Were you wondering whether the title refers to the cost to build 413 high-speed railway lines? Or perhaps 413 wind turbines to address global warming? Or maybe for $1.5 trillion you were thinking we could construct 413 new factories for businesses to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs? Nah. Here it is: we now have 413 billionaires in the country whose net worth totals $1.5 trillion.
From the Financial Times’ reporting of the new billionaire class numbers:
The number of billionaires in leading emerging economies has surpassed the number of those in Europe for the first time and is quickly closing in on the US, according to new figures from Forbes.
The US still has the world’s most billionaires, with 413 individuals with a total net worth of $1,500bn.[emphasis added]
Remember, now this is just billionaires. We aren’t even diving into the net worth of the people worth $500 million or $100 million or a paltry $10 million–all of whom are being given even more tax breaks because they need some more cash.
David Cay Johnston, the expert writer on taxes, pointed out not too long ago that if you were in the top 400 of the wealthiest people in the country–which pretty much covers the 413 billionaires–if you had to live only on the money you got from all the tax cuts given out since 1964, your best year in that top 400 would bring you $66.5 million, which, if you invested it at just 5 percent, would give each of those 400 people $247,000 a month to live on.
I think I could squeak by on almost a quarter of a million bucks per month. How about you?
So, when you see those numbers for the 413 billionaires, you can see how pathetic our public debate is about taxes. My alternative to the tax structure we have today:
• Raise the top income tax rates to 40 percent and 45 percent (the top rate is now 35 percent for married taxable income above $351,000);
•Add a top rate of 50 percent for those people with taxable income higher than $1 million and—this is crucial—tax investment income as ordinary income (the proposal also assumes that Congress will fix the Alternative Minimum Tax, which costs the Treasury money).
We could—and should—raise the two new suggested top rates higher, with the top rate for the richest 1 percent set at least at 50 percent.
From 1951-1964, the post-war era, which America’s leaders and pundits like to point to as the beginning of a great boom and growth in the country, the top rate was 91% for married couples making $200,000 and up.
Higher taxes have nothing to do with "hurting economic growth" or other explanations that are a pile of rhetorical garbage. They are about one thing, to quote well-know left-wing radical Bill Gates, Sr.: "And my analysis is they don’t want to pay the tax. The rich guys don’t want to pay the tax."
So, next time you hear some politician talk about the need to tighten the belt, cut Medicare, layoff teachers, close senior centers and freeze federal pay, remember, the formula 413=$1.5 trillion.
