As George Carlin said: " The true owners of this country only want more for themselves and less for everyone else. ... There's a big Club and you ain't in it. You and I ain't in the big Club."
"Forget about the politicians, the politicians are just there to make you think you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have owners." -Also George Carlin
"I know the game there. I know that rich white people call poor white people trash. And the only reason I know that is because I made so much money last year, the rich whites told me they say it at a cocktail party. And I’m not with that shit. I stood with them in line, like all of us Americans are required to do in a democracy, nobody skips the line to vote, and I listened to them. I listened to them say naive poor white people things. “Man, Donald Trump’s gonna go to Washington, and he’s gonna fight for us.” I’m standing there thinking in my mind, “You dumb motherfucker. You are poor. He’s fighting for me.”" - Dave Chappelle
Daily reminder that pulling yourself by your bootstraps is physically impossible and that is the intended meaning of the idiom. So when you’re told to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” you are being asked to do the impossible.
Everyone has been begging for money/the coronavirus pandemic the government printed more money for the stimulus check I’m making a dollar less valuable and can you last for a long time without your job?
@Crypto W I would advocate for resistance. Resist everyday. Be ready for a day of revolution, but don’t wait for it. Do what you can do now to make society a less oppressive place.
Great video mate, in a previous life before UA-cam I used to write these kinds of loans to these kinds of people, if you want to hear a fun bit of irony on top of all of this it's that the interest payments on these loans are tax-deductible in most countries if structured correctly. Never heard it called "buy, borrow, die" before though, that gave me a good chuckle because it is absolutely true!
id thought ud both be some sort of enemies, Since EE is (from what ive seen) a Capitalist and ST being a socialist. But then i remembered that ideologies don't cause division. its just extremists and idiots.
"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." - John Steinbeck
Actually, socialism did take off in parts of the US before the Great War. Then, the MIC, alongside the government, always made sure that it would never become a thing in the US. Against the "bad commies", "the Red Scare". Eisenhower (for all its flaws) did warn the public about it in a last attempt in 1961, but very few listened. Ever since the creation of the CPI (with George Creel as the leader) in 1917, which was literally the propaganda arm of Thomas Woodrow, it has always been the heart of the problem (the MIC). I suggest to you the book "The death of the liberal class", to learn a bit about it. It is all by design. They will not teach this to you in school.
@@bengagnon2894 I haven't read that particular book, but I'm very familiar with Chris Hedges. He and Cornell West are going to take up the mantle on the sad day that we lose Chomsky, hopefully many years from now. All great minds
Socialism won’t happen because America is a white supremacist country and the black population makes up 13% of the U.S demographic. Socialism thrives in white homogenous countries like the Nordic regions.
I used to think the "I'll be rich one day so I must defend the rich on my way to the top" was just a strawman only children believed. It hurts to be that wrong.
That's not the idea, you as a normal person are happy not to pay tax on unrealised gains so why do you want someone else to have to pay tax on unrealised gains? When you compare the taxes the rich pay on taxable income to the taxes normal people pay on taxable income the rich actually pay more
@@pappythehumble1138 Because normal people can't use unrealized capital gain as an exploit to disguise the entirety of their income. The second any such method of dodging taxes becomes accessible to the public, you can guarantee the IRS would (and should) crack it down. Hell, take a mere glance at the crypto/nft market for that one. We've had multiple instances of the wealthiest individuals in the country (and by proxy, the world) paying literally nothing in federal income tax. Bezos even received a $4k tax credit for his children. Now I'm not at all claiming this is you, but I've met people who described such loopholes as incentives granted by the government to the ultra wealthy, rewards to the money makers. I'm just gonna tell you up front, we aren't going to get anywhere if we can't at least reach an understanding that the 1% are exploiting taxes to the best of their ability.
@@MhnFive how is unrealised gain a way of disguising income? Lol the richest people founded their companies and own a lot of shares in them. They are not disguising anything because once they sell, that money is taxed. Strange you are talking like normal people cant buy stocks/shares. If they buy shares, they dont have to pay any tax on any paper gains until they sell. That's the law. I don't know about tax loopholes etc and the reason why they still exist. I gave my opinion on what I do know about. It's unfair and stupid to tax unrealised gains.
I would think this way instead of making higher taxes for rich people we instead lower taxes for the poor. Did you know in the past people where technically signing up for rich people paying for taxes but it backfired now we poor and middle class have to pay it.
Would be great if there was a more UK specific channel like this, but this sort of data is much harder to find in the UK and we’re not as dystopian as the US, yet.
@@svettnabb there are some who want that I don't doubt and maybe that is the long game, but for the time being it is FAR too popular for them to get away swapping it for US inspired private insurance based model. I suspect their immediate to medium term goals are to just hand off as much of the NHS' services to private contractors as possible while keeping it free at the point of use. The result will be massive amounts of public money being siphoned off into private hands combined with a sustained erosion of the quality of service. Eventually the quality of service will have declined so much that capitalists within the government might start suggesting the US model as a means to "fix" it (it won't), but I don't expect that they'll try that for a long time yet
Thank you for elaborating on the ways both parties are screwing us. Class solidarity between working class people is what the rich elites in power fear the most. It’s why the corporate media networks go out of their way to keep us divided.
You've put your finger on the main obstacle to economic justice in this so-called democracy. My wish is for 2023 to finally be the year the millions of poor & working class realize they're all being screwed by the same forces, and that they have power in numbers. I mean, when 10 individuals are richer than 90% of the country, the only possible explanation is brainwashing by the corporate-owned media. Otherwise, how can there not be a mass uprising?
It's scary how refreshing this video feels. This is the reality that most people either choose to ignore or rationalize through mental gymnastics. The way you actively criticize both sides and support neither is so different from how most Americans think; if you aren't die-hard red or blue, it's ostracizing. Thank you for promoting a free-thinking audience with your work!
Non-voters are in fact the largest voting block in the US. We must assume he is giving a voice to at least some of them, which might in fact be more than the total support for either party.
Yeah mental gymnastics takes energy, time, and painful thinking that doesn't lead towards happiness. It's by far easier to remain blissfully ignorant and a fool
@@jermainemyrn19 You should check out the tim black show TBTV. Definitely the most underrated independent black channels on youtube. He has a show tonight speaking with nina turner at 11 and his friday shows are the best.
Trickle down economics is the most mythological economic "theory" ever proposed. Wealth literally _flows up_ from the bottom. It's labor that creates all wealth. Workers are the ones who produce value for bosses. The wealth we produce from our work goes to the capitalist class. It's quite actually the opposite.
@@jacklan4103 , demand creates the job, wealth funds the creation. If all it took was wealth to have jobs; then we can just pay people to be themselves as a "job" and it would be sustainable.
So what should we do about it? This is a genuine question. This is not a sarcastic "Well what are you going to do about it?" This is like "I genuinely want answers on what I should do"
They were called robber barons in the times of child labor and 14 hour work days. Workers rights are wildly different now and no one is working a job that they didn’t agree to be working
Shorts are good because counter people will clip chip them and try and discredit them with reactionary ways. Because they are reactionary. Which gets your name out there. I've found a few leftist speakers whom I only learned about, because reactionary media clip chipped them and took it out of context, and since I disagree with the conservative, I look into the person they are discrediting to try and see if that is the context. 99% of the time it isn't. But that exposure is good exposure. Shorts have better chance of being shared because they can distort. You can't watch a full second thought video then try and misrepresent a few statements. But a second thought short could be shared by the opposition. Better exposure for sure.
This channel restores my faith in humanity its good to know that there are actually people out there (like you) that gets it and wants things to change. You guys see how corrupt and upside down this system is and are bravely informing and galvanizing the public. (Thank you)
“They take advantage of the way the system is set up” isn’t wrong at all, however, they set the system up that way so its not like they happen into paying zero taxes because thats just so happens to be how it works We’ve allowed the rich to forget that unions are, actually, their preferred method of hearing worker voices. The other option tends to involve brash and reactionary actions that leave them significantly worse off than if they had just listened. The rich keep telling us which option they’d rather have though and people are beginning to realize thats just how its gonna have to go. Welp, I best get to cleaning Mao’s political power
I don't mind paying taxes in theory, but knowing 20% of my income goes to taxes and that billionaires don't pay a cent in taxes.... I feel cheated and taken advantage of. I don't even earn enough to be able to afford a house or something. Being a billionaire shouldn't even be possible.
I'm not opposed to taxes either. When my town raised property taxes to pay for schools, I was totally fine with it, despite not having any children of my own. But when over half the federal budget goes towards the military- and the lion's share of that money goes to contractors/MIC (I'm a veteran, I know just how little soldiers get paid...)- that's what I have a problem with.
@@jermainemyrn19 Then go keep watching capitalism bad from "socialist" UA-camrs who don't care about his supporters and only take the money from viewers and donations. And larping on capitalist products like your phones and food manufactured from capitalist businesses.
It's unfair that UA-cam demonotizes your content. Second Thought is a very intelligent channel. I'm not necessarily a socialist, however the points you raise and the arguments you make are awesome! Thank you.
I've never called myself a socialist because I never really knew what it was. My family were democrats and said they were for the worker. Having watched butt loads of Second Thought videos I can't find anything I dislike about socialism. Are you in the same boat, or is there a reason you don't call yourself a socialist? I'm truly curious.
I once saw this image that said that if someone lived for 80 years and earned an average of $5,000.00 every day of their life, they still wouldn't be a billionaire, but rather have about $150,000,000.00. At the bottom of the image was a line that said that no one works to become a billionaire. So yeah, we should be taxing multi millionaire and billionaire individuals and corporations in this country more then we currently are! And if you want to argue that taxes shouldn't be raised on the wealthy and corporations, how can you defend them when they send their U.S. dollars to other countries so they can't be taxed and help fund domestic programs to help poor people here in the U.S.?
Second thought already did a video on this. Basically, if you made $2,000/h, 27/7, with no taxes or expenses, since 1AD, you wouldn’t even be in the top 50 richest people. It’s that bad.
I love how thoroughly you cover topics and how you draw connections between different systems that allow for major problems to persist. Another great video!
I’m fine with paying taxes, but I wish more of my tax dollars would go to the public good rather than the military industrial complex. We have enough war toys.
@@battlebuddy4517 Acutally, we had a very small and weak military before WWII. Our military now is the most powerful in the world. We could cut it by 50% and still be the most powerful.
@@HeathWatts As somebody who is not from US, I can only tell you, you should be happy to have such military, and no, you shouldn't cut the funding. You should just use that military for more good than you are now.
@@HeathWatts Well, US military has kept Europe safe, Japan, South Korea... You wouldn't want Russia or China to dominate the world would you? It's better to be US, although I Agree many bad people are exploiting it for their own benefits.
@@tevbuff according to many, since "corporations are just playing the game", as long as it's legal, lobbying is "a-ok". People are so dumb, they think companies are not to blame no matter how unethical, as long as it's legal, it is okay. Especially since companies are the ones who MAKE the law nowadays
Fun Fact: accounting and tax laws are intentionally complicated in order for the Public Accounting sector to be able to charge large amounts in fees and only let those who know the laws inside and out to benefit. I know because I’m a CPA. The study material to get your CPA even jokes about it.
In Australia at least, I always thought that tax laws were written in such a way so that more gets caught in the taxable income net, and you have to find specific provisions to get out of it. It might not be the same in the US. I've also heard that no general anti-avoidance provision exists in the US tax laws. Is that right?
Same as health insurances. The paperwork is intentionally made complicated so that the doctors and hospitals have to hire people to do the paperwork for them. And of course the bill is passed to patients eventually.
American braiwashing has always fascinated me. I usually wonder how these people aren't constantly on the streets protesting about this pathetic excuse for a democracy. I am glad that Americans are finally waking up about these issues.
Yea well said Americans shouldn't be brainwashed from leftist media that tell you to hate the rich and they should be rhe one that take care of the poor
George Carlin was right "The rich has all the money, pays none of the taxes" But there's no shortage of people thinking that's still way too much, and believer everyone should pay the same by amount Oh, those who makes 30k and defend the billionaires? They do that because they can't compare themselves to those billionaires, they can only argue with you and hopefully keep you as poor as he does so to show himself being smart in front of you.
The one bit that I'm curious about. If they take a loan, they have to pay it off over time. Since they don't have much income, they'd need to sell stocks/investments to do that. Then that money is taxed, right? I think the benefit to getting the loan isn't to avoid paying taxes (since at some point they'll have to pay off the load and in turn pay the taxes), but instead they can get 8%/year in the stock market and only pay 2% on the loan. So it's literally cheaper to borrow money than to un-invest their money. But maybe I'm missing something somewhere. Very interesting!
To avoid taxes, they use complex system of offshores and imaginary companies, that work in countries with lower taxes. So, for instance, if you want to gain profit, but don't want to be taxed, just have your income made into payment to some company outside of US. Money still ends on your bank account, but you avoided US tax. Another interesting scheme is through charities - you generously donate to charity to buy some things(education books for orphans, for instance), which, through proxy firms, are produced by, surprise, your own business. So your money returns to you + some extra, and you are subject to tax exemptions, because it's for charity.
I believe with securities based loans any appreciation that is made while the stock is collateralized isn’t taxed. So if you’re Bezos and your Amazon stock moves a few thousand percent in ten years. You pay very little in taxes, not really tax free but insanely tax efficient. Also most billionaires aren’t using their whole portfolio as collateral. It could be less than 10% of it.
You can gain dividends on some of your investments, (which are taxed, but guess what in the united states, capital gains tax rates are much lower than earned income) thus, they can exploit loans with tiny interest rates to pay for things while paying off the loan with income from investments over time. AKA, they buy things with perfect credit at tiny interest rates and pay for it over time through the value gained by increasing their already titanic net worth.
In addition to what was said here before - they can just take another loan to pay back the previous one, and as the assets grow (i.e. the "money on paper" - the value of their companies for example), they can get ever bigger loans, to also finance the interests of the previous ones.
You can also blame all these motivation channels and Instagram pages for basically making people worship billionaires 😑 you see quotes from Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffet and every reply is like "Yes, he is my hero and idol for life".
Yeah, those motivation channels and life coaches are a massive influence to the inspiring people. They have this mindset that being average is bad and that being exceptional is the way to go
@Vote for the Conservatives no it isn't, cmon when you are gonna wake up from this delusion of hustle culture if you believe that as good mindset to have despite the fact it will trap us into bootstrap billionaire worshipping culture...
@@corbinwilson660 Ah yes the Heritage foundation, the group literally set up to be propaganda for the elite, an incredibly trustworthy source. You know that's not a source right? The Heritage Foundation is not the IRS and doesn't have access to tax data, if they're basing this on tax data then cite the actual tax data itself the only thing you've done is cite someone's opinion, those are not facts. It's also hilarious that you just didn't bother giving a source for any of your other claims even though they contradict literally every single study on this ever made. Oh and I almost forgot the video literally explains why your bullshit is wrong, rich people don't have income you dolt, but tbh you definitely didn't actually watch the video because right wingers never do that. They just hop into the comment sections and start making a fool of themselves for some goddamn reason, I think you guys have a problem with humiliation kinks.
@@corbinwilson660 Nice, pointless essay. Quick, easy question: Do you think your car mechanic should pay a greater percentage of his income than Jeff Bezos because 'Bezos is like a totally awesome job creator dude and my mechanic is a worthless eater?'. I honestly do not get you (and by you I understand there are countless other clueless types who feel they need to defend the 'system').
Unfortunately this video is misleading and wants to calculate taxes the rich dont pay on unrealised capital gain without acknowleging that no one in the country pays taxes on unrealised capital gains. Its not somethign for only the rich, thats how the tax system works and it favors both the rich and the poor who own any stocks.
The internet is a wildcard that they couldn't see coming fast enough to contain. They try, boy do they try mostly with distractions now, but I have actual hope after the last year. A spark was lit. It might take a while, but eventually it will...well you get the idea. I hope I live to see it. Solidarity my fellows xox
They manipulate the algorithm really well though, but we'll see how far that gets them. Giving CNN, MSNBC and Fox hundreds of thousands of views and giving independent channels very few views, good thing is those channels are watched by older people only, very few young people watch mainstream media.
@@kei2142 'modern re-branding of "trickle-down economics"' I like that. These people's arguments went from "money trickles down from rich to poor", to 'they create jobs'. Shows how people just slightly change their opinion so they don't have to feel like they were wrong. Of course, this new version is also wrong considering the fact that large companies like Walmart and Amazon have destroyed other businesses (effectively DESTROYING jobs) through EXTREME aggressive tactics, and then "created jobs" from the businesses they destroyed.
These people subconsciously are aware of how much "trickle down economics" was a complete failure so they decide to talk about "job creators". It's a way of protecting their own fragile ego so they aren't "wrong"
Wanna hear something sad? I was on twitter and some stupido said that billionaires shouldn't pay more taxes than regular people because "they're doing society a favour by creating jobs" America is lost.
Except billionaires actually DO pay more taxes because 0.98% of jeff bezos's revenue (which is a disingenuous figure to begin with because it's not a salary but a rise in asset values) will still be MUCH higher than your entire salary, which I'm assuming is not much given a clear lack of basic economic knowledge
@@yt_nh9347 Which also means that every 0.01% of tax that Bezos gets to skip on (compared to what everyone else is forced to pay) equals a MASSIVE chunk of money that society is being robbed of. But hey! Its not like every time citizens voice their needs they are met with an instant ''how are we going to pay for it though???!''
Reading the comments has helped me find a better headspace. I've been out of work for a year due to COVID and my finances are worse than they have ever been... Like many of you. We have strength in numbers. We need to remember that.
You make these things really easy to understand. It’s made it much easier to articulate myself when trying to persuade family and friends. Thank you so much!
Taxes are absolutely fine if you ask me. We need taxes to pay for certain infrastructure and healthcare. But the fact that billionaires can exploit these loopholes to avoid paying any taxes is absolutely criminal. They all should be locked in prison immediately. But we know it’ll never change...
@@reichfuhrer1942 so true. Lobbying should be illegal. You shouldn’t be able to pay politicians to make the laws the way YOU want. Should absolutely be a crime but it’s completely legal 🙄
@@Sinaeb yes and? What about it? I’m fine with the idea of ‘taxation’ but it needs to be fair. And it certainly is not. All Americans should pay an equal % of their income in taxes. I make $20,000 a year...I should not be paying more of a % of my wealth in taxes than Jeff fucking Bezos...
@@reichfuhrer1942 Problem is, even if capitalism was removed, there would still be another group that would rise to power and the whole thing would start over. So long as the rich elite feel safe enough, they will always exploit as much as they can.
Try Canada, down side is close to 30 percent of your income will be taxed plus an annual care plan member ship in the low hundreds that's Canadian dollars by the way. But u don't need to worry about having to pay the price for a lamborgini for a hospital stay.
@@edwincheang6717 Turkmenistan has 10percent of salary tax, corparations pays 2 percent tax from gross income. healthcare is affordable dentalcare is also affrodable. We almost dont pay for utilities we dont pay for housing taxes, because of we are ex soviet country we have aprroximently 90-95 percent home owners.
Well can't expect much from a nation whose founding fathers designed it to fit their bill when considering the demographic of them being rich middle age landowners and business owners who ironically started this cause they felt taxed too much from the brits. Who could've guessed a bunch of rich middle aged landowners and businessmen such as the founding fathers would mold the resulting nation in their image and set the rules to favor them and their demographic. Who could have possibly known eh?
Billionaires do not steal anything...their value is directly corresponding to the market value of their companies as their wealth comes from large share ownership of the companies they started...
In case you're about to start typing "well you can't tax wealth because that's double taxation" or "there's no way to tax gains that haven't been realized"...property taxes? You pay the government when your wealth increases so why shouldn't they?
exactly, honestly im a huge fan of just removing the entire income tax system and replacing it with a tiered sales tax system. low cost items like basic foods and home supplies should have less sales tax, and expensive luxury items like sports cars and half billions dollar yachts should have double or even triple the current sales tax. honestly thats the only way for the mega rich to actually pay their dues.
The world is so unfair. It makes me wish I was never born at all. At this point, it feels like I'm just here to be exploited by these people for their lavish lifestyle.
The only thing that soothes my soul upon realizing that I am food in the system I was born into is remembering the fact that I woke up alive one day and it cost me nothing. I have already won.
Why would anyone wanna silence them? He doesn't say anything groundbreaking, he just put the facts everybody can already access in a new format. If anyone would wanna silence anyone, than they would silence the people who produce the facts in the first place, not the people who just spread them.
@@toledoseahawks3348 UA-cam has been censoring him since he started doing political content. Why in the world would UA-cam, a subsidiary of Google, want to allow socialism groups to be encouraged to upload content like this? Google doesn't want the average American to be radicalized to the left. All these other corporations in the US, including the US military industrial complex, want you to be poor and want you to be a liberal/conservative. The fact of the matter is that most people in the US don't think like this. Sure, you can argue that more and more young people, and even some older people, are catching on to basic leftist talking points: UBI, public healthcare, labor unions and employee-friendly labor laws, $24/hr minimum wage, higher corporate taxes, defunding of the police and military, and the funding of education, transportation infrastructure, renewable energy, science and research, and programs that incentivize artists, musicians, and contribute to our culture. The US government doesn't want any of that.
@@hexoson you are aware that YpuTube can be watched in the whole world. The world does not turn around the US. I am pretty sure UA-cam couldn't care less, who uploads which content, as long as it is not against the policy. All they care about is the sweet sweet ad revenue. And if you watched the video, you would be aware, that they have to fear nothing in this one and a half party state.
I will always point this out whenever someone mentions legality to justify immoral behavior, slavery and Jim Crow was also legal and lynching in some places still is. There are states that make it illegal to have non marital sex or throw snowballs or whispering in church. The list goes on but legality shouldn't be your moral compass
People don’t just support billionaires because they think they’ll become rich one day. Think of why right-wingers support religion, or why conservative women support patriarchy. It’s not because they believe they’ll become God, or women will become men. It’s because they believe in this natural hierarchy (God > Humans, Men > Women, Property Owners > Workers). That’s why labor theory of value is important- people need to be educated of the fact that all value comes from labor (and it’s exploitation), not from those useless middle-managers with an MBA.
