Soak the Rich? Or Get Our Wealth Back?

[Warpy]

4. Exactly, we need a claw back in several ways

First, we need a substantial rise in the minimum wage. Doubling it is not out of the question. There will be some inflation associated with this, but that's not a bad thing unless you're a rich man who relies on paper value of investments instead of on their income.

Second, we desperately need a Wall Street transaction tax to take the profit out of HFT and make it much more difficult to skim money off every transaction as is happening now. Likely the bite from the Feds will be cheaper than what HFT is doing.

Third, we need a progressive taxation system tied to inflation that will cover earned and unearned income. That will avoid shafting retirees who rely on interest and dividends as well as have the wealthy pay their fair share.

Fourth, we need some real teeth in the inheritance tax to make sure plutocrats can't pass on their ill gotten gains intact. That means tightening up on the foundation scams.

Fifth, we need to be willing to enact the death penalty on scofflaw corporations hiding money overseas. Withdrawing their charters and making it impossible for them to reorganize unless the cash comes back into the country and their taxes are paid might be just the incentive they need.

Sixth, with revenues increasing from all of the above, we need to roll back regressive taxes that were used to disguise the damage that tax cuts for the rich did to the treasury by beggaring the rest of us.

Seventh, we need to enact real tax breaks for corporations that move their manufacturing back into the US, something a lot of them would love to do for a number of reasons but need an incentive to trade for the loss of cheap labor.

Eighth, the Pentagon has to go on a diet, a strict one. We can't afford a bloated military being misused in wars of corporate convenience.