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Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by ponector on Sunday June 29, 2025 @05:10AM (#44411485)
There is actually no sense to put high taxes on ultra wealthy people. They have all means to avoid payment of income/profit taxes at all, no matter of the current tax rate.

That's why poor people pay the highest percentage of their income: they have no choice, no ways to do tax evasion.

Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by badpun on Sunday June 29, 2025 @07:49AM (#44412337)
You’re essentially saying that rich people are above the law. If that’s the case, we should fix that first.
Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by ponector on Sunday June 29, 2025 @09:35AM (#44413025)
That's right. Look at Trump and his friends.

Also you have no means to change the law. But ultra rich people can push/promote "correct" people to the government or to be elected. Like Musk did.

Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by adammarples on Sunday June 29, 2025 @10:09AM (#44413300)
They're not above the law, but they have the choice of which legal jurisdiction they reside in.
Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by simonask on Sunday June 29, 2025 @10:57AM (#44413671)
And so we arrive at the old insight that the fight against inequality needs to be global.

But I think you underestimate the possibilities. You can just design the law to make taxation a prerequisite for doing business. That's what the EU is (trying to) do, and it seems to work well.

Doing business in the EU and the US is a lot more profitable than not doing business there, even if you pay taxes. That's kind of the point.

Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by Workaccount2 on Sunday June 29, 2025 @03:42PM (#44415752)
If people don't want billionaires, they should quit their addiction to billionaires products.

"I hate Jeff Bezos, by I'll be damned if I have to give up same day delivery $6 Chinese mugs. The local made ones are $40!"

Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by vunderba on Sunday June 29, 2025 @04:50PM (#44416321)
I'd go a step further and say that (particularly if you are in the IT industry) and are also ideologically opposed to megacorps like Facebook, Amazon, etc. that you should deny them the power of your labor.
Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by simonask on Sunday June 29, 2025 @05:23PM (#44416546)
This is such a weird take. When choosing what to buy, it’s impossible to factor in whether or not you believe the seller is already too rich. How could such a market ever determine the price of goods?

No, free markets work reasonably well. What doesn’t work is extremely disproportionate wealth, which is a result of neoliberal policies from the 80s. Revert those policies (i.e., actually tax the wealthy), and get back to medium healthy economy of the 60s and 70s.

Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by badpun on Sunday June 29, 2025 @03:50PM (#44415810)
US taxes incomes of their citizens globally, so, no matter where you reside, you're still subject to US tax legislation. The only way to get away from it is to renounciate US citizenship, which I imagine the rich may not be ready to do.
Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by BrenBarn on Sunday June 29, 2025 @04:08PM (#44415994)
In theory, yes, but in practice the US doesn't have robust enforcement and it's easy for rich people to find loopholes to dodge taxes.
Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by xienze on Sunday June 29, 2025 @07:45AM (#44412317)
> That's why poor people pay the highest percentage of their income

The key word here is income. “Wealth” and “income” tend to be conflated by ostensibly intelligent people who should know better. If I’m granted a million dollars in stock but draw a $20K salary, I’m “wealthy” but not “paying my fair share” because I’ve hardly earned any income for the year.

Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by ponector on Sunday June 29, 2025 @10:13AM (#44413332)
Is it right? From my knowledge stock compensation is considered as income and is taxed.

But I got your point. There are ways to be wealthy, have a rich lifestyle but report no taxable income/profit.

What you actually want is to have a wealth tax like in Switzerland. 0.05-0.3% annual tax based on net assets.

Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by Workaccount2 on Sunday June 29, 2025 @03:43PM (#44415761)
Realizing stock value (selling stock) is considered income.
Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by ponector on Monday June 30, 2025 @03:25AM (#44420440)
Looks like you are talking about stock options, not stocks.

If you receive a stock as compensation - it is an income. If you sell them years later with profit - it is additional extra income.

Re:The Death of the Middle-Class Musician by FireBeyond on Sunday June 29, 2025 @06:23PM (#44417099)
> Is it right? From my knowledge stock compensation is considered as income and is taxed.

Unless you have enough stock that you can take a zero or low interest loan against that stock as collateral and kick that can down the road until you die and there's a huge threshold for estate tax, that is if you've not got it structured so that the stock is owned by a trust.