You are completely correct. Also, these hierarchical ideas are mostly present through indoctrination rather than being an actual part of human nature. An anarchist society seeks to abolish all of these hierarchies, such as capitalism, the state, patriarchy, religion, and so on. The only types of hierarchies that are seen as justified include that between a parent and a young child, but even then, one could make the argument that that is not a hierarchy. Simply put, no human should ever have power over another, because power corrupts.
@@anonymoususer3012 “Also, these hierarchical ideas are mostly present through indoctrination than human nature” And why exactly do you think humans teach and express these values as well as other animals? Environment is largely influenced and shaped by genes, read up on the gene environment correlation.
@@5353Jumper it works just not in America lol look at social democratic countries like Canada or most European countries with a state apparatus that cushions the blow on the poor by economic hardships.
@@Krystalmyth A1, yes, liquor, no thanks, the taste of ethanol makes me gag, I just don't like it. My alcohol consumption is essentially limited to white claw since it does such a good job with sugar and carbonation covering up the alcohol taste
Nobody should be a billionaire, doesn't matter how lucky or smart you're because at the end of the day you did some fucked up shit to get all that money. It's not only innovation or hard work.
If you invent a product/service which is bought by millions of people everyday, that would make you a billionaire, and I don't see what's controversial about it. It's fair and it incentivizes innovation
Next to zero innovation or hard work is involved. Almost exclusively exploitation of the masses, and pure luck. To be in the right place, at the right time, and so forth.
@@user-gz4ve8mw9l think of an athlete winning a race, would you also say that he doesn't deserve the prize and the medal because his win was just "luck"? What does luck even means in this context
When I was young, my dad once taught me that the rich pays less tax than the average people by exploiting the tax code. Back then, I never fully understood it but thought its really cool trick to save money. After watching this video, I found this very sicking that the rich lives on borrowed money. And most of it is not for business. And people still thinks it's okay. Thank you Second Thought for your service to properly educate us. Really appreciated.
@@msgirly6827 he’s not wrong though. Maybe missing the point that rich people actively manipulate politics to keep the broken system that benefits them. But he’s not fundamentally wrong
As usual, a really good video! I am shocked that the politicians are making inquiries into how the tax information was leaked rather than how to fix things! Despicable. Thanks again!
@Second Thought EVERYTHING you say about how billionaires avoid taxes was spot on and phenomenal! However, I think that framing this taxation issue around "government solvency" is a mistake in the long run, even though it sounds right at first. This is because the government creates money, therefore it never needs anybody's tax money to spend money. However, taxes are super important because they give the currency non-zero value in the first place AND they are a tool to fight inflation in order to keep that value above zero. When billionaires skip out on taxes, the consequences are so much worse than "now we can't have the nice bridge we wanted", because if we really want that bridge bad enough the government can print the money and just build it. The true consequence of the rich skipping out on taxes are way more serious: it's the devaluation of our currency (kiss any savings you have goodbye), destabilization of our entire economy, and of course, sky high and rapidly accelerating inequality. Please check out the things people like Warren Mosler (formerly in Fed monetary operations) and Michael Hudson/Stephanie Kelton (econ professors UMKC) are saying for more info.
The only way to go here is making people aware of the possibility of a trickle-up, instead of a trickle-down economy. That means to implement a universal basic income to make life a lot easier for normal people. The economy you can build on that UBI-income floor is far better for society as a whole, people will do jobs because they like them instead of having to take any BS-job merely to survive. Only that would truly grow the economy in a democratic way, because people would not have to sacrifice their best talents to work at Mc Donalds just for a living.
"This is because the government creates money, therefore it never needs anybody's tax money to spend money. However, taxes are super important because they give the currency non-zero value in the first place AND they are a tool to fight inflation in order to keep that value above zero." Money creation IS inflation so your comment makes no sense. Under normal circumstances we would have a somewhat steady money supply and price deflation. Money buys more and more as more and more goods are produced. "When billionaires skip out on taxes, the consequences are so much worse than "now we can't have the nice bridge we wanted", because if we really want that bridge bad enough the government can print the money and just build it." Yeah but that would still hurt the lower income hardest because the stocks just rise in price as money supply increases - we see this today.
"If you give food to the poor, you're called a saint. If you ask why the poor has nothing to eat to begin with, you're called a communist." - Helder Camara, archbishop of Brasil
This was brilliantly done and we even covered this news on our channel as well. The class consciousness is a dire need and we need people to see this and rise up to make change happen. People are sick and tired of being sick and tired. It's time for us to focus on societal wellness.
videos like this reminds me of something I'll never forget that my finical algebra teacher told me, that it was likely that my generation will likely have to work into their 60s-70s, which is honestly a morbid thought i haven't been able to shake.. at lleast for someone who wants to do what they enjoy and will likely be stuck with something I don't till the end of time
Is taxing the rich more so hard? Also, remember learning about how presidents and other authorities would take down unjust practices like monopolies in history classes? Good times….good times….
Yes it’s quite complicated. Corporations are not tied to one country and some also have headquarters abroad so that would mean the US government would have to intervene with foreign policy/law.
@@rson301 Except the US already intervenes on so many levels, & in so many places outside of the US... (Think the 900 + military bases all over the world) ...that not being able to tax the rich their fair share...is just their way of saying "We work for them" not "We the People". Congress on either side doesn't wanna talk back to their employer's.
@@rson301 lame argument. Then the US government shouldn't intervene. A lot of people keep thinking large corporations moving outside the US is bad...that is incredibly dumb. These corporations are hiring foreign talent anyways and getting cheap Chinese goods to resell to Americans anyways. Large Corporations moving outside is GOOD, a LOT of room for new small businesses to thrive and fill that marketplace. More entrepreneurs, more small businesses, more competition. Even from a capitalist viewpoint, arguments you guys spout from stuff you've seen from FOX news is pretty weak.
@@edwardroh89 its not an argument dip shit, learn to read. The dude only asked why its "hard." Anyways when did I say corps outside the US is bad? Tax havens are awesome and I find it hilarious how you use "foreign talent" and "Chinese goods" in the same sentence.
Your duty as an American is to pay taxes. When your paying taxes, that’s patriotic. Texas are essential. Shocked that the rich don’t and now the Senate wants to tax the middle class, Not the rich, for the infrastructure package.
What I didn't understand how that loan is paid for. Yes, because of their wealth they get special conditions, but the banks still want their money back sometime. Do they just get a bigger load to pay the previous?
They get interest/dividends on money and assets they already own, and use that to pay back the loan. That way they get what they want, the bank gets a cut, and the government doesn't tax them. Taxes are only paid when money moves, so if you already have a lot of it (here it's usually in the form of stocks that pay dividends), no one is going to take that away. So they compensate the profits from their assets with the "losses" incurred from the loans, to minimize taxes. Otherwise the full profits would be taxed. You can see when dividends are paid just how much you got, and apply for appropriate loans to pay the bank a small percentage rather than the tax, which would be considerably higher. The bank is in on the whole thing, they know you're loaded, so they will always agree. A very simplified version, but that's the idea.
@@marcingolab6227 The interest and dividends are assessable income, and if the loans that the rich people take are made for personal, or non-income producing purposes ie starting a new business, buying assets that generate income, then the interest payable on those loans would generally be non-deductible right? Also, if I'm not misreading your comment and apologies if I am, the payment of the loans themselves would be capital in nature and not would not in any way be deductible against taxable income, so what you described doesn't seem like a plausible way to legally avoid taxes. In the end it's all a timing issue. If the rich take on loans against their shares or whatnot, and the bank knocks on their door to demand payment at a future period, the liquidation of the shares to generate the wherewithal to pay the bank would trigger a taxable gain event to happen. Albeit with more favourable rates applied to that sort of income. In Australia we have a 50% reduction on gains for assets held long term ie >12 mos, and I think in the US a lower rate gets applied? But I think there's more to the story than what we know, as this scheme Second Thought is describing just seems too simple and too good to be true.
@@the_tax_consultant they have enough money to do things like claim all their income/earnings in one year, every several years *One of these ashholes takes out loans against his penthouse, so the loans are considered mortgages, and he can write off the interest Elon Musk took out loans and (in the period examined) was only taxed in line with his wealth one year when he exercised 1 bil in stock options
Good points, I'm not American either and I think a lot of their tax law is completely different, but I was thinking along the lines of, e.g. Bezos sets up multiple companies/legal entities for personal purposes, each with a different set of activities (where I live, a business has to declare the type of activity it's intending to pursue, precisely so that the tax revenue service can assess whether a given cost should be allowed as tax deductible or not; say, you're a freelance digital artist and want a gaming computer, that's fine since you can work on it; if you wanted a Porsche, that's a different story). Then one entity takes out a loan and buys luxurious properties in NYC, but it's fine because they can let them, another buys a mega yacht but it's fine because they can organize trips, etc. (I think it's plausible that's why he sold one place on his rocket). Some other shell entity can even officially rent the apartment on paper (for like 100$ a month), just so he can write the whole thing off. He can arrange it so that the yacht trip with his friends and family is actually a "source of revenue" consistent with the company profile if they charge someone and leave an invoice or receipt for a cruise. I have no idea how that then works with the income from stocks and other assets, but the liabilities at least are covered. Where I live, if the sum total of your revenue for a fiscal period is lower than your losses (in this case the loan payments), you won't pay tax. But if the revenue from dividends were taxed separately before being payed out, then there'd have to be some more shenanigans to change the legal form of the money into something else. Of course, the IRS could make a fuss about it, but they won't because it's Jeff Bezos. There was a story in the New York Times a few years ago about how Trump avoided paying taxes on many of his properties by inflating costs, that's the gist of what I was thinking. In the end, even after the news broke, Trump didn't pay anything anyway since he was POTUS. I don't know whether to call it fully legal or not, but when government entities that are supposed to pursue these types of scams fail to act (despite having the knowledge), I don't think there's much of a difference. That's probably why Mitch McConnell wanted to pursue the people responsible for the leak - it makes the IRS look bad that they knew, but didn't do anything. Sorry for the wall of text, do you think that's plausible?
I've never heard it called "buy borrow die" but that's a perfect way to explain things. Also, interest payments on loans (like margin) are tax-deductible, so just another fun fact there :o
People talk about how our current society is so advanced but the average american spends more time working than a literal medieval peasant. And they aren't even guaranteed housing for it
Amazon started in garage ... that was attached to a nice expensive home! People leave the rest of that sentence out a lot. Most "self made" wealthy Americans weren't truly self made. They may have had a good idea but they also had the funds and support to follow through with it. So, if you're struggling with your next house or car payment you simply can't be the next Jeff Bezos.
Imagine if every truck driver, nurse, and other absolutely essential worker did a universal strike at the same time. That would be pretty based I think
The real taxation rich people fear the nost is raising minimum wage. Imagine of all the workers in Amazon, Tesla, Microsoft, etc. watching their salaries doubling up
Having a minimum wage at all is kinda stupid. Imagine that your work generates $10 per hour for a firm. Without minimum wage you would still have a job that paid you maybe $9 per hour. With a minimum wage of $15 you wouldn’t have a job. Amazon will most probably just find ways for robots to do the work.
im not a fan of blindly increasing the minimum wage because i make more than minimum wage and my wages aren't going to go up, yet everything i pay for will increase in price. There are better ways to get money into the pockets of those people without increasing the basic cost of living. For example, Incentivise employers to pay their workers more, completely remove all federal and state income taxes for anyone only earning minimum wage, etc. To make up for the lost tax income, raise sales taxes on luxury goods like those half billion dollar yachts. anything that costs more than $100,000 should be subject to the same 4-9% sales tax like everything else, it should be at least 20% for that price.
