"Warren's plan is a two-percent "wealth tax" on the tiny minority of Americans who are worth $50 million or more."

"Ocasio-Cortez's plan is a tax of 70 percent on earned income above $10 million."

How about both?

@1 Urgutha Forka: I like your thinking. Good idea. Seconded.
Thank you, Eli, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. Trumpty Dumpty misled RepubliKKKans and their rubes who keep stupidly voting GOP are the ones who are "economically illiterate"! ITMFA and tax the insanely rick already. Too much glut at the top sinks all ill-gotten yachts.

@2: Ohh, cripes! Make that "ITMFA and tax the insanely rich already..." So weird how Griz's typing improves with red wine and worsens without it.

Shorter GOP Base: "How DARE these Communist libtards demand I pay a couple percent in extra taxes on my potential future Power Ball jackpot!"

We can drop the 'Super-'. Rich folk, period, oughta pay--again.

@ 6,

That’s why you have an exit tax to spank ‘em on their way out the door.

The 1%ers loyalty to the rest of us is purely transactional anyway. Good riddance.

@6 exactly, is it that we need to tax people more, or how about just enforcing some corporate and super rich taxes and closing offshoring loopholes. Seems to me historically the "tax the rich" hype often becomes another general middle class tax hike, while the giant puddles of wealth seem to have the accountants and economies of scale to pay as little as possible.

Why is AOC wearing a starfleet uniform in that photo?

The problem is never the sentiment, but as #8 notes, typically these "tax the rich" bills end up being parsed down to "tax the middle more" since the wealth of the middle is in wages and the middle can not afford to squirrel money overseas, hire lobbyists, or pay tax lawyers to find loopholes.

The starting point should be a proposal to nationalize various industries. I'm guessing there will be an uproar, so a 90% marginal income tax would be a compromise.

I like how these Stranger dickheads never actually read the shit they're pushing. But what would you expect from a bunch of boomer Generation X alcoholics.

Read AOC's economic proposals and then push this shit with a straight face. But that would actually require work and intelligence.

15: Oh yes, who wouldn't want to emulate the Soviet Union, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, China (pre-capitalism), Myanmar, and all the other failed Socialist and Marist states that have come and gone. You know, the ones responsible for 100's of millions of deaths last century?

Massive Tax Hikes
Illegalization Of Private Healthcare
Legalized Infanticide
Open Boarders
Deep Cuts To Defense Spending
Repeal of the First and Second Amendments

I really like how the Democrat platform for 2020 is coming together.

It's pretty obvious that a lot of commenters here weren't alive in the 1970s. Curious about how the country got 8 years of Ronald Reagan and 4 of George Bush? Check the marginal tax rates in 1979, Reagan won 49 states. He ran over Mondale, hardly a socialist, and then backed up and crushed him again.

Tax the rich? Free college? Free access to abortion? Cut the miltary-welfare complex? It all sounds great to me.

The rich are parasites on society. History has shown, again and again, that when we have concentrations of inherited wealth, it doesn't end well for the wealthy (or their lackies, @18 dear)

Perhaps someone should ask France how it worked out.

OK kids,
a stress breaker after a hard day;
take the front row of the photo and play 'fuck, marry, kill'
post your results.
you gals can play too...

20: So things were better under Stalin than the Tsarists? There are 100 million dead people who might disagree if they hadn't been brutally murdered. Rather than focus on the evil rich, who should be taxed more, granted, why not focus on helping people at the bottom improve their lives, perhaps through a guaranteed basic annual income. It's overly simplistic and jingoistic to blame the wealthy for the ills of our society. It's far more complicated than that.

What history also shows is if you take all the money and evenly distribute it
in a year or two it will go back where it was;
the 'poor' will have squandered it and the 'rich' accumulated it.
rinse and repeat.

But go ahead, Tax The Rich.
Hell, tax facebook 100% of its revenue...
that 55 Billion will keep the Welfare Moocher Class fed for, what...maybe three weeks?
Then what?

mfg5000 dear, I hope you stretched well before making that huge jump of logic. It's really too bad you failed so spectactularly at it.

Of course the Soviet Union was not an improvement over the Tsarist regime. But the Russian revolution (and the French Revolution, and the Cuban revolution, to name just a few) came about because of concentrations of vast inherited wealth. Taxing the wealthy keeps a society stable. It seems to be a lesson that we as a species cannot learn.

