A group called Americans for Tax Fairness has tracked the remarkable increase in the wealth of billionaires during the rise of the pandemic.
Shouldn’t billionaires pay higher taxes to help the children of their state? What profiteth a man to gain additional billions if the society he lives in is overrun with starving, unfed, uneducated children?
WASHINGTON—New York has 118 billionaires who collectively saw their wealth increase by $77.3 billion or 14.8% during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic even as the state’s economy was reeling from a huge spike in joblessness and a collapse in taxes collected, a new report by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) and Health Care for America Now (HCAN) shows. One new billionaire joined the list during the three-month period bringing the total to 119 billionaires, of whom 113 are U.S. citizens and 6 are foreigners with residences in the state.
New York State is projecting a $13.3 billion revenue shortfall in FY2021, or a 14% decline.
Between March 18—the rough start date of the pandemic shutdown, when most federal and state economic restrictions were in place—and June 17, the total net worth of the state’s 119 billionaires rose from $521.5 billion to $600.7 billion, based on an analysis of Forbes data. Forbes’ annual billionaires report was published March 18, 2020, and the most recent real-time data was collected June 17 from the Forbes website.
Three New York billionaires—Michael Bloomberg, Julia Koch and Stephen Schwarzman—saw their wealth grow by 25%, 26% and 27%, respectively. During about the same period of the pandemic, 2,594,000 of the state’s residents lost their jobs, 387,000 fell ill with the virus and 31,000 died from it.
Would it be too much to ask them to pay taxes to support our children and our schools?
Jeff Bezos adds record $13 billion in single day to fortune
It’s interesting to look at they types of business that each coast has listed. NY has mostly financial companies listed while the west coast is a host of tech firms. Either way, the data doesn’t lie…the uber rich get richer while the poor gets poorer and the middle class gets decimated. When will the uber wealthy learn that the only way that they make any money at all is if there is a large pool of people able to “purchase” the products they are offering? It’s top heavy and we smart people all know what is bound to happen and it ain’t gonna be pretty for anyone.
Nope. But it appears that the rich will keep pushing their toy until it breaks. They haven’t learned from history.
Yeah, but billionaires work hard while poor people lose their jobs and slack away. So billionaires deserve their extra income.
It’s like during wars: those who supply weapons work very hard and deservedly get big $$ for it while all common people do is stay in bunkers or die as soldiers—neither involves much hard work, does it?
Máté Wierdl: Don’t forget to talk about ALL those lazy people who want $600 extra on unemployment insurance so they don’t have to go back to work. /s
I say, “Cut SNAP and don’t give them very much in unemployment insurance.” Starvation is a great motivator to find a job. Lazy people have to be punished. The GOP actually believe this garbage.There are no jobs and minimum wage isn’t enough to live on.
I have a friend in Miami who is working part time for $7.25 an hour. She’s glad to have a job but it isn’t enough to even pay for a efficiency apartment or buy the cheapest food to survive. She says that if she gets ill she can’t afford to go to a doctor.
My financial advisor’s wife, a multi-millionaire, actually stated that giving money to the poor will keep them from wanting to work.
MITCH MCCONNELL: Yes, we are in the middle of a pandemic, and this has hit billionaires particularly hard. They are having to hire additional accountants and investment managers just to keep up with the terrible inflow of assets. That’s why we are announcing our Billionaire Relief Package, which will target much-needed funds to thousands of accountants and portfolio managers for billionaires at a time when the economy desperately needs this boost. Democrats like to talk the talk, but they’ve sent us a bill that does nothing to address this crisis. And I can tell you right now, that bill is DOA.
But we know that both parties are loyal to big business and the monied folks….right? It’s the only way that politicians get elected and reelected time and time again. I don’t like Mitch and the rest of the Republicans, but the Dems have done their own part with having federal stimulus money flowing to those who need it least.
That’s why, AFTER Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are defeated, we have to put a lot of pressure on President Biden. But there will be time for squabbles at the family dinner table AFTER the election. Or, to use a different analogy, we can polish the brightwork AFTER we fix the hole in the hull.
Nice maritime analogy, Bob. I’m partial to those! I think it’s from watching too much Ghost and Mrs. Muir as a kid! 🙂
How do we push Biden once we’ve elected him? Once he already has the only thing he wants from us, what’s the “or else” when (notice I didn’t say if) he goes right instead of left? He knows he’s going to be a one-term president, so threatening not to vote for him in 2024 holds no power. Besides, there will be some other horrible, crazy, atrocious, worst possible presidential candidate ever on the Republican ticket, so we’ll have to vote Democrat again to prevent Armageddon. So, again, specifically, what’s your plan for pushing Biden after you vote for him?
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/07/in-defense-of-litmus-tests
What is your plan for pushing Trump if he is re-elected? He will be term-limited unless he declares himself president for life.