@@muabyt7333 Amazon starting pay is already $15 per hour. We subsidize Walmart because many of their employees make below the poverty level wages and qualify for govt. assistance. Yes, we subsidize Walmart with our taxes dollars. Robotics will be used no matter if minimum wage is $7,50 or $15.00
@@X4Alpha4X We could keep doing what we do now and make up the difference by subsidizing companies that don't pay a living wage. Plus, if employees make more money, they will pay more into payroll taxes which funds Social security and Medicare.
There's no such thing as a charitable or kind multimillionaire/billionaire, if they were truly the type to give help people just for the sake of helping them, they'd live like monks. The fact that people believe that someone can be in the 1% and truly charitable is doing some amazing mental gymnastics. Of course, some greed for survival is necessary, but millionaires really need to get help for their hoarding problem.
@@ARandomSpace I have no clue if that's a joke making fun of my stance or a joke in favor of it but yes, them and their all powerful stonks can at least help out a lil' bit, not too much lest they hurt themselves.
"But come on, everyone knows you can get rich with elbow grease and hard work!" Good God, the people that still believe this ... the thickness of that wool curtain is impossible.
@@akmil807 Musk took over $4 Billion in US Government GRANTS to build UBER. Grants. No requirement to pay back. The rich not only pay next to no taxes, they also benefit from the taxes everyone else pays. The difference is that proportional taxes at the rate I pay would make a pretty big difference in my life, but Bezos wouldn’t notice. If, however, we took the effective tax rates imposed by FDR, not only would we wipe out the national debt, but we’d revitalize the middle class AND grow the economy. 40 years of no wage growth and the continuous stripping of retirement and healthcare benefits has now successfully shifted the cost to workers. In an economy where work is vanishing due to the technologies these oligarchs introduced in the first place, it won’t be long before “workers” will no longer be able to shoulder the cost of running America. When the US looks like Detroit, the oligarchs will move, leaving us to our fates. If they contributed proportionally, not only would they still have more money than they could possibly spend in 10 lifetimes, but the nation, the infrastructure, and the people in this country would return to the Greatness the MAGA crowd are so fond of misappropriating.
@@akmil807 People think that these billionaires are the ones that "innovate"... they are simply just businessmen. They just manage, sure in an efficient way, but they are WAY WAY overvalued. You know like when certain stocks skyrocket and the price is way up there when real value is lower...yeah it's kinda like that. It's so weird, americans think that these head ceos are the ones that "innovate"... it is very likely these ceos just tell other people to be the ones producing the product rather than actually having a direct hand in creating the products. It's like if Albert Einstein had a manager, we praise the manager instead of Albert Einstein themselves. They just claim the innovations from the talented people in the company as their own. So weird the fetishization of rich.
The top 1% own 50% of the wealth in this country, so it would make sense that they SHOULD contribute 50-60 percent of the tax revenue. The top 20% own 85% of the wealth, then they should contribute 85-90 percent of the tax revenue. Sure, they pay more numerically, but it does not make any sense to tax people who are struggling while giving tax breaks to those are not struggling. And, it does not make sense that labor income tax is higher than capital gain income tax. Why is govt taxing hard work?
@@Ascend777 because the rich does a lot of tactic with loans and the School system taught us that debt is bad but there are good debt if you know how to use it and intelligent
The richest people in Norway pay about 50% in income taxes. For the rest of us taxes lay around 30-40%. This gives us free school, healtcare and infastructure. Love the Norwegian model!
While everyone was focused on the game servers' staff, the real players are pulling a Spiffing Brit: "THE STOCK MARKET IS A WELL BALANCED GAME WITH NO EXPLOITS"
As George Carlin said: " The true owners of this country only want more for themselves and less for everyone else. ... There's a big Club and you ain't in it. You and I ain't in the big Club."
"Forget about the politicians, the politicians are just there to make you think you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have owners."
-Also George Carlin
"The reason they call it American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it."
-GC
"I know the game there. I know that rich white people call poor white people trash. And the only reason I know that is because I made so much money last year, the rich whites told me they say it at a cocktail party. And I’m not with that shit. I stood with them in line, like all of us Americans are required to do in a democracy, nobody skips the line to vote, and I listened to them. I listened to them say naive poor white people things. “Man, Donald Trump’s gonna go to Washington, and he’s gonna fight for us.” I’m standing there thinking in my mind, “You dumb motherfucker. You are poor. He’s fighting for me.”" - Dave Chappelle
Anyone who makes 1.5 Million annually is in the top 1%. George Carlin was definitely in the top 1%. Some youtubers get paid more than that.
Very true facts! 💯
Daily reminder that pulling yourself by your bootstraps is physically impossible and that is the intended meaning of the idiom. So when you’re told to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” you are being asked to do the impossible.
Oh i get it.cause bootstraps are on your boots but you cant physically use them to lift yourself up
Came here to say this. It was originally derogatory, to make fun of people bragging about things that they clearly didn't do.
They've been sold on the idea that they are real life cheesy 80's action heroes with plot amour.
Reminds me of the perversion of "A few bad apples" (the removal of '--spoils the barrel/pot')
Many of you confuse capitalism with adult responsibilities
“When the rich rob from the poor, it's called business, but when the poor fight back, it's called violence.”
Nope not at all!
That’s called being greedy for the poor.
Everyone has been begging for money/the coronavirus pandemic the government printed more money for the stimulus check I’m making a dollar less valuable and can you last for a long time without your job?
Based as fuck.
@Crypto W I would advocate for resistance. Resist everyday. Be ready for a day of revolution, but don’t wait for it. Do what you can do now to make society a less oppressive place.
Great video mate, in a previous life before UA-cam I used to write these kinds of loans to these kinds of people, if you want to hear a fun bit of irony on top of all of this it's that the interest payments on these loans are tax-deductible in most countries if structured correctly.
Never heard it called "buy, borrow, die" before though, that gave me a good chuckle because it is absolutely true!
Hey, thanks so much! Cool to see you here.
@@SecondThought this is the greatest youtube collab of all time
Tax deductible... Oh man, they sure know how to squeeze out every little bit of the system.
id thought ud both be some sort of enemies, Since EE is (from what ive seen) a Capitalist and ST being a socialist. But then i remembered that ideologies don't cause division. its just extremists and idiots.
A socialist and a libertarian working together. This is cool
"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."
- John Steinbeck
Actually, socialism did take off in parts of the US before the Great War. Then, the MIC, alongside the government, always made sure that it would never become a thing in the US. Against the "bad commies", "the Red Scare". Eisenhower (for all its flaws) did warn the public about it in a last attempt in 1961, but very few listened. Ever since the creation of the CPI (with George Creel as the leader) in 1917, which was literally the propaganda arm of Thomas Woodrow, it has always been the heart of the problem (the MIC). I suggest to you the book "The death of the liberal class", to learn a bit about it. It is all by design. They will not teach this to you in school.
@@bengagnon2894 I haven't read that particular book, but I'm very familiar with Chris Hedges. He and Cornell West are going to take up the mantle on the sad day that we lose Chomsky, hopefully many years from now. All great minds
Socialism won’t happen because America is a white supremacist country and the black population makes up 13% of the U.S demographic. Socialism thrives in white homogenous countries like the Nordic regions.
And that are the first mistake, 1.6% off ameicans have more than i million dollars, germany 1.8% and the have Heath care for all.........
@@justinunion7586 I disagree with this take.
I used to think the "I'll be rich one day so I must defend the rich on my way to the top" was just a strawman only children believed. It hurts to be that wrong.
That's not the idea, you as a normal person are happy not to pay tax on unrealised gains so why do you want someone else to have to pay tax on unrealised gains? When you compare the taxes the rich pay on taxable income to the taxes normal people pay on taxable income the rich actually pay more
@@pappythehumble1138 Because normal people can't use unrealized capital gain as an exploit to disguise the entirety of their income. The second any such method of dodging taxes becomes accessible to the public, you can guarantee the IRS would (and should) crack it down. Hell, take a mere glance at the crypto/nft market for that one.
We've had multiple instances of the wealthiest individuals in the country (and by proxy, the world) paying literally nothing in federal income tax. Bezos even received a $4k tax credit for his children. Now I'm not at all claiming this is you, but I've met people who described such loopholes as incentives granted by the government to the ultra wealthy, rewards to the money makers. I'm just gonna tell you up front, we aren't going to get anywhere if we can't at least reach an understanding that the 1% are exploiting taxes to the best of their ability.
@@MhnFive how is unrealised gain a way of disguising income? Lol the richest people founded their companies and own a lot of shares in them. They are not disguising anything because once they sell, that money is taxed. Strange you are talking like normal people cant buy stocks/shares. If they buy shares, they dont have to pay any tax on any paper gains until they sell. That's the law.
I don't know about tax loopholes etc and the reason why they still exist. I gave my opinion on what I do know about. It's unfair and stupid to tax unrealised gains.
Watered down thats correct, but not everyone thinks they'll be rich, they just hate paying taxes so it kinda a everyone or no one scenario
I would think this way instead of making higher taxes for rich people we instead lower taxes for the poor. Did you know in the past people where technically signing up for rich people paying for taxes but it backfired now we poor and middle class have to pay it.
“Mom, I wanted to go to the circus, not Washington DC”
“They’re the same thing, little Timmy”
To be fair, an actual circus is fun, and D.C. is just depressing.
DJ-3000: "Looks like the clowns in Congress did it again. What a bunch of clowns!"
Marty: "How does it keep up with the news like that?
I hear that it's so funny that the red clown and the blue clown fight each other and get no results
@@ihazplawe2503 i loved it when both did nothing
I would eat the rich, but they taste kinda funny
You are really helping to address the lack of class consciousness. Solidarity from the UK ✊
Glad to do what I can! ✊
Thanks, we need it
Would be great if there was a more UK specific channel like this, but this sort of data is much harder to find in the UK and we’re not as dystopian as the US, yet.
I’ve seen that the uk is moving to privatise the NHS based on the American model. First brexit now this. Good game
@@svettnabb there are some who want that I don't doubt and maybe that is the long game, but for the time being it is FAR too popular for them to get away swapping it for US inspired private insurance based model. I suspect their immediate to medium term goals are to just hand off as much of the NHS' services to private contractors as possible while keeping it free at the point of use. The result will be massive amounts of public money being siphoned off into private hands combined with a sustained erosion of the quality of service. Eventually the quality of service will have declined so much that capitalists within the government might start suggesting the US model as a means to "fix" it (it won't), but I don't expect that they'll try that for a long time yet
Thank you for elaborating on the ways both parties are screwing us. Class solidarity between working class people is what the rich elites in power fear the most. It’s why the corporate media networks go out of their way to keep us divided.