@6 Well, except super-rich Americans don't want to live in Monaco, it's too far away, and full of snooty, rich foreigners who look down their noses at Americans. And, you have to get permission to live (and stay) in Monaco, and it's not a given that just because you're rich and want to live there, that you'll be given the pass. And, there's no other Monaco closer to The Homeland that rich Americans want to live in.

Here was the point. <--------------------------

Here was @29's head <---------------------------

28: Reread my post, sweetheart - you obviously didn't make it past the second sentence. And Cuba? How about asking a Cuban citizen or exile whether life was better under Batista or under the Castros. People - average Cubans - couldn't get out of that country fast enough after the revolution. And if you think there's going to be a revolution in this country because lefties are mad at rich people, dream on.

I just looked at the IRS stats and the top 1% pay more taxes (about 40% of all federal tax revenues) than the bottom 90% combined. Like I said, they should and probably will pay more in the future, but hating on the wealthy is an intellectually lazy strategy for addressing problems that are fundamentally far more complex than the fact that Bill Gates has more money than I do. But it's the meme de jour on the left, and attempting to discuss it with any nuance is as pointless as trying to explain to a fundamentalist why Jesus didn't ride a dinosaur.

"Illegalization Of Private Healthcare
Legalized Infanticide
Open Boarders
Repeal of the First and Second Amendments"

HAHAHAHA. Holy Cow. The Usual Suspects really are performing at Top Dumb today!

I mean: "Open BOARDERS!"

HAHAHAHA. Yes. We want all "boarders" to be open. Because when you rent them a room... well, it's when their open for... you know.

mfg5000 I'm sorry you lack a basic understanding of cause and effect. I'm afraid that you're one of those lackies of the rich that will end up in the tumbrel of the guillotine when the revolution comes.

And I hope to be right there with my knitting, watching the heads roll.....

@31 OMG. Yes. Single Payer/Universal Healthcare... why, it's exactly like Cuban revolutionary Marxism! Exactly like it!

That's why Australia, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Denmark, The Netherland and the UK and every other developed nation is exactly like a fifty year long Marxist dictatorship!

HAHAHA.

Good lord. Keep 'em coming. Just precious.

@34 I'd go easy on the guillotine metaphors.

Because it's every bit as dumb and hyperbolic as these dumb right-wingers in here with their panic mongering and total ignorance of socialized systems.

People forget one important fact about the French Revolution. It was a complete failure. The first republic only lasted about seven years and existed in complete chaos, death and destruction and almost ended the nation of France entirely.

In fact it lead to the Emperor Napoleon (well, three Napoleons, actually), a near global war that killed millions, and two more monarchies. What we know now as The Republic did not happen really until after the 1860's after three or four false starts.

I think we can achieve sustainable socialized healthcare system (in tandem with he private one) and higher tax brackets (like we had historically before the Republican party lost it's mind with Trickle Down mythology) with out blood shed just like every other developed country has done.

Don't fall for the hype. That's what these dumb goober alt-righties in here want you to think.

They want you to believe that all the trappings of modern civilizations are somehow radical and just pie in the sky. When in fact these simple policy tweaks are well within the range of market economics and are how the rest of the world just "is."

Nothing makes a statement like a solid blue outfit.

34: Name calling, Classy.

I'd like to point out that since you claim to work for a government agency, and often seem to make your comments on the public dime, your lovely little head should probably be one of the first to roll.

Half the country isn't functioning. The United States is much larger with bigger problems and completely divided along every line thanks to the Left. You can spout a bunch of generalities but socialism is a disaster, especially when it's tried in the United States. If we were a small homogeneous society with the majority of people functioning in a productive role in society, maybe. But we're simply not.

How's the working out for them? Japan is a largely closed society. If you want to actually close our borders and have sensible immigration before deciding to destroy our economy, maybe. England is in political chaos. France is in political chaos. Germany is a disaster because they have to have insane immigration to keep the scam going. These ideas were great when it was a bunch of hippies in the 70s making software companies and driving Volkswagens or whatever. But it is simply retarded to think the United States could or would ever do socialism on any grand level. Not just because of what a complete disaster it is in every society but this country is so fractured that it would be the death blow for this country. But hey, for you commies who hate this country, that was the goal all along, right?

Also you already have healthcare for the poor, WA State's healthcare programs for those that can't afford it or don't have insurance are excellent. So what is even being pushed? I also think it's insanely mentally ill to blame the government for all your problems and think the answer is to expand the government.

