Tax the Rich? New Questions: A Socialist Perspective
Channel: LuckyBlackCat
Date: 2021-07-31

Do rich people who are not capitalists pay too much tax?

The rich pay a high portion of the tax revenue, but since rich capitalists amass their wealth by profiting off of the labor of workers, they are simply giving up a portion of the wealth that they extracted from the working class. So they really can’t complain. But not all rich people are capitalists. 

Some rich people are high-income workers; their main source of income is the wage or salary they receive for their own labor. Given that this is the case, it raises a few questions:

► Is it justified that these high-salary workers pay a high portion of the tax revenue? If so, what is that justification?

► Does the fact that they pay a high portion of taxes mean that they are contributing more to society than other members of the working class? 

► Does the high market value of their labor, as reflected by their high wage or salary, mean that their labor contributes more social value to society in general? 

And also:

► Higher tax for the rich is the progressive liberal solution for addressing economic inequality and providing better funding for public goods and public services. But what is the socialist solution?

This video essay will address these questions from a libertarian-socialist perspective. 

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►►Check out some of my other videos◄◄

► Tax the Rich? Why More Is Not Enough | Response to PragerU https://youtu.be/SJaoDBJC8M0
^ Part 1 of the video you’re watching now

► Socialism, Love, and a World of True Freedom https://youtu.be/CZ5TupULy7U

► Satisfying Answers on Socialism: An Open Letter to Destiny https://youtu.be/lyepf912aIg

► Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpgXZBN8fmc0t-rRGgKwDYfkBNSd8jYDS 

       ========================================================
       ACTIVISM & ORGANIZING
       Learning resources on workplace organizing (can be applied to other types of 
       organizing and activism)
       https://www.reddit.com/r/IWW/comments/h89e4n/a_list_of_learning_resources_on_workplace 
       ========================================================

SOURCES

Statistics that top 1% of Americans pay 12 to 13 percent of all taxes and top 10% pay about 42% of all taxes https://taxjusticenow.org/#/#makeYourOwnTaxPlan
• TaxJusticeNow.org is created by Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, both Economics Professors at University of California, Berkeley.
• It uses data from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) of the US Federal Government.
• The website doesn’t have these statistics but it has the data that allowed me to make these calculations. Feel free to go check my math. 
• My calculations were made in January 2021. 

Top 10 percent share of total income (US) https://taxfoundation.org/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-data-0

New Economics Foundation paper http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/bit-rich

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