You've put your finger on the main obstacle to economic justice in this so-called democracy. My wish is for 2023 to finally be the year the millions of poor & working class realize they're all being screwed by the same forces, and that they have power in numbers. I mean, when 10 individuals are richer than 90% of the country, the only possible explanation is brainwashing by the corporate-owned media. Otherwise, how can there not be a mass uprising?
It's scary how refreshing this video feels. This is the reality that most people either choose to ignore or rationalize through mental gymnastics. The way you actively criticize both sides and support neither is so different from how most Americans think; if you aren't die-hard red or blue, it's ostracizing. Thank you for promoting a free-thinking audience with your work!
Glad to be of service!
Non-voters are in fact the largest voting block in the US. We must assume he is giving a voice to at least some of them, which might in fact be more than the total support for either party.
It's even scarier how true it rings outside of USA, in Estonia and to some extent, in every european country.
Yeah mental gymnastics takes energy, time, and painful thinking that doesn't lead towards happiness. It's by far easier to remain blissfully ignorant and a fool
@@jermainemyrn19 You should check out the tim black show TBTV. Definitely the most underrated independent black channels on youtube. He has a show tonight speaking with nina turner at 11 and his friday shows are the best.
Trickle down economics is the most mythological economic "theory" ever proposed. Wealth literally _flows up_ from the bottom. It's labor that creates all wealth. Workers are the ones who produce value for bosses. The wealth we produce from our work goes to the capitalist class.
It's quite actually the opposite.
'Trickle' down is actually the perfekt Name. We only get the trickles.
More like pissing on the poor and saying its raining
@@jacklan4103 and who creates wealth? Labor
@@jacklan4103 , demand creates the job, wealth funds the creation.
If all it took was wealth to have jobs; then we can just pay people to be themselves as a "job" and it would be sustainable.
What do you mean? Trickle down economics works like a charm.
So what should we do about it? This is a genuine question. This is not a sarcastic "Well what are you going to do about it?" This is like "I genuinely want answers on what I should do"
They were once called " Robber Barons", we should bring that term back.
They were called robber barons in the times of child labor and 14 hour work days. Workers rights are wildly different now and no one is working a job that they didn’t agree to be working
But there's a reason why that disappeared. The wealthy aren't robbers, they give jobs to people that can pull them out of poverty! /s
That term is way to kind
@TomStefaniuk the Supreme Court literally just ruled in favor of Nestle that child labor is okay.
@@SecondThought can we resort to violence already?
Imagine if he made a second channel where he posts shorts about the various topics he made? The algorithm favors shorts
I’ve considered it. Might get around to it at some point.
@@SecondThought facts
@@SecondThought please. We need this knowledge to spread
@@SecondThought Really Should
Shorts are good because counter people will clip chip them and try and discredit them with reactionary ways. Because they are reactionary.
Which gets your name out there.
I've found a few leftist speakers whom I only learned about, because reactionary media clip chipped them and took it out of context, and since I disagree with the conservative, I look into the person they are discrediting to try and see if that is the context.
99% of the time it isn't.
But that exposure is good exposure. Shorts have better chance of being shared because they can distort.
You can't watch a full second thought video then try and misrepresent a few statements. But a second thought short could be shared by the opposition.
Better exposure for sure.
This channel restores my faith in humanity its good to know that there are actually people out there (like you) that gets it and wants things to change. You guys see how corrupt and upside down this system is and are bravely informing and galvanizing the public.
(Thank you)
“They take advantage of the way the system is set up” isn’t wrong at all, however, they set the system up that way so its not like they happen into paying zero taxes because thats just so happens to be how it works
We’ve allowed the rich to forget that unions are, actually, their preferred method of hearing worker voices. The other option tends to involve brash and reactionary actions that leave them significantly worse off than if they had just listened. The rich keep telling us which option they’d rather have though and people are beginning to realize thats just how its gonna have to go. Welp, I best get to cleaning Mao’s political power
Yep, very true
"Mao's political power" is the most hilarious euphemism for a gun I've seen in a while lol.
I try to respond as much as I can :)
@@winsonzhu4427 “Mao's political power” you mean the US second amendment
Thanks, you’re a real one.
I don't mind paying taxes in theory, but knowing 20% of my income goes to taxes and that billionaires don't pay a cent in taxes.... I feel cheated and taken advantage of. I don't even earn enough to be able to afford a house or something. Being a billionaire shouldn't even be possible.
Tax avoidance is theft, including the bits that are perfectly legal. Especially so.
@@Demopans5990 I only wish to get a house and live a normal life. I’m not interested in slaving for a business
I'm not opposed to taxes either. When my town raised property taxes to pay for schools, I was totally fine with it, despite not having any children of my own.
But when over half the federal budget goes towards the military- and the lion's share of that money goes to contractors/MIC (I'm a veteran, I know just how little soldiers get paid...)- that's what I have a problem with.
@@jermainemyrn19 Then go keep watching capitalism bad from "socialist" UA-camrs who don't care about his supporters and only take the money from viewers and donations. And larping on capitalist products like your phones and food manufactured from capitalist businesses.
And all we get for it is war and billionaires
It's unfair that UA-cam demonotizes your content. Second Thought is a very intelligent channel. I'm not necessarily a socialist, however the points you raise and the arguments you make are awesome! Thank you.
riches hates when truth is told about them...that why
If you think that the arguments and points are awesome, maybe you should come out of the socialist closet.
I've never called myself a socialist because I never really knew what it was. My family were democrats and said they were for the worker.
Having watched butt loads of Second Thought videos I can't find anything I dislike about socialism.
Are you in the same boat, or is there a reason you don't call yourself a socialist? I'm truly curious.
I once saw this image that said that if someone lived for 80 years and earned an average of $5,000.00 every day of their life, they still wouldn't be a billionaire, but rather have about $150,000,000.00. At the bottom of the image was a line that said that no one works to become a billionaire. So yeah, we should be taxing multi millionaire and billionaire individuals and corporations in this country more then we currently are! And if you want to argue that taxes shouldn't be raised on the wealthy and corporations, how can you defend them when they send their U.S. dollars to other countries so they can't be taxed and help fund domestic programs to help poor people here in the U.S.?
Second thought already did a video on this. Basically, if you made $2,000/h, 27/7, with no taxes or expenses, since 1AD, you wouldn’t even be in the top 50 richest people. It’s that bad.
Capital gains should be taxed just like other income.
It's sick because billionaires have too much but put the burden on people with too little.
@First Name Last Name nope it's poor, not non millionaires, you think a person earning 0 is equal to a person earning 500k?
Didn't you just watch the video? They don't pay income tax because they don't take an income.
I love how thoroughly you cover topics and how you draw connections between different systems that allow for major problems to persist. Another great video!
Thanks so much! I’m glad you like my videos
I’m fine with paying taxes, but I wish more of my tax dollars would go to the public good rather than the military industrial complex. We have enough war toys.
I'm sure that what they said before WW2
@@battlebuddy4517 Acutally, we had a very small and weak military before WWII. Our military now is the most powerful in the world. We could cut it by 50% and still be the most powerful.
@@HeathWatts As somebody who is not from US, I can only tell you, you should be happy to have such military, and no, you shouldn't cut the funding. You should just use that military for more good than you are now.
@@locybapsi174 The US has not used its military for “good” since WWII. Every time since then, we’ve used it to prop up right wing dictatorships.
@@HeathWatts Well, US military has kept Europe safe, Japan, South Korea... You wouldn't want Russia or China to dominate the world would you? It's better to be US, although I Agree many bad people are exploiting it for their own benefits.
Can you also do a video about lobbying?
Do you mean bribery?
@@tevbuff according to many, since "corporations are just playing the game", as long as it's legal, lobbying is "a-ok". People are so dumb, they think companies are not to blame no matter how unethical, as long as it's legal, it is okay. Especially since companies are the ones who MAKE the law nowadays
Fun Fact: accounting and tax laws are intentionally complicated in order for the Public Accounting sector to be able to charge large amounts in fees and only let those who know the laws inside and out to benefit.
I know because I’m a CPA. The study material to get your CPA even jokes about it.
CPA? sorry, I'm ignorant...
@@littlestone1541 certified public accountant
@@teiomat5557 Ah, OK. Thanks!
In Australia at least, I always thought that tax laws were written in such a way so that more gets caught in the taxable income net, and you have to find specific provisions to get out of it. It might not be the same in the US. I've also heard that no general anti-avoidance provision exists in the US tax laws. Is that right?
Same as health insurances. The paperwork is intentionally made complicated so that the doctors and hospitals have to hire people to do the paperwork for them. And of course the bill is passed to patients eventually.
American braiwashing has always fascinated me. I usually wonder how these people aren't constantly on the streets protesting about this pathetic excuse for a democracy. I am glad that Americans are finally waking up about these issues.
Can thank alternative media based outside the US for that or shall I say foreign agents disguised as journalists according to the US
@Frantsis the average american is not waking up. It's just the tiny fraction of nerds that are slowly learning more and more.
how about no one pays taxes that's fair
Yea well said Americans shouldn't be brainwashed from leftist media that tell you to hate the rich and they should be rhe one that take care of the poor
@@robertekew where my nerds at
George Carlin was right "The rich has all the money, pays none of the taxes"
But there's no shortage of people thinking that's still way too much, and believer everyone should pay the same by amount
Oh, those who makes 30k and defend the billionaires? They do that because they can't compare themselves to those billionaires, they can only argue with you and hopefully keep you as poor as he does so to show himself being smart in front of you.
I'd say they are just blissfully ignorant and fools
It's one big club, and we ain't in it
@@nates9105 dunning-kruger
The best part of the week is when you upload! Love your videos.
Thanks so much! I’m glad you like them
The one bit that I'm curious about. If they take a loan, they have to pay it off over time. Since they don't have much income, they'd need to sell stocks/investments to do that. Then that money is taxed, right? I think the benefit to getting the loan isn't to avoid paying taxes (since at some point they'll have to pay off the load and in turn pay the taxes), but instead they can get 8%/year in the stock market and only pay 2% on the loan. So it's literally cheaper to borrow money than to un-invest their money. But maybe I'm missing something somewhere. Very interesting!
To avoid taxes, they use complex system of offshores and imaginary companies, that work in countries with lower taxes. So, for instance, if you want to gain profit, but don't want to be taxed, just have your income made into payment to some company outside of US. Money still ends on your bank account, but you avoided US tax.
Another interesting scheme is through charities - you generously donate to charity to buy some things(education books for orphans, for instance), which, through proxy firms, are produced by, surprise, your own business. So your money returns to you + some extra, and you are subject to tax exemptions, because it's for charity.
I believe with securities based loans any appreciation that is made while the stock is collateralized isn’t taxed. So if you’re Bezos and your Amazon stock moves a few thousand percent in ten years. You pay very little in taxes, not really tax free but insanely tax efficient. Also most billionaires aren’t using their whole portfolio as collateral. It could be less than 10% of it.
You can gain dividends on some of your investments, (which are taxed, but guess what in the united states, capital gains tax rates are much lower than earned income) thus, they can exploit loans with tiny interest rates to pay for things while paying off the loan with income from investments over time.
AKA, they buy things with perfect credit at tiny interest rates and pay for it over time through the value gained by increasing their already titanic net worth.