Also none of you are actually reading the horse shit being proposed by people like Bernie and AOC. Pre-teens could come up with more realistic economic policies. We got an extra 38 trillion dollars laying around? Oh yeah... tax the wealthy... the ones who have been this adept at avoiding any sort of responsibility in society this whole time while manipulating dumb fucks into dumb fucking politics like this. Ask Bernie where he's going to get the money for his utopian ideas and he'll stare at you with a blank geriatric look like the dumb Soviet stooge that he is.

40: God I hope we don't have to go through the whole Bernie thing again. As if a guy who's never passed a major piece of legislation, was called a "useful idiot for communist dictators around the world" by his own very liberal hometown newspaper, and can't even figure out how to buy a suit, tuck in his shirt or comb his hair, is going to change the fundamental structure of our society and save the world. It's truly as depressingly dense as thinking that Trump was chosen by God.

Shorter @17:
"Look! Over there! (Just stop looking at the millions of dead Indians and slaves I'm standing on!)"

42: So that makes it ok that Marxists killed hundreds of millions of people last century? How so?

You think he’ll run on a platform that includes moving away from nuclear power and the shuttering of all foreign US military bases this go-around?

I assume we’ll find out on FOX.

@40-we may have healthcare for the really poor, but it is getting way out of reach for the not-totally-poor. If that is not fixed, there are going to be dire electoral consequences for whoever gets blamed. There is a huge difference between some kind of public insurance option that makes sure everyone gets covered and the places that have been real socialist disasters. France & Germany are going to be just fine in the long run.

@23 & @27 Rapp Dopey Dogg: Don't tell me, let me guess: you also have big heavy chains dangling from your fat-boy jeans and wear ball caps backwards in an attempt to look "cool", right? WHAP! You can thank raindrop for his brilliant idea of troll paddling.
@36 ProfessorHistory: Okay. I agree to pass on guillotine metaphors. How about hurtling the insanely rich and corrupt one way into outer space on the one condition they never return to what's left of the Earth, instead? May the 1%ers soon discover that their own Richey-Rich Space Station Elysium proves to be uninhabitable.
@31 & @39: ....says the typically ignorant troll. WHAP!
@44 a terrible troll: Don't rely on Fox-TV as a reliable news source.

The FOX website broadcast every Bernie rally free and live, Grizelda.

I don’t pay CNN, so if I wanted to watch his rallies I used FOX.

All it took was another week in New York to remind myself not to give a single one of their commentators the slightest amount of leeway.

mfg5000 dear. I’m sorry to learn you’re so fragile. Being triggered by a term like “lackey”, to the point where you consider it “name calling” speaks volumes about your self-esteem.

And yes, I do work for a public agency. But in the real world, people with jobs have these things called “shifts” and they aren’t necessarily M-F, 9-5. We also have things like breaks and lunch. Someday, if you are allowed to enter the work world, you may experience that firsthand.

44, the Monkey song person: I have never seen you offer one interesting, nuanced or thoughtful response to any comment you didn't like. Ever. Insults and name calling seem to be the only thing you have to offer. It must be an Australian thing. That's where you're from, right? I suppose if I were a women living in a sexist, racist, laughably macho, xenophobia hell hole like your country, I'd probably be pretty damn unhinged and pissed off myself, and pose a someone from the US, like you often do.

ProfessorHistory dear, you seem to be almost as dense as Our Dear mfg5000.

I am not advocating for revolution (although I do love my Madame DeFarge references). My point it that economic inequlity, left unchecked, almost always leads to societal upheaval, and the wealthy tend to be the most high-profile victims. I’m not saying that what comes after is better for anyone. It usually isn’t. Why is that so hard for you to grasp?

48: Oh yes, I'm always "triggered" by snooty mean girls who like to wear glops of cotton candy on top of their heads. Fortunately we don't run into many of those in the private sector.

50: What you just wrote is such complete and utter nonsense I wouldn't even know where to begin other than to say that just because you saw Les Miserables at the Fifth doesn't make you an expert on post-modern political theory. Do some reading. Books are your friend.

@49: Oh go blow a didjeridoo, darling. You can look that up, provided you're literate.
@50 Catalina Vel-DuRay: I know, right? @49's so confused he doesn't even have his commenters straight anymore! LOL

@47: Support of Bernie Sanders is admirable. Heavy reliance on FOX-TV is questionable.
@52: So--is it a little slow down at juvee tonight?

