ProPublica Story reveals details on how Bezos, Musk, Buffet, Bloomberg paid virtually nothing.
The United States promotes itself as a full functioning democracy that believes in fairness, equal opportunity, and justice for all. However, when you see how the interests and desires of the bottom 90% have no influence in our political system, this country, one of the wealthiest in the world, functions more like an oligarchy. According to information leaked from the IRS to ProPublica, the wealthiest individuals are laughing all the way to the bank as you pay a higher tax rate than them.
ProPublica looked at the information provided by whistleblower to verify the information matched records from the IRS. Although they obtained some details (notably Jeff Bezos who paid $0 in 2007 and got a $4,000 rebate in 2011) there were more detailed numbers they obtained over a five-year period (2014–2018) for the top five wealthiest Americans. The author then wondered what the true tax rate would be for them by looking at how much it rose from 2014 to 2018. Then they looked at the total number of taxes they paid relative to their reported income over that same five-year period. The author discovered that the top twenty-five wealthiest people paid $13.6 billion out of $401 billion, just 3.4%.
In comparison the middle class over five years paid 14%. It’s no wonder the American middle class is shrinking, and that people are waking up to the fact that politicians don’t represent the needs of the working class. They’re bought off. We are one of the wealthiest nations in the world, yet the bottom 90% is expected to subsidize Jeff Bezos rocket for $10 billion when he’s already worth $170 billion. Or willingly fork over $8.7 billion in tax breaks to corporations like Boeing on a verbal promise that they won’t ship jobs to another state. Spoiler they said thanks and shipped them out anyway.
What is it going to take for suburban voters to understand that the real threat to democracy is the wealthy and international corporations, not welfare recipients? And what’s it going to take for you to do something about it? The wealthy and the powerful consistently keep us divided and promote infighting to divide the left. Instead what we should be doing is coming together in solidary to influence the electorate in issues like: Medicare for All, Tuition Free College, Cancelling Student Debt, Climate Change Action, UBI, expanding Social Security, basic voting rights, and ending homelessness. We can do it if we stand together. United we stand, divided we fall.
I don’t know about you but I’m choosing to get involved rather than sit on the sidelines waiting for someone else to do it.
