‘Billionaires should not exist’, Bernie Sanders says

This February 2019 video from the United States SEnate says about itself:

Sanders Proposes Tax Hike on Billionaires

Shock, shock, shock. I know you cannot believe this, but after passing a trillion dollar tax giveaway for the top 1 percent and large corporations, Republican leaders in the Senate have introduced a bill to repeal the estate tax for the richest 1,700 families in America.

Here’s what we should do instead. Today I’m introducing a bill to establish progressive estate tax on the fortunes of the top 0.2% of Americans and significantly increase rates on billionaires. The fairest way to reduce wealth inequality, invest in the disappearing middle class, and preserve our democracy is to enact a progressive estate tax on the inherited wealth of multi-millionaires and billionaires.

From a moral, economic, and political perspective our nation will not thrive when so few have so much and so many have so little. We need a tax system which asks the billionaire class to pay its fair share of taxes and which reduces the obscene level of wealth inequality in America.

From United States presidential candidate and senator Bernie Sanders today:

Billionaires should not exist

I want to ask you to clear your mind for a moment and count to 10.

1…
2…
3…
4…
5…
6…
7…
8…
9…
10…

In those 10 seconds, Jeff Bezos, the owner and founder of Amazon, made more money than the median employee of Amazon makes in an entire year. An entire year.

Think about that.

We live in a time when millions of Americans, including many Amazon employees, are working 2 or 3 jobs to feed their families and the three wealthiest people in this country own more wealth than the bottom half of the American people.

It’s absurd.

And in order to reduce the outrageous level of inequality that exists in America today and to rebuild the disappearing middle class, the time has come for the United States to establish an annual tax on the extreme wealth of the top 0.1 percent of U.S. households.

Add your name if you agree.

Sign my petition — add your name as a citizen supporter of my wealth tax on the top 0.1 percent of Americans as a way to reduce the obscene levels of income and wealth inequality in this country.

Our tax on extreme wealth would only apply to the wealthiest households in America and would cut the wealth of billionaires in half over 15 years — which would substantially break up the concentration of wealth and power of this small, privileged class.

This is how much more in taxes some of the richest people in America would owe this year:

The Walton family – $14.8 billion
Jeff Bezos – $8.9 billion
Charles Koch – $3.2 billion
Sheldon Adelson – $2.6 billion
Rupert Murdoch – $1.28 billion

Our plan would raise more than $4 trillion over the next decade and anyone with a net worth of less than $32 million would not see their taxes go up under this plan.

Now, I have never understood how someone could have tens and hundreds of billions of dollars and feel the desperate need for even more. I would think that with the amount of money the 0.1 percent of this country has, they might just be able to get by.

But the truth is, for the past several decades there has been a massive transfer of wealth from those who have too little to those who have too much.

And for the sake of our democracy and for working families all over America who are struggling economically, that has got to change.

But making it happen must start with all of us making our voices heard and being clear — loudly and directly — that the greed of the billionaire class of this country is intolerable, and it must end. And that starts with you:

Sign my petition — add your name as a citizen supporter of my wealth tax on the top 0.1 percent of Americans as a way to reduce the obscene levels of income and wealth inequality in this country.

In my view, a nation cannot survive morally or economically when so few have so much and so many have so little. Millions of people across this country struggle to put bread on the table and are one paycheck away from economic devastation, while the wealthiest people in this country have never had it so good.

It has got to stop.

And when we are in the White House, it will.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders