Top 10% have net worth of $40 TRILLION
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low taxes
Top 10% have net worth of $40 TRILLION
Yes the top 10% of Americans have a personal net worth of $40 trillion. Why is this important to you?
Because it proves that America is NOT broke. All my life I have been told by the Republicans that government is broke, that Social Security is broke and that all government programs are too expensive.
None of this is true.
The US has a national debt of about $13 trillion. The top 10% have a net worth of $40 trillion. That doesn’t equal broke in any accounting system in the world. If you add the net worth of American based (huge only) corporations you add over $100 trillion.
Assets $140 trillion; debt $13 trillion = net worth $127 trillion
That ain’t BROKE!
So what is going on? Why are we continually told we are broke? The Republicans hate government, especially programs that help the middle-class and the poor. So they have implemented a “starve the breast” strategy of continuing to reduce taxes, until there is no money for government.
Along with this they scream that all Americans, but especially the rich and corporations are over taxed.
Facts:
1. Average federal income tax rate paid in 2009 12.6%
2. Average federal income tax rate paid by top 1% in 2009 22%
3. Most US based corporations like GE and the oil companies made hundreds of billions and paid no corporate income tax
4. Federal income taxes are now at the lowest they have been in decades
We can easily end our budget problem now. All we need is to tap the wealth being held by those at the top, who have been cheating the rest of us since Reagan.
Do this now:
1. Raise the top tax rate to 50% of all personal income over $150,000
2. Implement a wealth tax on net worth of individuals for all net worth over $2 million (private home is excluded). A 5% annual tax to be used for grants to local communities to hire teachers, firemen, policemen, etc.
3. Tax all corporate net income held overseas, currently over one trillion is held off shore, to avoid taxes by the greedy corporations
4. Eliminate the rich man exemption on Social Security tax. Get ride the wage limit of just $107,000. Now all wages will be taxed. The greedy CEO making $30 million has to pay SS tax on all his wages, not just one day’s worth. This alone would save Social Security for another 50 years.
I know it will not happen, but it could, if we just told the truth and agreed to pay our bills. What all intelligent people know is that we are not broke. The rich and greedy have all the money and they refuse to pay their fair share. Corporations are tax cheats, helped by Republican politicians.
Warren Buffett (net worth $40 billion) said it best. “There is a class war, but the rich are making war and we are winning.” He should have said, with the help of the Republicans.
What say you? Are we broke?
To read more click here http://hubpages.com/profile/thejcrevelator2
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Of course America isn't broke, it's just lopsided and the recession is not equal for all.
Very well stated. The U.S. is undertaxed compared to the rest of the world and to what its obligations are. This includes its obligations to its poor and elderly through entitlements. It is no way broke just tax averse.
I've actually been writing about all of the off-shoring that's going on right now. The time to straighten this thing out is now, because I'm thinking that the folks at the top understand that the only way to get back to a point of equilibrium, they are going to have to let go of some of the wealth. The bottom line is that they'd rather leave than do that and they're in the process of setting that up as we speak.
Where did you get your source info for this hub? I want to share it on my other networks.
Awesome Hub! I bet if this was taught in school...oh wait, that couldn't happen! I wish everyone in America really knew about this. I wonder what would happen if they did? Great job. Up and Awesome!
JSMatthew~
hmmm. This stuff is worrying. Great hub!
Matt
Thanks to all who were kind enough to comment.
Most people in the US think they are overtaxed, because they have been told that lie for 30 years.
The taxes in other western countries are two to three times as high as ours and they don't spend $800 billion a year on the military. They do have universal healthcare.
The average tax rate paid in 2009 is from the IRS and the other numbers regarding the net worth of the top 10% of Americans, came from David Stockman, Reagan’s budget director.
Stockman suggested we might consider a one-time tax on net worth of the wealthiest 10%, to pay off the national debt.
The real long term problem is the fact 50% of all personal income taxes collected goes to support the military, wars and foreign military bases. This number is scheduled to go up for the near future. We can no longer afford this kind of expense. We don’t need over 1,000 foreign military bases in over 100 countries to protect America.
We now spend as much as the rest of the world combined on war and killing in places that have no national security impact of us. Why are we killing people in Yemen?
Thanks again for reading and for your comments
I have a few friends on FaceBook that would enjoy reading this. May I share it with them.
So let me get this straight, If your company has 10 Million extra dollars and my company has minus 2 million I'm not broke? I just have to take your money?
Also Warren Buffet is a hypocrite! If he talks all this I'm good stuff, How come he took all the deductions? Why doesn't he practice what he preaches?
I agree to some degree of what your stating like taxing the corporations, They should have to pay tax! Obama hired the GE CEO and he helped make policy laws where they did not pay any tax last year and made 50B in profits! To say it is the republicans is just ignorant.
The Government needs to stay out of the way, They waste so much money and put ridiculous programs out there just to get votes. Lobbyist need to be illegal! Do you honestly think 2M to study a hamster on a wheel is good? 5M to research the menstrual cycle of a gopher? 1B for a bridge to Nowhere?
Also you do realize that if you raise the tax rate many more companies will move over seas and take more jobs, If you owned a company and can do it for far less what would you do?? lets be real here. You conveniently leave out the the top 10% pays over 60% of the entire taxes already and about 30-40% do not pay anything! This is America Anyone hungry enough can make it! Look at Greece that is where we are headed if we do not get this under control fast!
As Far as all the wars including Libya and Yemen we are not there yet. We should get paid to do it! why should we pay for this? We can get out of this and have enough for SS and medicare and other needed security nets if we just do the right thing.
TPC,
Go for it. You are always welcome to share anything I post.
Thanks for reading and for your support...
MA,
Just a quick note; the government belongs to everyone who lives inside the US. We all get benefits from the government, some more than others and we all pay for the government. The only resource government has is the citizens. Those who say we don’t need taxes are just out of touch with reality.
The abolish government gang is a group of selfish, uncaring and total ignorant people.
We will always have government if we want to claim we are civilized. We must provide for the “least among us” if we claim to be moral.
Laws for behavior and the protection of citizens are worthless without government to enforce the laws. This same groups says we don’t need laws. Let the individual decide for himself. Let corporations decide if they want to make safe products, pollute the air and water and mistreat workers.
I says let go back to taxes under Reagan with a top rate of 50%. Let’s tax the wealth of those with obscene wealth and help society by creating jobs.
Finally, US corporations will never again create middle-class jobs. The new model is invent the products here in the US, manufacture them in Communist China and support them in India.
GE makes all their appliances in the largest dictatorship in the world, Communist China. So do all the other major companies, IBM, HP, DELL, Apple, Microsoft and the list goes on.
They do this because they can pay slave wages and mistreat workers, pollute the environment and avoid all product safety requirements.
Thanks for reading and for your comments…
ElderYoungMan Level 3 Commenter 11 months ago
That puts it right into perspective doesn't it!