{"id":101359,"date":"2017-11-06T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T12:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=101359"},"modified":"2018-01-13T20:30:07","modified_gmt":"2018-01-13T20:30:07","slug":"quality-of-life-floor-and-wealth-ceiling-a-house-we-can-all-live-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/11\/quality-of-life-floor-and-wealth-ceiling-a-house-we-can-all-live-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Quality-of-life Floor and Wealth Ceiling: A House We Can All Live in"},"content":{"rendered":"

What if, instead of cutting taxes for the rich as its current president calls for, the US raised them significantly, implementing a 100% annual wealth tax on all personal assets over $10 million?\u00a0 And, at the same time guaranteeing high quality employment, health care, housing, education and retirement benefits for everyone residing in the US, no exceptions?<\/p>\n

What a painless way for the US to both address social ills at home and set a healthy example for the rest of the world.\u00a0 The quality-of-life floor could be funded by tax revenues from the wealth ceiling.\u00a0 The wealth ceiling, in turn, would reduce the need for spending on military, policing and security operations that currently safeguard the excessive wealth of the few.<\/p>\n

Every US citizen and resident would be required to declare their net worth each year, and any assets above $10 million would be taxed at a 100% rate.\u00a0\u00a0 Bill Gates, who tops Forbes\u2019 list of the richest in the US (and world) with a net worth of $86 billion, would have to either donate, give away, or spend $85.99 billion of his assets, pay that amount in taxes, or some combination of the above.\u00a0 Lucky Bill would still be left with $10 million to easily maintain a comfortable and luxurious lifestyle, and his wife Melinda would get to keep $10 million, too.<\/p>\n

Those with net worth of over $10 million represent roughly 1% of the US population, owning together a mind-boggling 35%, or $32 trillion, of total personal net worth in the US, estimated at $93 trillion. \u00a0Of this 1%, nearly 2,000 are billionaires and multi-billionaires.\u00a0\u00a0 Invested conservatively at 3-5%, $1 billion could yield annual earnings of $30 to $50 million, without lifting a finger.\u00a0 Assets of $10 million could easily yield $300,000 to $500,000 in annual income.\u00a0 Compensation for work would be in addition.\u00a0 The scope of such wealth is truly difficult to grasp for people of modest means who just get by from day to day and even more so for those who struggle to survive.<\/p>\n

Unchecked economic growth is cancerous and ultimately lethal.\u00a0 Such highly concentrated wealth must be viewed as pathological when half the US population\u2014disproportionately people of color\u2014are poor and low income, while about 15% of children and the elderly live in poverty, and nearly a million are homeless. \u00a0\u00a0Not to mention the widespread misery in other countries as a result of US foreign policy (directed by the political clout of wealthy elites) of warfare, neoliberalism, usurious IMF loans and US-imposed austerity measures.\u00a0 Researchers have shown that high levels of income inequality, more than poverty per se, cause major social problems, with the US having the greatest income inequality of all industrial nations.[i]<\/a><\/p>\n

Exactly 100 years ago workers in Russia shook the world by seizing political and economic power by force from the super-rich and holding onto it.\u00a0 \u00a0Given the deepening economic divide in the US and elsewhere, many say that revolutionary changes are needed now.\u00a0 Let\u2019s start with changes that would cause no harm to anyone and would bring much good to all.\u00a0 During the Occupy movement of 2011, the 99% rose up and called out the excesses of the 1%.\u00a0 Instead of demonizing the 1%, let\u2019s invite them to join with the 99% in ensuring a decent and dignified life for all, the 100%.<\/p>\n

Imagine trillions of dollars being redistributed and diversified throughout the economy, including the public coffers, to provide much needed services and infrastructure.\u00a0 Too often the very wealthy invest their earnings in exotic financial instruments that have nothing to do with tangible activities.\u00a0 Implementing the wealth ceiling together with a strong quality-of-life floor would result in increased money circulation in job intensive activities in both the private and public sector.\u00a0 \u00a0It would incentivize movement towards:<\/p>\n