In addition to what was said here before - they can just take another loan to pay back the previous one, and as the assets grow (i.e. the "money on paper" - the value of their companies for example), they can get ever bigger loans, to also finance the interests of the previous ones.
"but instead they can get 8%/year in the stock market and only pay 2% on the loan."
Exactly! Second Thought missed the point.
You can also blame all these motivation channels and Instagram pages for basically making people worship billionaires 😑 you see quotes from Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffet and every reply is like "Yes, he is my hero and idol for life".
Billionaires convincing people to live in a space dystopia and the masses eat that up
Yep, that whole genre is toxic. “Hustle culture” is killing entire generations of people.
Yeah, those motivation channels and life coaches are a massive influence to the inspiring people. They have this mindset that being average is bad and that being exceptional is the way to go
@Vote for the Conservatives no it isn't, cmon when you are gonna wake up from this delusion of hustle culture if you believe that as good mindset to have despite the fact it will trap us into bootstrap billionaire worshipping culture...
Every American needs to watch this before they talk politics
Some won't, the brainwashing by Reaganism is too strong...despite it being the most failed economic practice we've ever experimented with 😂 .
@@corbinwilson660 Ah yes the Heritage foundation, the group literally set up to be propaganda for the elite, an incredibly trustworthy source. You know that's not a source right? The Heritage Foundation is not the IRS and doesn't have access to tax data, if they're basing this on tax data then cite the actual tax data itself the only thing you've done is cite someone's opinion, those are not facts. It's also hilarious that you just didn't bother giving a source for any of your other claims even though they contradict literally every single study on this ever made.
Oh and I almost forgot the video literally explains why your bullshit is wrong, rich people don't have income you dolt, but tbh you definitely didn't actually watch the video because right wingers never do that. They just hop into the comment sections and start making a fool of themselves for some goddamn reason, I think you guys have a problem with humiliation kinks.
@@corbinwilson660 Nice, pointless essay. Quick, easy question: Do you think your car mechanic should pay a greater percentage of his income than Jeff Bezos because 'Bezos is like a totally awesome job creator dude and my mechanic is a worthless eater?'. I honestly do not get you (and by you I understand there are countless other clueless types who feel they need to defend the 'system').
@@corbinwilson660 You instantly lose all credibility citing the heritage foundation as a source.
Unfortunately this video is misleading and wants to calculate taxes the rich dont pay on unrealised capital gain without acknowleging that no one in the country pays taxes on unrealised capital gains. Its not somethign for only the rich, thats how the tax system works and it favors both the rich and the poor who own any stocks.
The internet is a wildcard that they couldn't see coming fast enough to contain. They try, boy do they try mostly with distractions now, but I have actual hope after the last year. A spark was lit. It might take a while, but eventually it will...well you get the idea. I hope I live to see it. Solidarity my fellows xox
hope i live to see it as well, solidarity comrade ✊🏼✊🏼
@@diablo55 😍❤❤❤
They manipulate the algorithm really well though, but we'll see how far that gets them. Giving CNN, MSNBC and Fox hundreds of thousands of views and giving independent channels very few views, good thing is those channels are watched by older people only, very few young people watch mainstream media.
The internet isn't where revolutions are built though, you need to start organizing irl, build mutual aid networks and unions to grow a solid base.
@@hedgehog3180 Mutual aid and dual power are very important.
Every time I hear the phrase "job creators" I remind myself that it is just the modern re-branding of "trickle-down economics".
Job creation is kinda like charity, it keeps the proletariat from outright killing the ruling class.
Jeff Bezos didn't create jobs, he destroyed many jobs on Main St and replaced it with a few shitty warehouse jobs
@@kei2142 'modern re-branding of "trickle-down economics"' I like that. These people's arguments went from "money trickles down from rich to poor", to 'they create jobs'. Shows how people just slightly change their opinion so they don't have to feel like they were wrong. Of course, this new version is also wrong considering the fact that large companies like Walmart and Amazon have destroyed other businesses (effectively DESTROYING jobs) through EXTREME aggressive tactics, and then "created jobs" from the businesses they destroyed.
These people subconsciously are aware of how much "trickle down economics" was a complete failure so they decide to talk about "job creators". It's a way of protecting their own fragile ego so they aren't "wrong"
Trickle down economics is always my favorite system!
Wanna hear something sad? I was on twitter and some stupido said that billionaires shouldn't pay more taxes than regular people because "they're doing society a favour by creating jobs" America is lost.
that trickle down legend is quite old
Except billionaires actually DO pay more taxes because 0.98% of jeff bezos's revenue (which is a disingenuous figure to begin with because it's not a salary but a rise in asset values) will still be MUCH higher than your entire salary, which I'm assuming is not much given a clear lack of basic economic knowledge
@@yt_nh9347 since you completely danced around the entire point, let’s make it clear: it’s not a fair pay percentage to scale
@@cjoseph369 Dude people like that will dance around the point for hours.
@@yt_nh9347 Which also means that every 0.01% of tax that Bezos gets to skip on (compared to what everyone else is forced to pay) equals a MASSIVE chunk of money that society is being robbed of. But hey! Its not like every time citizens voice their needs they are met with an instant ''how are we going to pay for it though???!''
Reading the comments has helped me find a better headspace. I've been out of work for a year due to COVID and my finances are worse than they have ever been... Like many of you.
We have strength in numbers. We need to remember that.
You make these things really easy to understand. It’s made it much easier to articulate myself when trying to persuade family and friends. Thank you so much!
That’s great to hear! I’m glad to have been helpful
I agree, it's clear, concise and insightful, but without too much academic jargon. An excellent class/material analysis.😊😎
Taxes are absolutely fine if you ask me. We need taxes to pay for certain infrastructure and healthcare. But the fact that billionaires can exploit these loopholes to avoid paying any taxes is absolutely criminal. They all should be locked in prison immediately. But we know it’ll never change...
paying for food is a tax
paying for rent is a tax
paying for any neccessities is a tax
Yup as long as the government are easily corrupted and bought, capitalists will always win.
@@reichfuhrer1942 so true. Lobbying should be illegal. You shouldn’t be able to pay politicians to make the laws the way YOU want. Should absolutely be a crime but it’s completely legal 🙄
@@Sinaeb yes and? What about it? I’m fine with the idea of ‘taxation’ but it needs to be fair. And it certainly is not. All Americans should pay an equal % of their income in taxes. I make $20,000 a year...I should not be paying more of a % of my wealth in taxes than Jeff fucking Bezos...
@@reichfuhrer1942 Problem is, even if capitalism was removed, there would still be another group that would rise to power and the whole thing would start over. So long as the rich elite feel safe enough, they will always exploit as much as they can.
I hate how much of an actual dreamlike fantasy walking out of hospital without going into debt feels
Try Canada, down side is close to 30 percent of your income will be taxed plus an annual care plan member ship in the low hundreds that's Canadian dollars by the way. But u don't need to worry about having to pay the price for a lamborgini for a hospital stay.
@@edwincheang6717 *laughs in scandinavian 50% tax*
@@VitaeLibra I cri eveytim lol
@@edwincheang6717 I plan to try it soon lol wanted to move up north long before Trump and all this covid stuff happened
@@edwincheang6717 Turkmenistan has 10percent of salary tax, corparations pays 2 percent tax from gross income. healthcare is affordable dentalcare is also affrodable. We almost dont pay for utilities we dont pay for housing taxes, because of we are ex soviet country we have aprroximently 90-95 percent home owners.
the system isn't broken, it's doing what's it supposed to do. the rich make the system work for them.
Well can't expect much from a nation whose founding fathers designed it to fit their bill when considering the demographic of them being rich middle age landowners and business owners who ironically started this cause they felt taxed too much from the brits. Who could've guessed a bunch of rich middle aged landowners and businessmen such as the founding fathers would mold the resulting nation in their image and set the rules to favor them and their demographic. Who could have possibly known eh?
Yes this is true!
Absolutely without businesses you don’t have jobs so for example like doctors colleges Microsoft they need workers!
That’s what our system supposed to do that’s how the economy grows!
The system is not broken because that’s what it’s supposed to do as her said!
You are becoming one of my favorite channels on YT keep up the great content
Thanks so much!
@@SecondThought I am a big Hasan fan and he loves your videos. Please go on his stream!!!
"Prosecute the people who leaked the tax rates of billionaires" 🤮, the 2 party corporate system is revolting.
The only difference between a billionaire and a mafia boss is that billionaires steal the people's wealth legally.
Billionaires do not steal anything...their value is directly corresponding to the market value of their companies as their wealth comes from large share ownership of the companies they started...
@sadi muntakim by making money of the exploitation of the workers and then using loopholes in the system to not pay taxes.
@@yt_nh9347 🤡🤡🤡🤡
@@yt_nh9347 Who the actual fuck really deserves a billion dollars? Can you even comphrehend such a big number?
@sadi muntakim scummy business practices, getting the government to mandate things, monopolies, must i go on?
Poor person dodges taxes and gets arrested but when a rich person doesn't pay their taxes nothing happens
Yea then if you leak documents proving they paid no taxes they murder you. RIP Daphne Galizia.
What we should do is organize a massive tax strike and dismantle the state.
Actually when the rich don't pay taxes they're rewarded... 🤷🏿♂️
@@g40oz everyone who evades taxes should be rewarded
No they don’t!
As a wise man once said, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”.
@potsmoker54 Lol
Mao ze dong my least favorite commie
Out of the boys
@@thatguyfromyoutube4854 More than Stalin?
@@rusty3073 in fact i admire stalin
@@rusty3073 stalin is my fav
In case you're about to start typing "well you can't tax wealth because that's double taxation" or "there's no way to tax gains that haven't been realized"...property taxes? You pay the government when your wealth increases so why shouldn't they?
exactly, honestly im a huge fan of just removing the entire income tax system and replacing it with a tiered sales tax system. low cost items like basic foods and home supplies should have less sales tax, and expensive luxury items like sports cars and half billions dollar yachts should have double or even triple the current sales tax. honestly thats the only way for the mega rich to actually pay their dues.
@@X4Alpha4X they'd probably make 'donations' and receive big 'gifts' like yachts mysteriously
Thank you, I have been watching your videos for a while now and it really widened my point of view
Nice! Glad to be of service :)
Excellent video, comrade! Workers of the world unite
(Soviet anthem starts playing)
Jeff Bezos: “why do I hear boss music?!”
Internationale*
@@PalkkiTT that what use all over the world time to try elect the cpusa
there is nothing certain but death and taxes... except if you're a billionaire
Excellent video
The world is so unfair. It makes me wish I was never born at all. At this point, it feels like I'm just here to be exploited by these people for their lavish lifestyle.
There’s always something we can do to improve things! Just do your best and try to live your life in a manner consistent with your principles.
Same. These days the only thing that keeps me going is spite
@percipi Yeah....HIGHLY unlikely to happen.
we need nuclear war
The only thing that soothes my soul upon realizing that I am food in the system I was born into is remembering the fact that I woke up alive one day and it cost me nothing. I have already won.
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you were "silenced." For the love of god, stay safe man.
Why would anyone wanna silence them? He doesn't say anything groundbreaking, he just put the facts everybody can already access in a new format. If anyone would wanna silence anyone, than they would silence the people who produce the facts in the first place, not the people who just spread them.