@Bob Shepherd. I would like for one time before I leave this earth to be able to say that I got to vote for people that I believe would do good for “the people”. That hasn’t been the case in my lifetime (I was 18 in 1982/Ronald Reagan yrs and Obama’s Cabinet was a huge disappointment for me). I would also like to see a Universal Healthcare system. I don’t need to be rich, I don’t need to have power, I don’t need “things” to make me happy. I just want politicians to work for the majority of “the people” so that everyone can live a decent life. The wealth gap is the biggest problem in this country and our politicians keep feeding the greed machine.
Same, Lisa!
Just freaking once!
LisaM,
I hope you aren’t suggesting that democrats like Elizabeth Warren, AOC and her squad and Jamaal Bowman are loyal to big business and the monied folks.
Citizens United would likely be ended already if Gorsuch and Kavanaugh were instead 2 justices like Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I understand there are some on the left (not you) are certain that having even more Kavanaughs to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg would be no worse than having three more Ginsburgs since justices appointed by the democrats loyal to big business like Ginsburg are just like justices appointed by Republicans who are loyal to big business and all of them take their marching orders from the same place. But people who believe in facts know that isn’t true.
AOC, Elizabeth Warren and Jamaal Bowman recognize the reality. So do Trump, McConnell and the propagandists who got enough voters on the left to help them demonize democrats and help insure that instead of two more Ginsburgs we have Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. Which is fine with both those on the right and some on the left who still believe the right’s false rhetoric that having Gorsuch and Kavanaugh is no different than having two liberal justices appointed by a “pro-corporate democrat” because they are all in thrall to corporate interests and the monied folks equally.
LisaM,
“I would like for one time before I leave this earth to be able to say that I got to vote for people that I believe would do good for “the people”.
Did you vote for Jesse Jackson in the 1984 primary? Did you vote for John Edwards? Do you mean that you didn’t get to vote for a candidate that won? (If so, then I also didn’t get to do so until I was in my 30s!)
I voted for Ted Kennedy in the 1980 primary because I was certain he was the only candidate who would “do good for the people” because Jimmy Carter had only done bad things.
But in retrospect, and had I looked at the facts, I would have acknowledged that Jimmy Carter did good for the people, even if he didn’t do everything I wanted. So did Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
And I was deluding myself when I believed that defeating Jimmy Carter was very important because he had done nothing good during the 4 years he was president and defeating Carter was the only way to have a president who would do good things.
Ironically, the most recent democrat who actually did do good for the people by progressive standards — LBJ — also “did bad” for the people in other ways. But that is still preferable to a Republican who doesn’t do any good things for the people, right? (I definitely didn’t think so when my primary goal was to defeat Jimmy Carter but I do now.)
In other words, it’s complicated. But the move toward progressivism was hurt by people like me who knew that Jimmy Carter needed to be defeated for not doing any good for the people. Twelve years of Reaganism hurt this country a lot and 8 years of Clintonism was helping turn this country in a more progressive direction. Democrats always have to clean up the horrible messes of the Republicans and when they do and have the chance to move this country more progressive, they are defeated for not doing enough. Then you have 8 years of Bush/Cheney destroying the country all over again
Maybe having Jimmy Carter and then Mondale as presidents between 1980 and 1992 instead of Reagan/Bush would have been just as bad for the progressive movement, but I doubt it. Would we still have Trump sending what amounts to his own private army to violently round up peaceful protesters right now?
I have posted this at Oped https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/New-York-Billionaires-Get-in-Best_Web_OpEds-American-Schools_Billionaires_Diane-Ravitch_Economy-200721-268.html
So much money went to charters in Connecticut where I teach and so little to public schools. The billionaires just keep finding new grifts to send public wealth their way. Trump’s war on the post office comes to mind as yet another example…
Bad times always favor the ultra rich. Billionaires can invest heavily during a recession and make out like bandits. Why don’t we give them another tax break?
—————————————–From: “Diane Ravitch’s blog”
To: pbarton1@charter.net Cc: Sent: Tuesday July 21 2020 11:06:53AM Subject: [New post] New York: Billionaires Get Richer During Pandemic
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dianeravitch posted: “A group called Americans for Tax Fairness has tracked the remarkable increase in the wealth of billionaires during the rise of the pandemic. Shouldn’t billionaires pay higher taxes to help the children of their state? What profiteth a man to gain addi”
Former Presidents of Bar Association Urge “Disciplinary Proceeding” Against Barr
July 22, 2020
The letter writers cite four instances of the attorney general violating his obligations to the American people.
A letter to the District of Columbia Bar Association is asking the organization to take the serious step of investigating Attorney General William Barr’s conduct on at least four important matters, a move that could lead to the group taking disciplinary steps against him in the future.
The letter contains nearly 30 signatures from members of the bar, including four former presidents. Andrea Ferster, Philip Allen Lacovara, Marna S. Tucker and Melvin White, all former presidents of the D.C. Bar Association, also added their names to the complaint.
The actions taken by Barr that have raised the strong misgivings among the signers of the note are those of a political nature and involve Barr’s dealing with matters related to President Donald Trump…
https://truthout.org/articles/former-presidents-of-bar-association-urge-disciplinary-proceeding-against-barr/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Truthout+Share+Buttons