{"id":352,"date":"2019-06-29T13:48:11","date_gmt":"2019-06-29T13:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/?p=352"},"modified":"2019-06-29T16:29:40","modified_gmt":"2019-06-29T16:29:40","slug":"taxing-the-rich-starts-with-knowing-who-they-are-by-chuck-collins-yes-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/352\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxing the Rich Starts With Knowing Who They Are by Chuck Collins \u2014 YES! Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

www.yesmagazine.org\/new-economy\/tax-rich-wealthy-policy-economic-equality-20190625\/<\/a>
\nTaxing the Rich Starts With Knowing Who They Are Not all the rich are created equal, and it will take different policy approaches to redistribute some of their wealth.
\nChuck Collins posted Jun 25, 2019
\nWe need taxes on the rich, now more than ever. To get there, we need a deeper understanding of who we mean by \u201cthe rich.\u201d Photo by Aslan Alphan\/Getty Images When we talk about the wealthy, who are we really referring to? Is it the billionaires on private jets? The neighbors up the street who seem to always have the flashiest new cars and exotic vacation photos?
\nThis election season, a number of candidates have floated proposals to tax the wealthy to address extreme inequality and finance new spending programs.. Often left unsaid is which segment of the wealthy they\u2019re referring to and why taxing the very rich is necessary for everyone to prosper, both to raise revenue and put a brake on the undemocratic concentration of wealth and power. The truth is we need these taxes on the rich, now more than ever. To get there, we need a deeper understanding of who we mean by \u201cthe rich.\u201d
\nA decade ago, journalist Robert Frank offered a helpful overview of the wealthy in his 2007 book, Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Book and the Lives of the New Rich. I\u2019ve adapted Frank\u2019s concept to present a road atlas to the villages of today\u2019s Richistan, USA. These villages include: Affluentville, Lower Richistan, Middle Richistan, Upper Richistan, and Ultra-Wealthyville.
\nAffluentville is home to most of those in the top 10 percent of the wealth distribution. Residents of Affluentville have household incomes over $150,000 and personal wealth, defined as assets minus debts, ranging from $1 million up to about $3 million. Their ranks total about 10 million households.
\nMost residents of Affluentville draw their income from high-end salaries, so they will be more directly affected by tax increases on earned income\u2014unlike those in upper Richistan, whose income comes from investments and capital gains.
\nThey may drive nicer cars, but still sit in traffic on the way to work. They are very concerned that their kids don\u2019t lose economic status. Thus, they invest heavily in tilting the scales in their favor\u2014hoarding public K-12 education dollars into the wealthiest school districts, securing legacy admissions to top-tier universities and internships at their friends\u2019 law firms.
\nTax policies that are aimed at Upper Richistan but reduces the cost of higher education and health care could win allies in Affluentville. This includes U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders\u2019 College for All and Medicare for All bills, as well as U.S. Sen. Cory Booker\u2019s American Opportunity Accounts baby bond bill.
\nLower Richistan includes approximately 3 million households with total wealth between $3 million and $10 million. According to our analysis of the 2013 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finance, adjusted to 2015 figures, these are the 98th and 99th wealth percentiles.
\nLower Richistanis populate upscale restaurants, country clubs, and luxury vacation destinations. They likely have second homes. They still fly on commercial airlines, but often sit in first class.
\nThe income and wealth of this group comes from business ownership, high salaries, stock investments, and inheritances. Lower Richistanis are among the political influencers, a group that grows the higher up the income and wealth ladder you go.
\nIf the objective of tax policy is to thwart plutocratic power-building, then we need to aim higher than Lower and Middle Richistan. If the goal is to maximize revenue, from say a luxury real estate transfer tax or broad-based income tax, then you want to include these folks.
\nMiddle Richistan is inhabited by the almost 2 million households that represent most of the top 1 percent of wealth holders. The wealthiest 1 percent have assets over $10 million, and average $26 million.
\nMiddle Richistan is where residents start to own their own jets, or at least fractional ownership of a private plane. They own multiple homes. Many have yachts.
\nThe people in this group have been huge beneficiaries of four decades of tax cuts, neoliberal trade policies, and other public policies that benefit asset owners at the expense of wage earners.
\nSen. Sanders\u2019 progressive estate tax bill, \u201cFor the 99.8% Act,\u201d would tax the estates of those who inherit more than $3.5 million with a sliding scale rate that rises to a 60 percent rate on wealth transfers over $1 billion.
\nUpper Richistan is home to roughly 160,000 households with wealth between $20 million and $100 million, the richest one-tenth of 1 percent. Their incomes alone start at about $3 million annually. This group received more than 90 percent of the income and wealth gains in the decades after the 2008 economic meltdown.
\nUpper Richistanis must come up with creative strategies to hoard their wealth and influence. These includes using private charitable foundations that fund right-wing think tanks, co-opt academic institutions, and support campaigns on their favorite issues.
\nRaising the income tax rate to 70 percent on Upper Richistani income over $10 million, as proposed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, would raise an estimated $720 billion over a decade. Unfortunately, it would not touch income from capital gains and dividends that accounts for half the income of this group.
\nA potentially more effective way to tax this group would be to tax all adjusted gross income over $2 million with a 10-percent surtax. Because it would include capital gains income, it would raise $75 billion annually and over $850 billion over the next decade, even with a lower rate.
\nUltra-Wealthyville is home to the 16,000 households in the richest 1 percent of the 1 percent (the 0.01%), including the roughly 540 billionaires in the U.S. They have wealth starting at $110 million and incomes starting at $11 million.
\nSome of them, but not all, own private jets, but they could if they wanted to. They collect houses around the globe, many of which function merely for \u201cwealth storage,\u201d parking their money in a place that\u2019s safer than financial markets.
\nTheir income comes almost entirely from capital gains, so they don\u2019t mind increases in the income tax rate; just don\u2019t touch investment income.
\nThey\u2019re known for dodging taxes. Research suggests that households in the top 0.01 percent with wealth over $40 million, evade 25 percent of personal income and wealth taxes. According to one estimate, this is roughly $7.6 trillion, or 10 percent of the world\u2019s wealth. Thus, we need a much bigger investment in tax enforcement for this group.
\nU.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren\u2019s proposed annual wealth tax would institute a higher 3 percent rate on assets over $1 billion. The total tax would generate an estimated $2.75 trillion in revenue over 10 years. No candidate has yet come forward with a luxury consumption tax, such as a tax on private jets, which would fall largely on this group\u2019s largesse.
\nIn the end, all residents of Richistan need to be called on to pay their fair share of taxes and to make meaningful contributions to the well-being of the country and the planet. This starts with understanding who these people are and how a serious restructuring of the rules can get us there.<\/p>\n

Mary Bolton 202-390-1208<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

www.yesmagazine.org\/new-economy\/tax-rich-wealthy-policy-economic-equality-20190625\/ Taxing the Rich Starts With Knowing Who They Are Not all the rich are created equal, and it will take different policy approaches to redistribute some of their wealth. Chuck Collins posted Jun 25, 2019 We need taxes on the rich, now more than ever. To get there, we need a deeper understanding of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-housingarchive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}