Do you take me for LavaGirl, sir, or am I to interpret this slight an impugnmemt of my honor?

What do you take me for? A fucking she-ozzy?

I prefer Phones, Machines, & King Kong to anything by the Monkees or the Foo Fighters, ser.

auntie grizelda (go Monkeys), Lava Girl and a terrifying ghost are all one and the same person. And man, I hate myself for it, but trolling you (and Val) is a dreadful guilty pleasure I've afforded myself on this long and boring snow day. I know it's wrong. I would never tell my friends and colleagues that I do it. But damn, it just so much fun.Thank you!

Where would we be without someone attempting to radicalise the immigrants and their dream, though?

@10: Because she can pull it off damn well and she knows it? Because she's a Trekkie? Because she knows it'll make great swaths of us nerds swoon? Could be any and all of those, really.

It's always amusing to see how many single-use accounts our resident troll(s?) have to create to shriek about reasonable, moderate plans to make America solvent again. That and the rapidity with which they engage in strawman arguments, derailments, and ad-hominem attacks, anything to avoid a real discussion. The necessity to count to a uselessly high number of pi is definitely a new one on me though.

Well said, Knat. Thank you.

I love how leftists always claim they're the victims of unfair attacks yet can never dispute facts when presented. Hurrrr it's all a conspiracy against you retards. You idiots don't read or even understand what you're proposing while regurgitating retard-tier propaganda nonsense you read on your dopamine box this morning. Then you actually want to be treated like you're above a simpleton's understanding of the world and you think there's some sort of conspiracy when you get treated like the children you are.

Seriously advocating for Bernie or AOC's economic policies automatically invalidates your opinion because it shows you're pontificating on things you don't understand while not even being bothered to read up on them. Then you get emotional and claim you're a victim.

The whole thing is fucking stupid. This city needs to stop catering to retarded peoples' feelings.

mfg5000, we understand. You lash out because you're angry. It's OK. I'm sure that the pressures of the private sector get to a person like you. Personally, when I was in the private sector (for over twenty years!), I found it rather effortless to make a large amount of money, but not all are similarly gifted. You just keep trying. Take a night course or something. I'm sure things will work out for you eventually, But money isn't everything, dear.

Hate to tell ya, but no one quits a successful private sector gig to do shift work for a public agency. "I loved working as an environmental consultant but my really calling was driving a bus" Right, pal.

@56 doofus5000: I am only one commenter of many on Slog. LavaGirl, Catalina Vel-DuRay, terrifying ghost et all are separate individuals.
It must really be slow down at juvee, especially if you're iced in and your Mom won't let you borrow the car, much less her password. Dang! But at least you can still play Donkey Kong to further exercise your primate fixation while slurping your Cocoa Puffs in your SuperFriends pjs. In the meantime, thank your fellow trolling pal, raindrop for his brilliant suggestion of troll paddling. WHAP! There you go.

@55 & @56: Are you bozos just pissed because I thought up auntie grizelda as my user name first? LOL Get over it.

Anyone attacking the obscene wealth unearned by a tiny fraction of the world’s population is frequently told that it is just ok and they have no right to complain.

There are workers treated like zombies in Amazon fulfillment centers paid crap and treated like crap and they are instrumental in the crazy, crazy wealth of the monstrosity capitalist founder. Just one example of why anyone would want this system taken down. Are you paying attention?

This fascist Trump administration right now is on the brink of a coup with Venazuela(spelling?) and if it happens it will be brutal and could trigger a civil war in that country or a world war. Its over the oil since the V country has the largest oil reserves in the world. Elliot Abrams and the rest of the gang have committed major atrocities in many countries that mimic nazi practices and they are war criminals of the most base. Why are they allowed to do this?

I won’t go into the history of this empire and its genocides of countless peoples for land, resources and cheap labor. Stolen by force.

If you don’t like socialism then stay off public highways and don’t use public services such as the fire department because the status quo will not be maintained for your (trumpers and the like) convenience probably for much longer if most of the population have our way.

mfg5000 dear, You'd be surprised at how many of us former "dot com" types there are in government. Most of us cleaned up on stock options, and decided to go for a slower pace. The pay's not anything like I made in technology, but the benefits are amazing, I get OT when work more than eight hours, I have scores of vacation, and I got in under the old pension plan. When I turn sixty I plan on retiring and going to live with all the other dirty old men in Palm Springs. What's not to love?