The letter is addressed to all presidential contenders, and refers specifically to a plan offered by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Her proposal would create a wealth tax for households with $50 million or more in assets — including stocks, bonds, yachts, cars and art. She estimates such a tax would affect 75,000 families, and raise $2.75 trillion over 10 years.
A desire to curb the rising concentration of wealth has long been part of the Democrats’ core message, but a Republican tax bill in 2017 that delivered the biggest benefits to Americans with the highest incomes reinvigorated the debate.
In recent months, Democrats including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont have offered up ambitious tax proposals targeted at wealthy taxpayers. At the same time, they have questioned whether vast family fortunes conferring outsize economic and political power are inimical to democratic values.
Surveys undertaken in the wake of those proposals showed that roughly seven out of 10 Americans supported higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
The swirl of attention provided an opportunity to advance the conversation around inequality, social responsibility and taxes, Mr. Hughes said.
“One thing that we collectively want to see is further research and more activism on policy design,” he added. His husband, Sean Eldridge, a founder of the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America and a former congressional candidate, also signed the letter.
The letter unequivocally declares that a wealth tax “strengthens American freedom and democracy” and “is patriotic.”
And it points out that economic researchers estimate that the richest 0.1 percent of Americans will pay 3.2 percent of their wealth in taxes this year compared with 7.2 percent paid by the bottom 99 percent. “The next dollar of new tax revenue should come from the most financially fortunate, not from middle-income and lower-income Americans,” the letter declares….
Members of the billionaire club have previously argued that they should be taxed more. In 2011, Warren E. Buffett, the founder of Berkshire Hathaway, published an essay noting that his effective tax rate was “actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office.” His comments prompted President Barack Obama and others to push for a “Buffett rule” mandating that millionaires pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes.
In 2014, Nick Hanauer, a Seattle-based entrepreneur, published a memo to “My Fellow Zillionaires” noting that “people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country — the 99.99 percent — is lagging far behind.”
He added: “If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us.”
Mr. Hanauer signed the letter published on Monday, as did Molly Munger, a lawyer whose father is Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. She and her husband, Stephen English, were co-founders of the Advancement Project, a civil rights organization. He also signed the letter.
Other names on the letter were Stephen M. Silberstein, co-founder of the software company Innovative Interfaces; the philanthropist and arts patron Agnes Gund and her daughter Catherine Gund, the founder and director of Aubin Pictures; Arnold S. Hiatt, chairman of the Stride Rite Charitable Foundation; Justin Rosenstein, a co-founder of Asana, which provides work-management tools; Robert S. Bowditch Jr., the founder of MB Associates, a real estate development firm, and his wife, Louise; and Mr. Soros’s son Alexander, deputy chair of the Open Society Foundations.
The final signatory was “Anonymous.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
They must know on some level that the gap can’t just increasing without some profound correction. That must be clear to some of them 30 years out from this trickle down experiment. The results are in. They’ve been in.
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Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal of Corporate Apologetics just ran a snide opinion piece saying, “OK, rich liberals, if you want to be taxed more, start writing checks to the government.” An attempt, again, to distract from the need for systemic change. It is long past time that we started addressing the severe inequities in this country. It’s GREAT to see that this is going to be a central issue in the upcoming election.
Contrast people like Abigail Disney and Nick Hanauer to Don the Con, who, just after the big Ryan tax cut for the wealthy and for corporations went down to Mar-a-Lago, had dinner with his rich friends, and told them all that he had just given them a big Christmas present. He knew d—d well that that cut wasn’t going to help the middle class or do anything to alleviate the burden on what remains of the Middle Class and on the poor.
One theme in the debates the last two nights: The Democratic Party has to do a much better job of reaching out to the dispossessed and struggling folks of the heartland–and not by pandering to outworn ideas but by making the case to them about where their interests lie–in government that works for everybody, in a strong social safety net, in Medicare for All, in redressing the imbalances.
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At this point in American oligarchy, even if the intent of the signers is genuine, I don’t think they will avoid their fates. The historical record for income inequality and ruling class corruption will play out.
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#EducationFreedom Scholarships would put the power to make educational decisions in the hands of students, families and communities – no one else.
➡️No family is forced to accept a scholarship.
