You hear, all the time, from the neo-liberals, "Tax the Rich!" That is their answer to getting more money to pay for govern-cement largess.
You hear from the same people that is (should be) a crime that Donald J. Trump pays less taxes than his secretary.
Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad / Poor Dad) tried to educate everyone about how the system worked. About good debt and bad debt. About how the poor bought stuff, and stayed poor, while the rich control stuff, and buy assets with other people's money.
The elite set up this financial world to be about masters and serfs. But the difference is really in comprehending the system. Fortunately, this system is about to self destruct, but before then, comprehending how the financial system works will allow you to be much better off through the change.
I wish that everyone understood that "Tax the rich" meant tax the middle class into oblivion.
What are "the rich"?
Most people cannot comprehend the difference in wealth between the rich and poor.
Most people can save up enough money to buy any car they want. Even a supercar. Just keep saving, and soon you will have the money to buy one.
But, lets move up to a super-yacht. Most people will not make enough, in their lifetime, to buy a super-yacht. And, even if one was given to them, they do not have enough money to do anything with it. Slip rates are more than they can afford. Filling it up with diesel is about one year's salary for the average person. Maintenance, crew, food… all way out affordability for the average person.
Well, these people didn't earn this level of money through work. You can only get rich by leveraging other people's labor, or leveraging your assets.
The CEO of Wallymart earns a huge yearly salary, however, it only works out to about 8¢ per employee per year. So, Wallymart employs millions of workers. And, a few cents from each makes the CEO very wealthy.
But, that is nothing. Musks gets paid like $1 from the corporations he is CEO of. But he has gotten stocks and stock options. Meaning, on paper, he is very rich. A number so high, that a normal person can't even get to 1% of it. Not even if they win the lottery.
And the elite make Musk look like a broke bum. If Forbes actually printed the top 100 richest people, Musk wouldn't be on the list. (Well, there aren't that many elite, so maybe Musk could be #98.)
The thing is, all these elite have no outward wealth to show. And the CEO or Wallymart has WAY more money the Musk.
The games the wealthy play.
Hugh Hefner lived in the Playboy Mansion, so he was rich, right? Nope. He rented the Playboy Mansion, along with the cleaning/cooking staff for a few hundred a month. Bet you wish you could get that kind of deal on your apartment?
So, why did he do that? How does that make sense? Wouldn't it have been easier to just pay for it? Well, no. And if you thought that way, you are thinking like a poor person.
So, you have the Playboy corporation buy the mansion. And, then it rents it. So, it is a rental, and all the maintenance costs are completely deductible. You, with your house, cannot deduct the plumber's bill. But, to Playboy Inc, it is an expense of renting the mansion.
Further, if Hugh did something bad enough to get sued for, he doesn't own a mansion. Hugh, as a person, actually had very little money or things. His tax bill was accordingly, very small. (and the Playboy Inc had a huge burden it could deduct from its net income, before it even came up to be taxed.
This is just one way the rich control assets, while the poor own assets. And so, the rich have very little to tax, while everything the poor have costs them, coming and going.
The "rich" really have no money.
Elon Musk is broke as a joke. He only gets a few dollars from his many CEO jobs. PER YEAR.
So, how does he afford anything?
He borrows money, using his stock shares as collateral. And, under tax code, a loan is not income. Also, under tax code, shares of stock are not income until they are sold.
So, according to the Infernal Revolting Syndicate, Musk isn't even above the poverty line. And, unless you want to start counting things that "COULD" be sold as income, there is nothing that can be done about this. (Imagine the Syndicate demanding you pay taxes on $60k, because your car is worth $60k.)
Most secretaries get paid an annual salary of 10s of thousands a year. This way outstrips Musk's mere dollars.
This is why the secretaries pays more taxes.
So, is Forbes teasing everybody about who is a "rich" person. Well, the rich have yachts, and you don't.
But what we do know is that the tax codes say that the "rich" are broke. And so, when the neo-liberals shout "Tax the Rich!" they are shouting that the govern-cement should tax them more.
Further, there are very few "rich", and if the govern-cement took EVERYTHING they had, it wouldn't even cover the bills for a year.
The "rich" that you see are those on the silver screen. And it is all an illusion. A way to make you feel not good enough; to feel less-than.
And the reason why the "rich" can appear wealthy is because banks can print money out of thin air. This is also the reason that the elite's system is going to come crashing down. You cannot loan bitcoin on bitcoin. It would mean two people own the same bitcoin, and the block-chain won't allow that. So, when the fiat currency system collapses, we will find the rich have to start selling their assets, and can no longer play the games.