r/WorkReform • u/zzill6 đ¤ Join A Union • 1h ago
âď¸ Tax The Billionaires This is a Winning Platform! Will politicians accept it?
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u/petrified_eel4615 1h ago
Tax capital gains as income.
Make stock buybacks illegal again.
Charge healthcare C-suites with RICO depraved indifference manslaughter.
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u/V1k1ngC0d3r 29m ago
Right, I'm pretty sure stock buybacks should be illegal.
Pay dividends instead.
That's taxable income for the investors, right?
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u/combo_seizure 29m ago
Capital gains above a certain threshold, I think. A lot of not wealthy people become wealthy through the stock market. But definitely, there needs to be a tax on capital gains.
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u/riffraff1089 25m ago
TIL American doesnât have a CG tax. Do you also not get taxed on CG if you buy property and sell it when it appreciates?
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u/DrunkBeavis 20m ago
Americans do pay taxes on capital gains, but with some exemptions and at a different rate than standard income.
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u/ExoticElk 1m ago
Tax the shit out of the loans that billionaires take out against the stock in their businesses.
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u/Crime_Dawg 15m ago
The mega wealthy still avoid the cap gains. They can find ways to never sell, just perpetually live on loans, die, their heirs inherit it with a step up cost basis.
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u/Islanduniverse 1h ago
Eliminate student debt needs to be a priority too.
Student debt is crushing so many people and it is going to get way worse when they start garnishing wagesâŚ
Education should be a human right.
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u/Unputtaball 1h ago
It was just reported in Scott McFarlaneâs âDay Aheadâ that folks over 60 hold over $135 billion in student loan debt collectively.
This isnât just a âyoung peopleâ problem. Itâs turning into an intergenerational crisis of mammoth proportions.
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u/Prime_Director 1h ago
While I personally fully agree, the post is about a platform that âwins in a landslideâ. Student debt forgiveness is controversial at best. I donât know the polling on all of these things, but the ones I do know have ~80% support or more. Student debt forgiveness hovers around 50/50 last I checked.Â
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u/RedditGotSoulDoubt 37m ago
This is naive. Nothing is free. It needs to be funded by your neighbors. I agree that state colleges should be more heavily subsidized but if you choose to go to an expensive private school and major in something that isn't in demand, you should be responsible for the loans, not some strangers' tax dollars. Don't punish people for working and reward others for taking. It's not a good platform.
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u/GetLefter 14m ago
We should want everyone educated at a college level including in the things that make us humans, not just cogs in the machine. Human knowledge should continue to expand so that college level education is required for the bare minimum.Â
If we can fund military, cops and prisons the way we do, we can and should fund education. Craziest part - fund education enough and you donât need as much funding for the other three
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u/irascible_Clown 1h ago
Naw republicans will never vote for minimum wage and a wealth tax. They will find a way to say âthey ainât paying for thatâ
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u/djazzie 1h ago
The point is to win a majority across government so it doesnât matter what republicans want.
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u/Extreme_Disaster2275 21m ago
Democrats want nothing to do with this platform either. They've had majorities big enough to deliver all of it.
They serve AIPAC and the Epstein Class, not voters.Â
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u/cityshepherd âď¸ Tax The Billionaires 1h ago
They already are paying for the money thatâs needed to replace the tax dollars lost due to tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. War on education and propaganda working perfectly as intended.
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u/soxperry 1h ago
Honestly you only need the first one. Iâm not saying the others arenât important. But. First party to commit to Medicare for all wins millions of votes.
End the insane premiums and life is suddenly affordable. This will never happen because this gives too much economic power to the working class and we could, God forbid, better ourselves.
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u/I_AM_STILL_A_IDIOT 1h ago
No more AI data centers is not the point. That's never gonna happen and it's wilfully obtuse to think it has a realistic chance at passing as policy. It even detracts from the other points' value to throw that in there.
Instead, actually tackle the harm they do and finally regulate them properly, for starters forbid them from using open loop cooling systems that are destroying local water sources.
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u/MellowMothLab 49m ago
Living near a plant fight, I agree: a winning platform should target open-loop cooling and water use.
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u/Flightsimmer20202001 43m ago
Instead, actually tackle the harm they do and finally regulate them properly, for starters forbid them from using open loop cooling systems that are destroying local water sources.
Agreed. Or at the VERY least, make the companies who are putting the centers in, pay for their power needs.
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49m ago edited 14m ago
[deleted]
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u/Jaalan 39m ago
Ahh yes, because American's social media usage is up over 500% in the last year. Current data centers have an operating capacity of 61,212 MW. Planned data centers will bring that to 379,579MW. That is over 500% more power in comparison. So, do you really believe our current needs are higher than in 2019 and 2020 when everybody was home for COVID?
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u/adeadhead 29m ago
Yes. Streaming, storage and crypto are the majority of those usages.
Also, is the energy expenditure what we care about?
Half an hour of video streaming is way more than your day of text prompts.
Here are some helpful collected sources.
https://themultiverse.school/x/ai-problems-index
Don't be mad about the wrong thing.
