[youareawesome]

Just because it's not literally applicable doesn't mean it's meaningless, it emphasizes an important point that people overlook. The amount of wealth held by the top 80K is a drop in the bucket when compared to the total revenue of the federal government.

The greatest effect of this policy is that it will harm individual liberty. It will have nearly no effect on improving poverty or increasing social programs.

[moate]

But it's not. 45% of the federal government's income comes from individual taxes.

In 2016, the US took in about 1,442,385,000,000 total of which 839,898,000,000 was from the top 5% of individual earners. That's OVER HALF of the total amount[1].

You're wrong. You're point is not valid or based in the actual data. To say that hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in extra revenue couldn't help fund social programs or improve the conditions of the impoverished is factually inaccurate.

[1]https://taxfoundation.org/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-...

[youareawesome]

The IRS only enforces tax collection on the wealthiest individuals because it isn't efficient to do otherwise, that's why you see most of the tax revenue coming from the wealthy. They only go after the big fish.

You're wrong if you think that taxing individuals is going to decrease poverty or wealth inequality. Wealth inequality is not due to wealth individuals holding assets, but due to pay inequality. Corporations hold their profits instead of paying their workers fairly. It would be much more effective to impose a wealth tax on corporations to incentivize them to pay their workers.

Large multi-national monopolies are the problem, not rich people. If you can't see that, the corporations have effectively used your own morals against you. The uber rich won't be affected, only the new rich, people rising from the middle class.

[moate]

¿Porque no los dos?

[youareawesome]

Because one is just cynical pandering to non-rich people and an increase in government power at the expense of liberty while the other is actually effective at reducing poverty, reducing wealth inequality, and reducing dependence on the government. Throwing money at the problem doesn't work, especially a 5% increase. The problem is how corporations are structured.

[moate]

I think we're both just going to have to walk away from this one ol chap. You're never going to be able to convince me that rich people should exist, and I'm never going to be able to convince you that liberty is an illusion. Well played though.