Back during the 2020
Democratic primary, there were some
big ideas thrown around and
one of the biggest was the wealth
tax potentially being instituted in
the United States.
Elizabeth Warren was a big champion
of the wealth tax and
then unfortunately, for
a bunch of months,
you didn't hear much about it.
And look, any wealth tax,
the United States is going to have
a very hard road to passage that
necessarily would have to
go past the filibuster.
But at least though, it is being
talked about once again because
a slew of Democrats on Capitol Hill
including Elizabeth Warren and
Bernie Sanders on Monday proposed
a 3% total annual tax on wealth
exceeding $1 billion.
They also called for a lesser 2%
annual wealth tax on the net worth
of households and trusts ranging
from $50 million to $1 billion.
So I will say to the audience
first, before I give more details,
whenever something like this is in
the news, there are going to be
a lot of incredibly wealthy
people in the media.
They're going to try to scare you
into being terrified of it because
it's going to devastate your
personal finances.
Well, everyone watching this who
has a net worth of 50 million or
more, raise your hands, no kidding.
Okay, Viviana, 50 million,
keep it up in here in a billion.
No, okay,
think that we'll be okay, then.
So I'm going to have some more
details.
Let me read this one quote from
Elizabeth Warren.
She says, the ultra-rich and
powerful have rigged the rules in
their favor so much that the top
0.1% pay a lower effective tax rate
than the bottom 99%.
And billionaire
wealth is 40% higher than before
the Covid crisis began.
Thus I think they can probably
afford it.
We will have more details on this.
But Viviana,
what do you think about this?
>> I just want to say one thing.
First of all, yes, tax the rich.
And this is the other thing
I want to say.
They're taxing unemployment wages.
They're taxing unemployment wages,
and they're not taxing the rich,
$50 million.
You're not going to get taxed on
the 50 million you have,
it's the next dollar.
So it's when you have $50,000,001,
that $1 is going to
be taxed 2 cents or whatever it is,
you kidding me?
This is an argument.
This is how predatory capitalism
has taken over.
We have a history of breaking up
monopolies and breaking up trusts
and taxing the rich.
There was an obligation for
them to be more benevolent and
build libraries and universities.
I haven't seen them do this lately.
This hasn't happened, and
they were still corrupt back then,
and it still is better off.
So this is something that
should be a no brainer.
Absolutely do it.
I don't know who's going to vote
against it.
Are you kidding me that it's
going to ruin you?
>> I can think of a lot of people
that would vote against it in
the Senate.
>> I mean the people,
not the House.
>> Sure, sure, yeah.
>> Yeah. >> Yeah, although, look,
I should be fair.
Because I did that joke about
wanting to make sure that people
know that it wouldn't affect them
or whatever.
But it would affect some people,
about 100,000 people actually.
About 1 in 1,000 families and
I look,
I reassured the non-millionaires
and billionaires, so
let me reassure those 100,000
Americans.
So do you know what you get?
You take one of you,
and add this wealth tax.
So for instance, let's say you take
a billionaire and
then you add this wealth tax.
Do you don't you get?
A billionaire still and
they're going to be just fine.
They're going to have 3% less per
year, but they're going to make
more than that.
It's literally not even contracting
their wealth over time.
It is only limiting the rate of
expansion.
Do you know what you can't buy as
a billionaire after the wealth tax
that you could have bought before?
Because I don't know, the moon.
I don't know what actual effect it
has on your life.
Now, it would have an effect.
It could generate something like
$78 billion a year that in theory
could provide a big jump towards
switching over to Medicare for All.
It could pay for
universal four years of public
college for literally everyone
that wants access to it,
which would generate untold
benefits to the country at large.
In terms of those top 100 people,
it would have no effect whatsoever
on their actual lives.
Maybe it would mess with
their financial dick measuring
competition, I suppose,
but it would affect them all.
So it wouldn't even really mess
with that.
So it's a great idea, and
because it's a great idea, and
because it would help the working
class, it almost certainly isn't
going to pass.
But at least kudos to Sanders and
Warren for
bringing it up once again.
>> I mean, I think we should
just tell them what the rich tell
millennials who are having trouble
saving money.
Stop buying avocado toast,
aka mansions.
Don't buy a yacht, okay?
Sorry, you might not be able to get
the yacht you want.
This should be a pride in being
an American and or
having a corporation, having
a business in the United States.
This should be a pride that you
have to be able to give back to
your country.
There should be some sort of
patriotism tied to this, but no,
we're not about that.
We're about capitalism.
And it is appalling to say that
somebody can't be as rich
as they want.
How dare we tax them?
We're taxing unemployment as
income.
This is money that people
are barely scraping by, and
then they gotta go and pay their
taxes and pay taxes on this.
And we're complaining about 2 cents
after $50 million.
I mean, this is such a chasm
between the working class and
the 1%.
We can't even fathom
the amount of wealth they have.
These are not even rich people.
These are wealthy people that come
from generational wealth.
This will not break them,
even if they have a bad year,
the next year, and guess what,
then you won't be taxed.
Maybe you go below 50 million,
you'll be all right.
>> It's a great hypothetical, but
look at the worst year we've had.
It didn't break them,
they're doing fine.
Elon Musk is worth way more than
he was beforehand, so no.
>> People right now in this country
are in line for food banks.
And the other
group are buying Teslas.
I mean, this is where we're at.
There's such a dichotomy right now,
and we have to do something
about it.
And this is exactly what we
need to do.
So of course we applaud Warren and
we applaud Bernie.
And we really hope that this
makes a move.
We have a majority.
We need to make this kind of
progress in this country or
who knows what's going to happen in
four years, Trump or not, I mean.
The Democratic Party is almost as
conservative as
the Republican Party at this point.
>> By the way, this is the
conversation we should be having
about something like this and we're
having a conversation about, can we
finally raise the minimum wage?
What a failed state we live in.
>> It's exactly right.
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