WealthDistribution

• Piketty, Saez, Stantcheva on optimal taxation of top incomes.
  • https://eml.berkeley.edu//~saez/piketty-saez-stantchevaNBER11thirdelasticity.pdf
  • There is a claim on Wikipedia that the paper finds that rent-seeking is a primary cause of increases in income inequality.
• The Forecloser: https://www.cc.com/video/u128k0/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-the-forecloser
• CEO Income Gap: https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2021/
• Comedy Song Guillotine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMHCw3RqulY
• 8 v. 4 Billion
  • https://old.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/13dn5jq/8_guys_against_4_billion_people/
  • https://old.reddit.com/r/Political_Revolution/comments/13dn5xj/8_guys_against_4_billion_people/
  • https://old.reddit.com/r/WorkReform/comments/13dn5ji/8_guys_against_4_billion_people/
  • https://old.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/13dn5qn/8_guys_against_4_billion_people/
• Mike Pence, Taxation, Fair Share
  • https://old.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/14sjbvu/mike_pence_mocked_for_saying_i_dont_really_buy/
  • https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mike-pence-rich-fair-share-gop-primary-b2370690.html
  • See "Pence Tax" below.

Notes

Pence Tax

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mike-pence-rich-fair-share-gop-primary-b2370690.html

Former Vice President Mike Pence has been mocked for saying the quiet part out loud about taxing the rich, during a campaign stop.

“I don't really buy into the rich need to pay their fair share,” he told an audience of potential Republican primary voters.

Mr Pence appeared alongside Iowa Republican Representative Randy Feenstra at the Wells Visitor Center and Ice Cream Parlor in Le Mars, Iowa, on Wednesday when he was asked by an attendee about billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos avoiding taxes while ordinary people are “stuck footing the bill”.

“There’s no question that the tax code today creates a lot of different carve-outs for people who can shelter funds, keep dollars away,” Mr Pence said, according to the Kansas Reflector. “I’m somebody that, I don’t really buy into ‘the rich need to pay their fair share.’ When you look at the statistics of where we actually get our funding from the government, the top 10 per cent of earners in this country pay about 90 per cent of the money that goes into the federal treasury.”

In 2021, ProPublica reported that the 25 richest Americans paid an income tax rate of 3.4 per cent between 2014 and 2018. Mr Pence is arguing that when it comes to net taxes, the wealthy pay more.

A study by the centre-right Tax Foundation think tank indicated in 2018 that the richest one per cent paid more than 40 per cent of total federal income taxes.

Mr Pence said any Republican president should make the tax cuts passed during the Trump presidency permanent as they’re set to expire in 2025.

“I’m not one of those people that buy into the Democrats’ message about fair share, because I guarantee you that Americans at the top of the income level carry the overwhelming burden for government costs in this country,” Mr Pence told attendees.