@@toledoseahawks3348 homeland security showed up at his house after he made a video on the CIA
Thats... Fucking terrifying
@@toledoseahawks3348 UA-cam has been censoring him since he started doing political content. Why in the world would UA-cam, a subsidiary of Google, want to allow socialism groups to be encouraged to upload content like this? Google doesn't want the average American to be radicalized to the left. All these other corporations in the US, including the US military industrial complex, want you to be poor and want you to be a liberal/conservative. The fact of the matter is that most people in the US don't think like this. Sure, you can argue that more and more young people, and even some older people, are catching on to basic leftist talking points: UBI, public healthcare, labor unions and employee-friendly labor laws, $24/hr minimum wage, higher corporate taxes, defunding of the police and military, and the funding of education, transportation infrastructure, renewable energy, science and research, and programs that incentivize artists, musicians, and contribute to our culture. The US government doesn't want any of that.
@@hexoson you are aware that YpuTube can be watched in the whole world. The world does not turn around the US. I am pretty sure UA-cam couldn't care less, who uploads which content, as long as it is not against the policy. All they care about is the sweet sweet ad revenue. And if you watched the video, you would be aware, that they have to fear nothing in this one and a half party state.
I will always point this out whenever someone mentions legality to justify immoral behavior, slavery and Jim Crow was also legal and lynching in some places still is. There are states that make it illegal to have non marital sex or throw snowballs or whispering in church. The list goes on but legality shouldn't be your moral compass
Yes, this is an important point
People don’t just support billionaires because they think they’ll become rich one day. Think of why right-wingers support religion, or why conservative women support patriarchy. It’s not because they believe they’ll become God, or women will become men. It’s because they believe in this natural hierarchy (God > Humans, Men > Women, Property Owners > Workers). That’s why labor theory of value is important- people need to be educated of the fact that all value comes from labor (and it’s exploitation), not from those useless middle-managers with an MBA.
Good point
You are completely correct. Also, these hierarchical ideas are mostly present through indoctrination rather than being an actual part of human nature. An anarchist society seeks to abolish all of these hierarchies, such as capitalism, the state, patriarchy, religion, and so on. The only types of hierarchies that are seen as justified include that between a parent and a young child, but even then, one could make the argument that that is not a hierarchy. Simply put, no human should ever have power over another, because power corrupts.
In a video full of intelligent discourse, this is the most soyboy comment I've seen.
@@anonymoususer3012 “Also, these hierarchical ideas are mostly present through indoctrination than human nature”
And why exactly do you think humans teach and express these values as well as other animals? Environment is largely influenced and shaped by genes, read up on the gene environment correlation.
@@5353Jumper it works just not in America lol look at social democratic countries like Canada or most European countries with a state apparatus that cushions the blow on the poor by economic hardships.
This is easily one of your best videos. Amazing.
Thanks so much!
How am I supposed to not hate rich people doing this. It's disgusting.
"Don't Burn the witch, Burn the Rich"
Can't eat the rich raw, it's unsanitary
@@themanofquagga upset stomach is a small price
@@themanofquagga Get some A1 sauce and some strong liquor and you can eat anything.
@@Krystalmyth A1, yes, liquor, no thanks, the taste of ethanol makes me gag, I just don't like it. My alcohol consumption is essentially limited to white claw since it does such a good job with sugar and carbonation covering up the alcohol taste
Nobody should be a billionaire, doesn't matter how lucky or smart you're because at the end of the day you did some fucked up shit to get all that money. It's not only innovation or hard work.
always ask, did he exploit people for that money or did his parents?
👏🏻
If you invent a product/service which is bought by millions of people everyday, that would make you a billionaire, and I don't see what's controversial about it. It's fair and it incentivizes innovation
Next to zero innovation or hard work is involved. Almost exclusively exploitation of the masses, and pure luck. To be in the right place, at the right time, and so forth.
@@user-gz4ve8mw9l think of an athlete winning a race, would you also say that he doesn't deserve the prize and the medal because his win was just "luck"? What does luck even means in this context
Been following you since the cow thumbnail, keep up with the great work, greetings from Italy!
Wow, thanks for sticking around!
Congrats! You got 1.08 million subs now!!!
It went down lmao
It's now 1.07 million XD
Oof 1.07 million now
Bruh Howwww. He's at 1.07 million now? He's getting shadowbanned again
@@mehdihassan8316 Nah he still at 1.8 MIL now
Somebody make that one meme where Obama is giving himself a medal about corporations giving corporations lower taxes
@@corbinwilson660 the top 1% control 48% of wealth, not the top 10%. The top 9% controls 85% of wealth, not 48%.
Wow what a great statement in the middle of this video. Did not expect this critique to get so explicit, great
Please keep making videos! My thoughts and beliefs get challenged and I've been able to grow my critical thinking skills by watching them.
That’s so great to hear!
When I was young, my dad once taught me that the rich pays less tax than the average people by exploiting the tax code. Back then, I never fully understood it but thought its really cool trick to save money.
After watching this video, I found this very sicking that the rich lives on borrowed money. And most of it is not for business. And people still thinks it's okay.
Thank you Second Thought for your service to properly educate us. Really appreciated.
you should be blaming the gov for the tax code, not rich people. dont hate the player, hate the game.
@@zhaow4832 blablablabla
@@msgirly6827 he’s not wrong though. Maybe missing the point that rich people actively manipulate politics to keep the broken system that benefits them. But he’s not fundamentally wrong
@@zhaow4832 still their fault for exploiting it.
yes it is ok. You are allowed to give money to people as a loan if you want to. Free country
As usual, a really good video! I am shocked that the politicians are making inquiries into how the tax information was leaked rather than how to fix things! Despicable. Thanks again!
Homie, you're trying to start a whole revolution eh? 😉
Power to the People
@@Dexter037S4 If the government dare to use it to their own people, i would say that goverment deserve to be overthrown.
@@Dexter037S4 They would, but that would cost them their reputation.
If this happened 100 years ago several different acts would’ve already been passed to change it.
Still waiting for Teddy Roosevelt to remember he's alive and come back with his big stick.
You are a hero for doing these kind of videos. Thank you good sir.
The bar is low on the left, LOL !
Commenting for the algorithm. Thank you for what you do.
Thank you for watching!
@@SecondThought Np!
@Second Thought EVERYTHING you say about how billionaires avoid taxes was spot on and phenomenal! However, I think that framing this taxation issue around "government solvency" is a mistake in the long run, even though it sounds right at first.
This is because the government creates money, therefore it never needs anybody's tax money to spend money. However, taxes are super important because they give the currency non-zero value in the first place AND they are a tool to fight inflation in order to keep that value above zero.
When billionaires skip out on taxes, the consequences are so much worse than "now we can't have the nice bridge we wanted", because if we really want that bridge bad enough the government can print the money and just build it.
The true consequence of the rich skipping out on taxes are way more serious: it's the devaluation of our currency (kiss any savings you have goodbye), destabilization of our entire economy, and of course, sky high and rapidly accelerating inequality.
Please check out the things people like Warren Mosler (formerly in Fed monetary operations) and Michael Hudson/Stephanie Kelton (econ professors UMKC) are saying for more info.
This was interesting. Good comment!
The only way to go here is making people aware of the possibility of a trickle-up, instead of a trickle-down economy. That means to implement a universal basic income to make life a lot easier for normal people. The economy you can build on that UBI-income floor is far better for society as a whole, people will do jobs because they like them instead of having to take any BS-job merely to survive. Only that would truly grow the economy in a democratic way, because people would not have to sacrifice their best talents to work at Mc Donalds just for a living.
"This is because the government creates money, therefore it never needs anybody's tax money to spend money. However, taxes are super important because they give the currency non-zero value in the first place AND they are a tool to fight inflation in order to keep that value above zero."
Money creation IS inflation so your comment makes no sense. Under normal circumstances we would have a somewhat steady money supply and price deflation. Money buys more and more as more and more goods are produced.
"When billionaires skip out on taxes, the consequences are so much worse than "now we can't have the nice bridge we wanted", because if we really want that bridge bad enough the government can print the money and just build it."
Yeah but that would still hurt the lower income hardest because the stocks just rise in price as money supply increases - we see this today.
"If you give food to the poor, you're called a saint.
If you ask why the poor has nothing to eat to begin with, you're called a communist."
- Helder Camara, archbishop of Brasil
Helder Camara, archbishop of Brasil.
@@pepeedge5601 thanks
This was brilliantly done and we even covered this news on our channel as well. The class consciousness is a dire need and we need people to see this and rise up to make change happen. People are sick and tired of being sick and tired. It's time for us to focus on societal wellness.
A bit more time just bit more and this ticking bomb will blow up.
Capitalism? sounds like feudalism with extra steps
Because it is only much WORSE.
Because it is, the extra steps are there to hide what's going on.
More like slavery with extra steps
The peasants are like OUR LORD IS A GENIUS! YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS!
@@hdhdu7634 Communist countries had slaves too
This needs to be seen more
Great video as always.
Thanks!
videos like this reminds me of something I'll never forget that my finical algebra teacher told me, that it was likely that my generation will likely have to work into their 60s-70s, which is honestly a morbid thought i haven't been able to shake.. at lleast for someone who wants to do what they enjoy and will likely be stuck with something I don't till the end of time
This channel and our changing climate needs to be spread far and wide for everyone to see!
Is taxing the rich more so hard? Also, remember learning about how presidents and other authorities would take down unjust practices like monopolies in history classes? Good times….good times….
Yes it’s quite complicated. Corporations are not tied to one country and some also have headquarters abroad so that would mean the US government would have to intervene with foreign policy/law.
@@rson301 Except the US already intervenes on so many levels, & in so many places outside of the US...
(Think the 900 + military bases all over the world)
...that not being able to tax the rich their fair share...is just their way of saying "We work for them" not "We the People".
Congress on either side doesn't wanna talk back to their employer's.
@@rson301 lame argument. Then the US government shouldn't intervene. A lot of people keep thinking large corporations moving outside the US is bad...that is incredibly dumb. These corporations are hiring foreign talent anyways and getting cheap Chinese goods to resell to Americans anyways. Large Corporations moving outside is GOOD, a LOT of room for new small businesses to thrive and fill that marketplace. More entrepreneurs, more small businesses, more competition. Even from a capitalist viewpoint, arguments you guys spout from stuff you've seen from FOX news is pretty weak.
@@edwardroh89 its not an argument dip shit, learn to read. The dude only asked why its "hard." Anyways when did I say corps outside the US is bad? Tax havens are awesome and I find it hilarious how you use "foreign talent" and "Chinese goods" in the same sentence.
Tax loopholes are not just a USA problem but worldwide. That's why we need a policy for tax fairness
Crucial info thank u
Your duty as an American is to pay taxes. When your paying taxes, that’s patriotic. Texas are essential. Shocked that the rich don’t and now the Senate wants to tax the middle class, Not the rich, for the infrastructure package.
Without texas we would have no coleslaw or rodeo!
It ain't patriotic if you have no choice. I ain't against taxes, but I'm just saying it ain't patriotic if it's mandatory.
