Taxing the rich, explained.

 

Today is officially Tax Day, so we want to go into a little more detail on what exactly we mean when we say "tax the rich." Our leaders have historically taken the opposite approach: cutting taxes for the rich and expecting wealth to "trickle down" to the rest of us (spoiler alert: it doesn't).

As we work to reshape our economy and make it work for everyone — not just the people at the top — taxing the rich is the clear and necessary solution.

So, why do we need to tax the rich?

• The super rich pay lower taxes than the poorest Americans. The United States has a regressive tax system in which the richest people actually pay lower effective tax rates across all levels of government than the poorest people in our country. Seems hard to believe, right? But it’s true.¹
  
• Taxes on the rich are much lower than they used to be. Check out this graph from The New York Times comparing rates from 1950 to 2018.²
  

  

• Two men — Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — own more wealth than the bottom 40% of Americans combined.³
• During the pandemic, U.S. billionaires saw their wealth go up 55% from $2.95 trillion to $4.56 trillion. Just the gains they made over the last year of this pandemic alone could pay for almost 70% of Biden’s jobs plan.⁴
• U.S. income inequality has returned to Gilded Age levels from the early 1900s. Our inequality levels are the highest of all G7 countries (UK, Italy, Japan, Canada, Germany, France).^5,6
• CEOs at large companies in the U.S. now make an astonishing 264 times what the average U.S. worker makes.⁷ In 1989, the ratio was 58-to-1, and in 1965, it was 20-to-1.⁸
• Polls show Americans don’t believe the rich pay their fair share, but Republicans keep lowering their taxes. Gallup polls as far back as 1992 have shown that the vast majority of Americans want to tax the rich more.⁹ Even then, Presidents Bush and Trump pushed through massive tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

Are you fired up and ready to tax the rich?

Good — because we can’t win this fight without grassroots activism and organizing. If you know someone who might benefit from reading the facts above, please forward them this email. If we can unite the working people of this country, we can tax the rich, close the inequality gap, and bring about a just economy for all of us.

– Team AOC

P.S. You can also show your support with a "Tax the Rich" shirt or hoodie — 100% of proceeds help fund Team AOC’s critical grassroots organizing and campaigning. Get your "Tax the Rich" shirt or hoodie now >>

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1 - New York Times
2 - New York Times
3 - Bernie Sanders
4 - Institute for Policy Studies
5 - Pew Research
6 - Inequality.org
7 - Inequality.org
8 - MarketWatch
9 - Gallup

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