take decades to build transit projects while the billionaires could finance the entire project and hardly even notice?
Yes it’s important to reduce wealth inequality and make sure everyone is paying their fair share. However, it’s also important to note that US gov is not financially constrained; it does not use or require fed taxes to pay for anything. Money to fund our public programs happens with a simple Yes vote in Congress. Please interview economist Stephanie Kelton on her book The Deficit Myth. would also be good to have economist Warren Mosler on to discuss his book The Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy.
the only solution i see, is to create a new solid physical currency, with a time limit for exchange. After that time, there are no more USD Federal Reserve notes, (which are actually notes of debt), & so hidden cash would be worthless !
Trusts are a problem but the tax system s a greater problem. The government wastes tremendous amounts of money and invest in the war machine rather than the human basic infrastructures.
Unfortunately, If they changed the laws, then the money would go to other countries, which may be even worse. You can see this with companies going to Ireland and setting up shells to launder money from one division to another, etc. It would take a concerted worldwide effort, but then some of these groups have the force of militaries and central banks to back them....
If a company moves itself or its manufacturing out of the U.S. then their goods and/or services sold in the U.S. could be taxed at a rate equal to the taxes lost to the U.S. because of that move.
End the trustee system nationwide, make all assets taxable, there must be transparency (period), but what interesting and noteworthy, is when the earth natural system that supports all life become unsustainable, the wealthy will be affected just as all life, imagine a person dying in the desert with a suitcase full of gold, you can’t drink gold, I wonder how many sailors adrift on the ocean, have died of thirst…
Poor people lose assets all the time because they can't afford or maneuver the probate system. So even having a will doesn't guarantee your heir will inherit anything.
On the logical side of truth and the facts of life.......no one lives forever, and you can't take it with you. I'm sure we can figure out a solution to this global wide problem.
Branding is so important. Please bring back the old Real News logo. This new one is weak, and lacks boldness, as if shrinking from its purpose. The older logo was just fine the way it was.
I bought a $5000 car for my daughter, paid taxes on the car and then gifted it to her. The DMV, twice, tried to charge my daughter sales tax on the car, which I had paid earlier. She and I were treated like criminals and tax cheats.
Wow, great show Mark. I'm so filled with rage, I'm ready to burn down some mansions. WHO'S WITH ME!!! Seriously, though, big props for bringing this to light. Great guests and discussion. Thank you!
"The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable, the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so. I see in some Resolutions of Town-Meetings, a Remonstrance against giving Congress a Power to take as they call it, the People’s Money out of their Pockets tho’ only to pay the Interest and Principal of Debts duly contracted. They seem to mistake the Point. Money justly due from the People is their Creditors’ Money, and no longer the Money of the People, who, if they withold it, should be compell’d to pay by some Law. All Property indeed, except the Savage’s temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents & all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity & the Uses of it. All the Property that is necessary to a Man for the Conservation of the Individual & the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who by their Laws have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire & live among Savages.- He can have no right to the Benefits of Society who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it." Benjamin Franklin, 25 December, 1783.
Although yes trusts hold wealth, it's entrepreneurial private wealth - it doesn't belong to the state. Trusts are not evading tax it's avoiding it legally. There are considerable drawbacks for the settlors/grantors for setting such structures up too. Furthermore, they are the wealth creators and they pay more personal tax by far than anyone other social strata and also although generate various other forms of tax through economic development without which the country would be significantly poorer. If anything there needs to be a fair annual wealth tax akin to what past Islamic empires would implement which is known as the zakat. There is absolutely no evidence to say the ultra wealthy are not paying their fair share of taxes. You go down that path, you'd be stealing their wealth and it will stifle entrepreneurship and they will leave the country.
It's really simple, just reverse the laws that made it legal back to the prior laws that made it illegal! It just requires honest politicians! Are there any left in the Congress or the Senate or the Courts??? Ha
So this is why they're coming after people with $600.00 or more in the bank. Walking passed a dollar to pick up a dime. Sure, that will balance the budget! 😵
A word to the billionaires.. You don't NEED a trust..do like the British monarchy...make yourself (into) a king (or queen) so that the tax laws do not apply to YOU. Govt, MSM etc all bow and scrape to you already...this is your next logical step!