@@TerrierMartello apparently it’s not if your top 1%
@@detroitcityman6622 it shouldn’t be. You need to pay taxes.
What I didn't understand how that loan is paid for. Yes, because of their wealth they get special conditions, but the banks still want their money back sometime. Do they just get a bigger load to pay the previous?
They get interest/dividends on money and assets they already own, and use that to pay back the loan. That way they get what they want, the bank gets a cut, and the government doesn't tax them. Taxes are only paid when money moves, so if you already have a lot of it (here it's usually in the form of stocks that pay dividends), no one is going to take that away. So they compensate the profits from their assets with the "losses" incurred from the loans, to minimize taxes. Otherwise the full profits would be taxed. You can see when dividends are paid just how much you got, and apply for appropriate loans to pay the bank a small percentage rather than the tax, which would be considerably higher. The bank is in on the whole thing, they know you're loaded, so they will always agree. A very simplified version, but that's the idea.
@@marcingolab6227 The interest and dividends are assessable income, and if the loans that the rich people take are made for personal, or non-income producing purposes ie starting a new business, buying assets that generate income, then the interest payable on those loans would generally be non-deductible right? Also, if I'm not misreading your comment and apologies if I am, the payment of the loans themselves would be capital in nature and not would not in any way be deductible against taxable income, so what you described doesn't seem like a plausible way to legally avoid taxes.
In the end it's all a timing issue. If the rich take on loans against their shares or whatnot, and the bank knocks on their door to demand payment at a future period, the liquidation of the shares to generate the wherewithal to pay the bank would trigger a taxable gain event to happen. Albeit with more favourable rates applied to that sort of income. In Australia we have a 50% reduction on gains for assets held long term ie >12 mos, and I think in the US a lower rate gets applied?
But I think there's more to the story than what we know, as this scheme Second Thought is describing just seems too simple and too good to be true.
@@the_tax_consultant they have enough money to do things like claim all their income/earnings in one year, every several years
*One of these ashholes takes out loans against his penthouse, so the loans are considered mortgages, and he can write off the interest
Elon Musk took out loans and (in the period examined) was only taxed in line with his wealth one year when he exercised 1 bil in stock options
@@the_tax_consultant i read some of the article and bezos for instance claims business losses to offset anything taxable
Good points, I'm not American either and I think a lot of their tax law is completely different, but I was thinking along the lines of, e.g. Bezos sets up multiple companies/legal entities for personal purposes, each with a different set of activities (where I live, a business has to declare the type of activity it's intending to pursue, precisely so that the tax revenue service can assess whether a given cost should be allowed as tax deductible or not; say, you're a freelance digital artist and want a gaming computer, that's fine since you can work on it; if you wanted a Porsche, that's a different story).
Then one entity takes out a loan and buys luxurious properties in NYC, but it's fine because they can let them, another buys a mega yacht but it's fine because they can organize trips, etc. (I think it's plausible that's why he sold one place on his rocket). Some other shell entity can even officially rent the apartment on paper (for like 100$ a month), just so he can write the whole thing off. He can arrange it so that the yacht trip with his friends and family is actually a "source of revenue" consistent with the company profile if they charge someone and leave an invoice or receipt for a cruise.
I have no idea how that then works with the income from stocks and other assets, but the liabilities at least are covered. Where I live, if the sum total of your revenue for a fiscal period is lower than your losses (in this case the loan payments), you won't pay tax. But if the revenue from dividends were taxed separately before being payed out, then there'd have to be some more shenanigans to change the legal form of the money into something else.
Of course, the IRS could make a fuss about it, but they won't because it's Jeff Bezos. There was a story in the New York Times a few years ago about how Trump avoided paying taxes on many of his properties by inflating costs, that's the gist of what I was thinking. In the end, even after the news broke, Trump didn't pay anything anyway since he was POTUS. I don't know whether to call it fully legal or not, but when government entities that are supposed to pursue these types of scams fail to act (despite having the knowledge), I don't think there's much of a difference. That's probably why Mitch McConnell wanted to pursue the people responsible for the leak - it makes the IRS look bad that they knew, but didn't do anything.
Sorry for the wall of text, do you think that's plausible?
your videos are a rare gem in here! absolutely outstanding material! Thank you!!
I've never heard it called "buy borrow die" but that's a perfect way to explain things. Also, interest payments on loans (like margin) are tax-deductible, so just another fun fact there :o
**is loading 5.56x45mm rounds into a bunch of 35-round magazines while this is playing on my phone**
amazing video thank you
Reminds me of Feudalism with the distinction that they don't protect their subjects when it becomes necessary
People talk about how our current society is so advanced but the average american spends more time working than a literal medieval peasant. And they aren't even guaranteed housing for it
@@guy-sl3kr DAMN!
@@guy-sl3kr underrated comment
Feudalism was much better
@@guy-sl3kr That is becoming global phenomenon. Especially in countries with capitalism where few are free to do what they want.
Amazon started in garage ... that was attached to a nice expensive home!
People leave the rest of that sentence out a lot. Most "self made" wealthy Americans weren't truly self made. They may have had a good idea but they also had the funds and support to follow through with it. So, if you're struggling with your next house or car payment you simply can't be the next Jeff Bezos.
Not to mention the hundreds of thousands his family loaned him.
Who said you had to be a billionaire to be wealthy? Millionaire is just as fine...
"I started a business with just a small million dollar loan"
Your videos must be reached to all around the world
Hear me out:
Let's eat the rich.
🍽
ready when you are
I'm so ready.
Aight I’ll grab the BBQ sauce
Ok
This is the fastest video I cought
Nice! Always fun to be early
I like rewatching your content. Really great work.
Imagine if every truck driver, nurse, and other absolutely essential worker did a universal strike at the same time. That would be pretty based I think
The real taxation rich people fear the nost is raising minimum wage. Imagine of all the workers in Amazon, Tesla, Microsoft, etc. watching their salaries doubling up
They might actually be happy... and lead fulfilling lives. _They must be stopped._
Having a minimum wage at all is kinda stupid. Imagine that your work generates $10 per hour for a firm. Without minimum wage you would still have a job that paid you maybe $9 per hour. With a minimum wage of $15 you wouldn’t have a job. Amazon will most probably just find ways for robots to do the work.
im not a fan of blindly increasing the minimum wage because i make more than minimum wage and my wages aren't going to go up, yet everything i pay for will increase in price. There are better ways to get money into the pockets of those people without increasing the basic cost of living. For example, Incentivise employers to pay their workers more, completely remove all federal and state income taxes for anyone only earning minimum wage, etc. To make up for the lost tax income, raise sales taxes on luxury goods like those half billion dollar yachts. anything that costs more than $100,000 should be subject to the same 4-9% sales tax like everything else, it should be at least 20% for that price.
@@muabyt7333 Amazon starting pay is already $15 per hour. We subsidize Walmart because many of their employees make below the poverty level wages and qualify for govt. assistance. Yes, we subsidize Walmart with our taxes dollars.
Robotics will be used no matter if minimum wage is $7,50 or $15.00
@@X4Alpha4X We could keep doing what we do now and make up the difference by subsidizing companies that don't pay a living wage. Plus, if employees make more money, they will pay more into payroll taxes which funds Social security and Medicare.
Another excellent, well produced, and informative video.
There's no such thing as a charitable or kind multimillionaire/billionaire, if they were truly the type to give help people just for the sake of helping them, they'd live like monks. The fact that people believe that someone can be in the 1% and truly charitable is doing some amazing mental gymnastics. Of course, some greed for survival is necessary, but millionaires really need to get help for their hoarding problem.
If they truly were good billionaires, they would use their immense stonks to fix every problem in the world.
@@ARandomSpace I have no clue if that's a joke making fun of my stance or a joke in favor of it but yes, them and their all powerful stonks can at least help out a lil' bit, not too much lest they hurt themselves.
@@rambbler It's a joke in favor of your stance. It's also my actual opinion on what to do with all the stonks.
@@rambbler what if we just got leftists to become billionaires 4head.
"But come on, everyone knows you can get rich with elbow grease and hard work!"
Good God, the people that still believe this ... the thickness of that wool curtain is impossible.
love the videos, keep them coming!
Taxing them more won't help, we need to take drastic measures.
Very. Drastic. Measures.
Absolutely! They need to feel the same discomfort that we workers and poor people feel every day.
Let's put them on a boat with no food or water or way off the boat, then send them into the Pacific and never see them again.
@@TerrierMartello They do contribute to our economy. But they should definetely be paying more.
@@akmil807 Musk took over $4 Billion in US Government GRANTS to build UBER. Grants. No requirement to pay back. The rich not only pay next to no taxes, they also benefit from the taxes everyone else pays. The difference is that proportional taxes at the rate I pay would make a pretty big difference in my life, but Bezos wouldn’t notice. If, however, we took the effective tax rates imposed by FDR, not only would we wipe out the national debt, but we’d revitalize the middle class AND grow the economy. 40 years of no wage growth and the continuous stripping of retirement and healthcare benefits has now successfully shifted the cost to workers. In an economy where work is vanishing due to the technologies these oligarchs introduced in the first place, it won’t be long before “workers” will no longer be able to shoulder the cost of running America. When the US looks like Detroit, the oligarchs will move, leaving us to our fates. If they contributed proportionally, not only would they still have more money than they could possibly spend in 10 lifetimes, but the nation, the infrastructure, and the people in this country would return to the Greatness the MAGA crowd are so fond of misappropriating.
@@akmil807 People think that these billionaires are the ones that "innovate"... they are simply just businessmen. They just manage, sure in an efficient way, but they are WAY WAY overvalued. You know like when certain stocks skyrocket and the price is way up there when real value is lower...yeah it's kinda like that. It's so weird, americans think that these head ceos are the ones that "innovate"... it is very likely these ceos just tell other people to be the ones producing the product rather than actually having a direct hand in creating the products. It's like if Albert Einstein had a manager, we praise the manager instead of Albert Einstein themselves. They just claim the innovations from the talented people in the company as their own. So weird the fetishization of rich.
"Dude, are you okay?"
"No! The country I live in is run by fucking clowns!"
run by bootlicking clowns.
Nope not at all but if you think about it political side of things yeah.
@@ncrveterantrooper361 thanks for defeating your own argument.
The top 1% own 50% of the wealth in this country, so it would make sense that they SHOULD contribute 50-60 percent of the tax revenue.
The top 20% own 85% of the wealth, then they should contribute 85-90 percent of the tax revenue.
Sure, they pay more numerically, but it does not make any sense to tax people who are struggling while giving tax breaks to those are not struggling.
And, it does not make sense that labor income tax is higher than capital gain income tax. Why is govt taxing hard work?
@@Ascend777 because the rich does a lot of tactic with loans and the School system taught us that debt is bad but there are good debt if you know how to use it and intelligent
The richest people in Norway pay about 50% in income taxes. For the rest of us taxes lay around 30-40%. This gives us free school, healtcare and infastructure. Love the Norwegian model!
And the rich also pay taxes via their company. In Denmark that is 25% of the profits.
Norway can not be used an example as it is rich in oil.
While everyone was focused on the game servers' staff, the real players are pulling a Spiffing Brit: "THE STOCK MARKET IS A WELL BALANCED GAME WITH NO EXPLOITS"