Impeachments and assassinations

Are we sick of winning yet?

Someone has allegedly fired a rifle at Donald Trump for the second time in the last year. People do not decide to try and assassinate a former President of the United States at random. There is always a chain of events leading up to the moment when shots get fired.

Well it seems that the man who has encouraged more stochastic terrorism than anyone else in the past decade now has to constantly look over his shoulder everywhere he goes for the rest of his life. That can't feel good. You wouldn't want to feel like that.

Although I guess we all do in our own American way thanks to people like him. The thought creeping in every now and again that this might be the day. It might be at long last our turn.¹

As a kid, I had no idea how badly humanity was doing in regard to our social systems. If Trump did one positive thing for me, it was teaching me that a lot of my fellow humans are batshit crazy. I did not realize that one insane person could be a lodestone for all the other insane people. I did not realize that mental illness was a communicable disease. I did not realize how close my species has always been to self-destructing.

We do not have all the facts in the case of Ryan Wesley Routh (isn’t is strange how killers and alleged killers always get their middle names listed?) What is clear to me, however, is that the USA breeds mental illnesses in people’s heads and then ignores them until a point of no return has been crossed and they end up self-destructing. Often these episodes are targeted outwards at real and/or perceived enemies.

It seems obvious to me that a country that allows a rambling, mentally addled, serial liar with narcissistic personality disorder to continue spewing toxic garbage from a national stage even after it is clear that he is a criminal con artist, the citizens of said country are going to pay a price. Like one in five Americans living with one or more mental illnesses.² Things ripple. Ideas jump from mind to mind.

Source: National Alliance on Mental Illness.

The United States has more wealth than any other nation-state in history. The problem is that we are distributing that wealth in a toxic way. Allowing all the resources to be concentrated in the hands of a few hundred old white men is damaging hundreds of millions of human beings around the globe. Through our collective apathy and intentional programming by the humans at the top of the resource hoarding mountain, we choose daily to create mental illnesses in our fellow citizens.

Could we fix it? Easily. By changing the way our leaders are elected, and by actually holding them accountable.

“▶ More than one in four dollars of wealth in the U.S. is held by a tiny fraction of households with net worth over $30 million. Nationally, we estimate that wealth over $30 million per household will reach $26 trillion in 2022 with roughly one-fifth of that amount ($4.5 trillion) held by billionaires.

▶ A nationwide tax of 2 percent on wealth over $30 million could have raised nearly $415 billion if it were in effect this year, while a similar tax applying only to wealth in excess of $1 billion could have raised $62 billion. This tax would affect just 1 in 400 households nationwide, or 0.25 percent of the population. No state would see more than 0.5 percent of its population affected by such a tax.

▶ New York is home to the highest concentration of extreme wealth in the nation. Of all wealth over $30 million per household found in the U.S., more than 1 in 5 of those dollars can be found in New York. This finding points to the outsized importance of Wall Street as a source of extreme wealth in the U.S. and to the economic clout of New York City more broadly.

▶ Other states with an outsized concentration of extreme wealth achieve that distinction through a variety of means, including industry mix and the location decisions of a small number of billionaires. Other states with above-average shares of wealth in excess of $30 million are Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Washington state, Wyoming and the District of Columbia.

▶ The Northeast is home to a higher concentration of extreme wealth than any other region and would therefore pay a significant share of a tax on wealth over $30 million per household. The Midwest and South would be least affected by such a tax as these regions possess smaller amounts of extreme wealth.

▶ A large share of extreme wealth is held in the form of unrealized capital gains, meaning investment income on which these families have yet to pay tax (and may never pay tax under current law). Nationally, among families with more than $30 million in wealth, an estimated 43 percent of that wealth takes the form of unrealized gains.

▶ Lawmakers could consider taxing the existing stock of unrealized capital gains either as part of a transition to taxing such gains on an annual basis or under a standalone, one-time tax. A one-time tax on the current stock of unrealized capital gains over $10 million per household could generate between $529 billion and $3.9 trillion depending on the parameters chosen for the tax.

▶ The federal government and states have no shortage of options for taxing extreme wealth, including net worth taxation, mark-to-market taxation, ending stepped-up basis, raising rates on realized capital gains and strengthening or creating estate and inheritance taxes. Notably, many options that the federal government might pursue in taxing extreme wealth would also be helpful to states seeking to diversify their own revenue streams to include extreme wealth within their tax bases.

Wealth Inequality is a Growing National Problem

Economic inequality in the U.S. is large, growing and highly unpopular. Excessive concentration of wealth runs counter to our national aspiration for genuine equality of opportunity, and it saps the vitality of our democracy through the consolidation of power and influence. Tax policy offers a powerful means of beginning to address our nation’s stark level of inequality, but current law is clearly falling short of its potential. Federal and state tax codes include little in the way of direct taxes on the wealth holdings of extremely affluent families and instead often favor sources of income that are derived from wealth.

In recent years an increasing amount of attention has been paid to issues of economic and wealth inequality, including analyses of national wealth inequality over time and by race and ethnicity. This report adds to that discussion by offering a look at geographic distribution of extreme wealth in the U.S. It includes estimates of the amount of wealth in excess of $30 million and $1 billion per household in each state as well as data on unrealized capital gains in excess of $10 million per household.

Nationally, 30 percent of wealth (totaling $39 trillion in 2022) is held by a relatively small number of households with total wealth over $30 million.

Because most proposals to tax extreme wealth include an exemption level that shelters most wealth from taxation, we also examine the fraction of wealth exceeding $30 million per household. Exempting the first $30 million in wealth from taxation would shelter roughly one-third of this group’s wealth from taxation entirely. The other two-thirds of this group’s wealth, meaning the $30,000,001st dollar and above held by each household, would be subject to taxation, representing a potential tax base of $26 trillion. Roughly one-fifth of that ($4.5 trillion) is held by billionaires, with the remainder held by multimillionaire households with a net worth greater than $30 million but less than $1 billion.

A large share of extreme wealth is held in the form of unrealized capital gains. This is a type of income that has yet to be recognized on any tax form and that, in many cases, never will be recognized as taxable under current law because of the stepped-up basis benefit. As an example, an individual owning nothing but one share of stock worth $100 that they originally purchased for just $30 would have a net worth of $100 and an unrealized capital gain of $70.

Of the $39 trillion in total wealth held by families with net worth above $30 million, almost $17 trillion of that—or 43 percent of the total—takes the form of unrealized capital gains.”³

When people come to understand they are being kept down on purpose, by a system designed to protect the few and not the many, it becomes inevitable that Donald Trump and his kin are going to be targets. They paint the targets all by themselves.

Until we change the system, the toxicity will continue to poison everything and everyone. Until we are ready to invest in taxing the rich properly, providing a social safety network that includes equal healthcare for all, and barring grossly toxic and evil people from holding powerful public offices, we will continue to shake our heads and watch numbly as people lash out in rage and desperation. Some of us will pray, and some of us will hide as best we can, and all of us will continue failing together. This world can be better. We can be better.

Change starts with you and I. Change starts with us.

1. https://www.welcometohellworld.com/we-live-in-danger-times/

2. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness

3. https://itep.org/the-geographic-distribution-of-extreme-wealth-in-the-u-s/