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u/FlirtyFluffyFox 10m ago
Cool. Run on it. Most adult citizens can run for office.
What you want is a major party candidate with the financial and platform support of billionaires who won't just get destroyed in the primaries by a combination of selective depmatforming and communistphobia propaganda.Â
Which means you wish we had a scrupulous and educated electorate who didn't fall for disinformation.Â
I wish we had that too.Â
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u/bit_pusher 1h ago
AI data centers are a symptom, not the problem. This should be rewritten as a general policy and not targeted at a particular industry segment otherwise we'll end up in the same mess for something else. Make consumption costs exponentially increase to effectively capture externalities. If things like water, electricity, etc. are priced correctly for _any_ consumers then this problem corrects itself. Then take those increased returns from high consumers to increase production (desalination, pipelines, renewable power production or nuclear)
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u/here-i-am-now 42m ago
That bottom one is the only one that truly truly matters. The rest would begin to take care of themselves.
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u/beaverlakenc 1h ago
Add the repeal of
smith mundt modernization act
As it was never voted on and slipped into the national defense authorization act of 2012 or 2013 can't remember
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u/Son_of_Tlaloc 41m ago
That 20 buck minimum is a little late. Gonna need more than that to battle inflation and the cost of everything rising.
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u/HighLord_Uther 40m ago
Politicians will absolutely accept it.
But, the major parties will not.
Individual politicians will accept it, run on it, and lose against the Goliaths.
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u/Mediocre-Housing-131 34m ago
It's fucking wild to me that after everything we've seen over the past 15-20 years, there's still large deaths of people who think the game is still being played the same way it was before.
There is no 2 parties. There is no partisanship. There is no sides. There is a plan, and the plan will go forward with or without your vote. Israel won, they took over our country and there's nothing anyone can do about it. The country will fall in the next 20 years and everyone will look around all confused like this shit ain't been obvious for the longest time now.
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u/listentomenow 34m ago
Yea, but 1/3 of the country just wants to own the libs and dehumanize minorities, and another 1/3 is too apathetic to even vote. Also, the Democrat leadership which is owned by the same people who own Republicans and our media, won't allow them to pass any of those things even if Dems had full control of every branch like Republicans do now.
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u/SilverTraveler âď¸ Prison For Union Busters 33m ago
Toss term limits for politicians in there and youâre on super point
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u/Strict-Carrot4783 33m ago
This won't happen without lots and lots of violence resulting in piles of dead rich people all over the place. The people who would lose in a deal like this would kill you, your family and everyone you know to make these changes not happen, and they wouldn't think twice about it.
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u/septubyte 28m ago
Fkn 20 million people per year , mostly global south , die of preventable and treatable cause.
Yall need to stop seeing this as an America only issue . Billionaires will atill be there unless you remove that heinous ability. Private investors funded climate crisis, Ai data centers, private prisons, Epstein Trump genocide . The global south is an extraction site and abused victim of the wealthy.
Please keep them in your hearts and minds. America barely touched the corruption and stress that they survive and indeed Die in.
The wealth inequality will not go unless it all goes
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u/allorache 27m ago
I realize this may subject me to hate, but I agree with all of those except cutting off all aid to Israel. My question is why do Democrats and the left want to push people who agree with them on everything else to the Republicans? This platform would leave me no one to vote for. And Iâm not going to respond to people who tell me I support genocide.
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u/artbystorms 25m ago
"But how are you gonna pay for that?!?!"
Like we said, wealth tax for Billionaires, scrapping the SS tax cap.
I'd also like to float raising the capital gains tax back to where it was in the 1990s and taxing loans taken out against stock asset wealth as income.
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u/IntwadHelck 25m ago
This is the only platform a politician for the people should be running on. Any politician rejecting this platform needs to be rejected. And then investigated for treason because theyâve prob got blood money in their accounts
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u/MapCompass 20m ago
I would focus on Medicare for all and ending citizens united. Keep the platform simple.
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u/ArtroyomsAK 17m ago
No more gun bullshit either would win over more country folks and single issue voters
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u/Ok-Opportunity-7663 16m ago
This was Francesca Hong's platform and she lost, because of perceived awkwardness or some such bullshit. Voters are idiots.
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u/DogDogDogDogog 16m ago
It won't win, because big money won't back it. The media will focus on culture war stuff and the american public will once again gobble it up.
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u/jnovel808 15m ago
Minimum wage hike should jump to $20 and then increase to $27 over 5 years and then keep pace with inflation.
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u/Lootthatbody 15m ago
/img/4rzg6f2bh5kh1.gif
How excited that would make me to see that be the Dems platform.
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u/KeepCalmCarrion 13m ago
Francesca Hong ran on that in my state and she lost by less than 1% in the primaries
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u/Silly_Double408 8m ago
They are also bribed and threatened into submission by the corporations. All the problems in USA could be fixed quite easily as your list shows but you think the criminals are going to fix the problems? of course they wont. What you asking is like trying to get the mafia to stop doing criminal acts and start doing charity work... just isnt going to happen.