Yes the wealthy have ways of Tax Avoidance. That being said, How many people here give extra to the government for taxes? I will assume 0. Why I don’t give any extra has nothing to do with loopholes that are given to the rich. Yes loopholes/Tax Advantages/Tax Incentives are a problem. I think however the bigger problem is the misappropriation of funds. We spend an awful lot of time pointing fingers at the rich without spending time pointing fingers at the people stealing our money. If you own a business and have an employee stealing money are you going to come down hard on Sales & Marketing for not bringing in enough money? Yes sales & marketing could be doing a better job however the bigger problem is the thief. If we bring in more money that’s more money for our politicians to steal. Look at the wealth of Congress members that make $250,000 per year and have amassed Hundreds of Millions. How is this done? Going after the ones that have created the jobs just to give the politicians a pass is like throwing your dog out because it has fleas. The Politicians work hand in hand with the Wealthy. We don’t vote for the wealthy but all of our politicians are elected. We have to take accountability that we are electing these people in office who give the .01% all the loopholes. Crying about wealth loopholes is absolutely insane to me. Trump raised the Gift tax from 5 million to 12 million and 2025 we will see what Congress does with this. If you say $12 million isn’t a lot please understand that’s per person so a couple can give up to 24 million with no taxes. So who are we going to blame the family who uses this so called “loophole”, or Ourselves for not going after the parties making the rules? My 2 Cents.
First money, then businesses (job and wealth creators) and then finally people will always move and migrate to places where they are most welcomed, meaning least taxed and regulated. This is a universal truth that will not ever change. It is the reason for why highly communist countries don't allow descendants, but yet don't allow them to freely move out of the country. One would think that countries like China and former Soviet Union would be happy if not conformists would just move away, but they don't allow them to, because too many would move away. And it's the most productive people who get out. Net recipients of a social system are at comfort to stay and just keep on receiving the fruits of the productive people. Just look at California, Millionaires are moving out of the state while drug dependents, mentally ill and homeless people are moving in in droves. In a true democracy, where each vote is truly equal, given that there are always more poor people than there are rich, the poor mass votes just, step by step, vote for money from rich people to transfer to poor people. Human nature is that if society allows people to be dependent, not self sufficient and unproductive many people will choose, opt for just that. I do desire that rich people pay their "fair share" of taxes but we need an honest definition of what "fair share" means, it should not be intrusive. But before we seriously discuss what to collect from whom, we need to discuss who the government subsidizes, many of today's US Billionaires have not accumulated their wealth on their on merit but have done so by receiving extremely favorable and specific regulatory treatment from the government. When an individual in retail wants to open and own his own store, he has to arrange for and pay to have a venue/property, but when a Billionaire wants to start, have a football club, the city (small government) will use tax payer money to give the Billionaire a stadium which costs Billions. A government system in which plain open bribery of politicians is allowed and, yes, celebrated is clearly not going to provide any answers...and it's also by default NOT a democracy because it means that not all votes are equal, the higher paying votes receive priority.
Investing is not the same thing as having money to eat with. How do they get the money out, spend it, and live? So a billionaire has trusts, then how do they stay rich if their trusts hold all of the money and just gets reinvested over and over in other investments? And when they have capital gains that go back into the trusts why don't they have to pay taxes on that? In the end this is not difficult. The math might be. The rules might be. But in the end it comes down to bad people willing to do bad things for other bad people for money. Nothing new.
