Brad Reed is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
Sen. Bernie Sanders mocked Jeff Bezos on Tuesday after the editorial board of the newspaper owned by the Amazon founder denounced his plan to tax billionaires' wealth.In an opinion piece published Monday, the Washington Post editorial board accused Sanders and Rep.
Ro Khanna , who co-sponsored Sanders' wealth tax plan, of threatening to 'strangle America’s golden goose' by hitting billionaires with an annual 5% wealth tax.'Sanders wants to confiscate 5% of all assets every year from America’s billionaires, with the goal of stealing half their fortunes,' the editorial complained. 'He estimates, unrealistically, that this could raise $4.4 trillion over 10 years to fund a wish list of progressive fantasies, including something akin to a universal basic income and more government-managed healthcare.'The editorial then argued this was bad because 'even for billionaires, a 5% tax on every asset they own would virtually wipe out any gains they make in a normal year,' and would force them to sell off some illiquid assets such as 'collections of wines, art, jewelry, and yachts' just to make their annual payments to the government.The editorial concluded by claiming 'Sanders and Khanna take as a given the capacity of American capitalism to deliver continuing prosperity, no matter how many anchors they weigh it down with,' then warned that 'economic history proves that future growth is never guaranteed.'In a social media post, Sanders mocked the Post editors for publishing an opinion piece defending the economic interests of their owner, whose current net worth is estimated by Forbes to be well north of $200 billion.'Surprise! The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post is against my 5% billionaire wealth tax,' Sanders wrote. 'I wonder why? If enacted, Bezos would owe $12 billion in taxes, and an average family of four would receive a $12,000 direct payment. Poor Jeff would be left with just $224 billion to survive.'In a news article about the tax plan published by the Post Monday, Khanna was quoted as saying it was needed to address the historic disparities in wealth that have only grown over the last 50 years.'This is Sen. Sanders' defining vision for our age,' Khanna explained. 'It is the most ambitious and transformative legislation for our times to tackle inequality in the New Gilded Age.'Wealth inequality has become so acute that the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal in February published a news analysis declaring that billionaires' tax avoidance schemes were 'becoming a problem for the economy.' The Journal last month also published an analysis of US wealth inequality by chief economics commentator Greg Ip showing that corporate profits’ share of gross domestic income is now the highest it has been in more than 40 years, while the share of income paid out in workers’ wages is at the lowest.“Profits have soared since the pandemic, and the market value attached to those profits even more,” wrote Ip. “The result: Capital, which includes businesses, shareholders, and superstar employees, is triumphant, while the average worker ekes out marginal gains.”
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