Every year, the gap between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of the country grows wider and wider. While 40% of Americans would be unable to come up with $400 in an emergency, a select few wonder where they’ll park their next yacht. But we didn’t arrive to a reality where the richest 10% of Americans hold 70% of the countries’ wealth by accident. In … Continue reading “The Triumph of Injustice” and How to Tax Our Way Back
The myth that raising the minimum wage kills jobs has proven to be wrong, again. A new report from the US Federal Reserve found that there is no link between raising the minimum wage and job loss. The report compared low-wage leisure and hospitality workers in an area spanning the border of New York (which had raised its minimum wage) and Pennsylvania (which had not). … Continue reading The Fed Proves Raising the Minimum Wage Doesn’t Kill Jobs
This week, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg gave a blistering speech to world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly on their climate inaction, castigating them for only talking about “fairytales of eternal economic growth.” She’s right – but fairytales of growth don’t even scratch the surface of our fossil fuel economic problem. Fossil fuels are, unfortunately, so deeply embedded in our political economy that … Continue reading The Climate Crisis In Our Tax Code
Most working Americans see taxes taken out of their paycheck every other week. Wages are taxed in real-time, while investment growth (from stocks, dividends, etc., ) is only taxed when the investment is sold. On any given year, rich people are not paying any taxes on the majority of any increase in their personal wealth. This is because most of their wealth comes from their … Continue reading Equalizing Capital Gains is Essential for Equality
September 2, 2019 is the 125th year that Labor Day has been celebrated as a national holiday. This Labor Day, people all around the US will enjoy a day off and appreciate the end of summer. They will spend time with family and friends, host barbecues, and take advantage of Labor Day sales. But as we celebrate this holiday, we must remember the legacy of … Continue reading Labor Day 2019
The first Monday of every September, the country comes together to celebrate Labor Day: a holiday meant to celebrate overworked, underpaid workers and rally around shared values. 125 years later, American workers continue to put in tireless hours only to be behind the 1% of the country that enjoys loopholes in tax codes. While gross inequality lingers on today’s Labor Day, Donald Trump is advocating for … Continue reading Our Tax Code Should Value Labor, Not Wealth
Amid warning signs of recession, rather than helping normal Americans Donald Trump has yet again suggested a new round of tax cuts for the rich. Trump has proposed, then backed down from, then proposed again, then backed away from again, indexing capital gains to inflation, which would hand over $100 billion in tax cuts to some of the richest Americans. We shouldn’t be surprised that … Continue reading America First or Rich People First?
Here’s a helpful tip to understanding the current debate over taxing the rich: if you ever find yourself reading an opinion piece, say like the one in this morning’s Wall Street Journal, that begins with the words, “the two of us are quite rich,” take whatever follows with a heaping grain of salt. That may sound a bit counterintuitive coming from a group called the … Continue reading Making Money Doesn’t Make You A Patriot
Our nation is currently experiencing a destabilizing level of economic inequality, the highest in almost 100 years. In 2015, the top 1% of families in the US earned, on average, 26.3 times as much income as the bottom 99%. The gap between the top 1% and everyone else has only grown since then. On July 18, the US House took the first step to combat … Continue reading Undoing the Racist History of the Tipped Minimum Wage
State taxes make the meat-and-potatoes work of government possible, but nickel-and-diming poor people on their meager incomes is not the way to raise them.
In 2010, the late Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a scathing dissent in Citizens United v. FEC, an infamous Supreme Court ruling that gave corporations and special interest groups unprecedented power to spend on American politics. In that dissent, Stevens chided his fellow Justices for failing to recognize that corporations “are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution … Continue reading Senate Dems Introduce Amendment to Erase the Dark Legacy of Citizens United
Last week, the House of Representatives passed the Raise The Wage Act, which would increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour and tie it to inflation, with near-unanimous support from Democrats and near-unanimous opposition from Republicans. This is a momentous victory for workers, but self-proclaimed “grim reaper” Mitch McConnell casts a long shadow on any celebration. Surprising no one, McConnell promptly vowed not to … Continue reading Wages Don’t Kill Jobs, Corporations Do
Last week, the House passed the Raise the Wage Act of 2019. If successfully passed by the Senate, this legislation would be the first time in a decade that Congress has raised the minimum wage. Our economy has fundamentally changed over the last ten years, but for too many Americans their wages have not. The current minimum of $7.25 an hour was inadequate when it … Continue reading House Passes Historic Vote to Raise Minimum Wage to $15
According to insider reporting at the White House, the Trump administration is considering a tax cut that will almost exclusively benefit the rich. If you’re experiencing déjà vu, rest assured, you’re not alone. We have in fact been here before. In 2017, Republicans assured Americans that their $1.9 trillion tax cut for corporations and the rich would create jobs and give workers a $4,000 raise. … Continue reading Can’t Get Fooled Again: Trump’s New Tax Cut For The Rich
The end of this month will mark a full decade since Congress has raised the federal minimum wage since it was first established in 1938. That’s 10 years that millions of workers across the country have gone without a single raise, trying to eke out a living on $7.25 an hour amidst surging rent and housing, rising costs of living, and inflation. It’s a shameful … Continue reading The Fight For $15 (Finally) Comes to Congress
Simply put, wealth is wasted on the wealthy.
Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted Regulation Best Interest, sold as a measure to protect everyday Americans’ retirement accounts from shady brokers. In reality, it’s a watered-down reboot of the Obama administration’s fiduciary rule, which was axed in 2017. The original fiduciary rule set concrete requirements to make sure retirement advisers put their clients ahead of their own profits and disclosed key … Continue reading Protect Retirees From Profiteering Vultures
This Sunday, June 16th 2019, Congress will add a dubious new record to its long history. This date will mark the longest ever period that the legislature has gone without raising the minimum wage since it first enacted a federal wage floor in 1938. Congress enacted the last hike, to the current minimum of $7.25 an hour, on July 24th, 2009. That means it’s been … Continue reading The Economy Has Changed. Why Hasn’t the Minimum Wage?
Most Americans pay taxes every other week. Part of every paycheck is withheld, then they file taxes in April to account for the difference. Rich people file a tax return in April too, but in any given year they are probably not paying any taxes on a huge part of the increase in their personal wealth. That’s because the majority of a rich person’s “income” … Continue reading Rich People Should Pay Their Taxes Every Year Too
On Wednesday, May 15th, Patriotic Millionaire Abigail Disney appeared before the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets to testify on out-of-control executive compensation in corporate America.