The wealthy can hide their federal campaign contributions & buy the reactionary conservative results they want regardless of popular will. The constitution assigns to the Article I branch the plenary powers to regulate money & banking and interstate & foreign commerce; to tax incomes from any source; and totally ban all foreign entities from campaigns & lobbying. Fix campaign finance to require public disclosure of all advertising & contributions, including who’s behind orgs that participate; bar lobbyists from campaign activities; and amend ethics rules to protect legislators from bribery, etc, modeled on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Then there’s a better chance of enacting reform of state law abuses that undermine effective national practices (you know… all the good stuff set out in the Preamble)…
Billionaires & most millionaires are just about as alien as it gets to me, as a human being! No need to look for them in Space, lol!! Despite their power & wealth they still only entities under the sun & tomorrow isnt promised to anyone!! Love & Blessings
**sorry its a long post* I'm confused. Are we being taxed on money we already own? (it has already been taxed, no?) I'm not defending billionaires, just want a better explanation. I don't think we pay tax on our assets and bank account balances. Unless its in a pre-tax retirement account, and even then it isn't until we take it out. Please explain. I am not taxed on the money I have in the bank. We are taxed on income, not assets. In fact we depreciate our assets for further tax breaks. Please explain? You want to hire more IRS to scrutinize and decide what they believe is "right" or not? Have any of you ever spoken with them? Plenty of nice helpful people there, but too, not able to understand anyone complete personal situation, and prone to bias, just as a "fact checker" may be. We have, and can enforce, so many laws to stop nefarious activity. But we don't. Like Alex Jones. Censored. It did nothing. BUT, the law just found him guilty and he must pay $900 million. Law, if enforced EQUALLY for all, can solve most of the issues we see. The laws are there. We have let corporations (almost same as trusts) dictate our paradigm. The answer is not to hire tax-police and to do more censorship. The answer is laws creation, adherence, and enforcement. But they must be fair to ALL and not a pet project for the wealthy who can write in the loophole before it even is signed in. It is currently NOT illegal to put your money into a trust, and the Trust tax law is written in a way that benefits those with trusts. Change the laws to reflect equality and fairness. Period. 99.9% of billionaires are not breaking laws, they are exploiting them. They think they are smart and, well, they are in that sense, and they have the resources. Anyone here reading this can create a trust. ($50. go online and check it) But why make a trust? If you experience a calamity of health costs because we don't offer healthcare for free, as a right, then, if you have put your home in a trust, guess what, the hospital etc.. can't take your house. It is smart to protect what you have, isnt it? Its basic. And it doesn't equal "hiding", unless it is illegal IMH. What benefit to you to be upset that others are taking advantage of legal processes? Do it yourselves, create trusts to protect ourselves, because we ALL can. Or change the law, so that nobody can have a trust, and leave it up to IRSula Taxly to decide your fate, and even use your taxes to do it. If the laws are changed though, the billionaires accountant will 100% say: "Sorry Bill, we cant do that anymore, and I'm not going to jail for you." (..."however....., we can do this little known thing they haven't changed the law about lol.....) For this reason I say educate yourself, and do the same as them in your small way. There are so many of us it can be effective. Once we all do that, you will see how fast the laws will change.... or be enforced. 😂
@@katiekane5247 Its not an argument, its a fact that I am stating. The Federal govt can afford anything it wants available for sale in dollars. Does not collect taxes from us in order to pay for its spending.
@@henrygustav7948 You are right that it's not as much a federal gov issue. It's more of an issue of hiding money that should be circulating within many states. There's a huge problem with companies and wealthy families operating huge businesses in states but avoiding their normal taxes. This starves state budgets. They then turn around and usually use this wealth for lobbying and creating modern company towns/gated fiefdoms.
@@cryptbeast3222 If the Federal govt did its job and states accepted Federal funding then you would not have businesses running around to different states for "business friendly tax cuts". States would then be able to fully fund all services.
It I disgusting listening to how this is all about supporting state theft of money. All people should be using any legal means to prevent taxation. Honestly, all theft should be avoided, but especially through legal means. Use the strategies rather than hating those who do. Do you qualify for all the methods.. probably not. If you don't utilize those you can, then you probably never will.
The Death Tax is Unconstitutional. Income tax is only Constitutional because of an amendment. Complain about avoiding death taxes AFTER you get your representatives to pass an amendment to make that taxation legal.
That girl's (I say "girl" because she sounds like a child) voice is too annoying and hard to listen to. Darn, I would love to pass the information on but her voice makes it impossible.
Well, I happen to think she looks like a cartoon character too but what's important is what's coming out of her mouth. Use some of that Earth wisdom and get over the superficiality.
🟪Thanks to these folks and TRNN, I wish more people would see this. Yes, I been following this for years, blogged much over a 13 year period, too. Yes, as Chuck says, it's purposely designed to be complex, like with everything else, from legislation to leasing contracts, loans, etc. Even worse, is that these same entities of wealth are extracting all our tax and fee revenues, through philanthropies, Public Private Partnerships, etc, and replacing all govt and functions of, with privatization, starting with the west and going global. To be honest here, we are TOO FAR GONE to expect anything to change for the better, they already own our govt, elections, and much else, and we can't "outspend them", either, they have all our money. They have algorithms controlling our lives, from healthcare to market values of apartment/housing rentals, etc. They been working on this economics transition incrementally for about 50 years, for the 21st century. The only way, at this point, that I see we can fight back ... is for MASS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, noncompliance, strikes, boycotts, etc🟪
Important. But it just feels like nothing matters because the entire system is controlled by the rich and powerful. Barring some radical action, nothing will ever change.