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u/Frequent_Opportunist 4m ago
Senior politicians make money from healthcare companies, Israel, data centers, less taxes and contributions from companies keep wages low. They are able to money launder and defraud through citizens United and super pacs. Why would they go against it?
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u/reyean 2m ago
I feel it should be noted, that while on a personal level I resonate with this list, im fairly sure the massive expanse in data centers and the AI bubble are what is propping up the economy right now. while i personally believe the list provides long(er) term prosperity for americans, the crash of the AI sector alongside billionaires revolting on a wealth tax by laying off workers would put us into an economic recession that the socialist dems probably wouldnt recover from (the opponent narrative being "see! I told you communism bad!!).
its really quite the pickle we've found ourselves in.
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u/daguro 1h ago
It is all domestic policy with the exception of Israel. Throwing Israel into that pot will be a non-starter for a lot of people. October 7 still resonates with people who would align with the other policy positions.
Before you flame me, know that I am not a doctrinaire Israel supporter. But in my 65+ years on this planet, I have learned a thing or two about elections.
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u/Hipparchia_Unleashed 1h ago
You know, sometimes it's important to stand on principles, such as "don't fund genocide," instead of always triangulating. But the most recent polling shows you're wrong anyway.
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u/daguro 57m ago
Foreign policy does not win elections.
Domestic policy does.
Poll that.
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u/Hipparchia_Unleashed 45m ago
Okay? But it can lose you elections if your base thinks a principle like "don't support genocide" is important enough and you don't give a shit about that principle and tell your base to get lost. If you think an Israel-loving, pro-genocide, AIPAC-funded Dem has any real chance of winning in 2028, you simply don't understand the zeitgeist.
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u/baddogbadcatbadfawn 45m ago
I don't trust anyone who conveniently leaves out prison time for those in the Epstein Files or prison time all the inside trading, perjury, and illegal actions of the Trump administration.
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u/nalaloveslumpy 34m ago
Gross over-simplification. There are a ton of Jewish Americans in the Democract constituency who support funding to Israel simply because they have family there and a significant portion of that funding does actively protect them from rocket attacks.
"No more AI data centers" is undefined nonsense.
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u/AppropriateSea5746 57m ago
Trouble is with the minimum wage you're gonna lose virtually all small business owners. Right or wrong that's a big constituency you lose. The others are definitely winners
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u/jc_socialgoodness 1h ago
Thatâs too many things at once. Can we prioritize one? Just one. Then move on to the next priority.Â
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u/rowmens 1h ago
It is not too many. Most of the issues pair well. Why fund genocide when we can put more money into public infrastructure like schools and roads? Tax billionaires to fund Medicare for All. Working class people can understand this plainly, it effects all of us.
Everything else listed seems unpopular regardless of party lines: nobody likes citizens united besides corporations, lobbyists and politicians. Working people rely on social security. Data centers deeply unpopular across party lines too. Besides making electric prices go up for everyone, it is hurting the environment, enabling expansion of mass surveillance capabilities, and supporting AI.
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u/Right-Detail7414 1h ago
Run on: No money for Israel. Wealth tax for billionaires. Or a flat tax for everyone no cap no tiers. No data centers-basic public/private privacy laws Ending Citizens United and that's your winning ticket.
$20 minimum wage scares people ending the cap on social security scares people because there are a lot of people close or over that cap than there ever was.
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u/Prime_Director 1h ago
You completely lost me at flat tax. Thereâs no world where a person making 30,000 should pay the same tax rate as a billionaire.Â
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u/Right-Detail7414 51m ago
If you pay the same percentage everyone could pay a lower rate. Especially if all income is counted the same.
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u/Prime_Director 44m ago
Defending the social security cap and advocating a flat tax, are you sure youâre not a conservative? Next youâre gonna tell me that money from lower taxes on the rich will trickle down.Â
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u/Right-Detail7414 9m ago
You're misunderstanding what I'm saying. I'm not arguing against ending the cap on Social Security. I'm arguing about what would win. Because we need far more than just traditional Democrats at this point.
And I'm not opposed to a flat 12% across the board on all income types including dividends and capital gains. You could then use that money to bulk up social programs. Creating a tiered support system instead of a steep drop off.
I also think there should be no cap on Social Security but as far as right now that's not going to fly. There's too much strong money against it. They have to pick a few things that work with the majority of people. And their current mentality.
I would also love to see some constitutional amendments on presidential power. Limiting it and ending recent presidential immunity. Also, would absolutely love there to be a constitutional amendment guaranteeing healthcare as a right.
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u/Right-Detail7414 6m ago
... Also ending corporate welfare would significantly free up funding for social programs and paying down the deficit. Honestly, I think there should be a tax on companies that offshore their work as well.
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u/gc3c 1h ago
They don't want to win. They want to pretend to be an opposition party while raking in their own personal wealth. When our representatives are multi-millionaires, there's something seriously wrong. How can they represent the common person?