➡️No taxpayer is forced to contribute.
➡️No state is forced to participate.
The US Department of Education now depicts education funding as “taxpayers being forced to contribute”. Unlike with icky public schools, private schools are funded voluntarily!
Good Lord. Total and complete capture. They need some kind of deprogramming workshop. 90 days swearing off ed reform conventions.
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L wanna re-blog!
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Big changes after the Trump kakastocrasy!
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That would be a portmanteau of caca and kakistos (worst). N. phrase. Rule by the most vile and inept
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Verschlimmbessern (from German to English, “to make matters worse in the process of trying to improve them”, it will be the excuse from Gates and the minions of the ruling class. But, it won’t fly.
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ha. wonderful
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While it seems nice on the face of it, I would expect the oligarchs to move their assets of-shore to prevent any takeover of them by others. They will find a place where they can live, free of the responsibility imposed on a person by great wealth. THere they will schmooze together, inventing a philosophy that supports the idea that great wealth is a deserved reality.
Perhaps we should try. Maybe we can figure out how to penalize those whose workers earn them inordinate proportions of the wealth produced in an economy without compensation.
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Off shore or maybe off planet.
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Buffett fired first shot on taxing the rich in ’06, declared that class war was underway in America, and that it was class, the super-rich who were making war on the rest of the nation, and winning. (I introduce B’s claim plus data bases as research case in my comp classes.) Buffett was ridiculed then and told to send Uncle Sam a big check if he felt that way. No other billionaire joined him though Stephen King declared in print “Tax Me More, for F’s sake.” Buffett doubled-down in NYTimes ’11 Op-Ed, more data on wealth capture of super-rich, called for 30% tax on all earnings over $1million/yr, Obama sent it, voted down by GOP. Intense populism left and and right worries the billionaires, more accepting of a modest tax on wealth before things get out of hand(Bernie’s and AOC’s call for a 70% income tax). Biden already reassured the rich that their standard of living won’t be hurt by any modest re-distribution Dems propose. The corporate media are now promoting Elizabeth Warren intensely while erasing Bernie Sanders(see the Thursday Jun 27 front-page of “Style” section NYTimes for fashion extravaganza featuring her smiling face). Biden as 2020 pres. candidate will play down the burning issue now on the table–class inequality–Bernie will center it, perhaps Warren also. This is an historic opening to the left now, to recover as much ground as possible after 40 years of devastating looting.
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“Biden already reassured the rich that their standard of living won’t be hurt by any modest re-distribution Dems propose.”
This is absolutely true because if the top 1% are taxed at the 70% rate that Bernie and AOC propose, their stand of living will not be hurt!!!!
Isn’t that the case that all progressives should be making? That the rich now have such an enormous amount of wealth that even if there was a 70% tax on the earnings above a certain income level, their standard of living would not be hurt one bit!
Warren Buffett would certainly agree that his standard of living would remain enormously high even with Bernie’s 70% tax.
And by the way, doesn’t Elizabeth Warren’s “wealth tax” actually take a much bigger bite out of billionaires’ pockets than a tax on their income?
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I think Betsy DeVos has enough yachts. Ten is enough. She can spare one or two or seven. When it comes to progressive taxation, the only thing billionaires have to fear is fear itself. And pitchforks. I don’t see Gates, Broad, or the Waltons volunteering to help anyone but themselves, by the way. No surprise there.
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Oh, but Broad did! There was an article, today, in one of the Chicago dailies (my husband took them, so I can’t find which one at this moment).
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& did anyone know that Eli Broad also threw his hat into this?
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I did not know. Well, if so, good for him. People can change. People have to change.
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Ditto that last sentence, LCT!
(Should be someone’s campaign slogan!)
BTW–saw the 2nd Dem debate w/a group of people; who else thinks Kamala Harris is going to wipe out the rest?
(Harris & Warren, from the 1st night, but Harris most definitely had the best quotable quote of either night: “People, let’s not have a food fight here; people want to know how to put food on their tables.”)
Again, I probably misquoted (she said it better!), but you get the idea.
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Some of these billionaires prolly have visions of Tombstone dancing in their heads
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And if history is any indication, their fears may not be unjustified.
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