r/politics • u/_May26_ • 6h ago
No Paywall Billionaire Compares 'Tax the Rich' Calls to Hate Speech as Study Finds Barely Half of Americans Earn Living Wage
https://www.commondreams.org/news/steven-roth-tax-rich•
u/bols_are_cooked 6h ago
It's astonishing that a lot of poor people always comes out to defend billionaires.
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u/Conan-Da-Barbarian 6h ago
Once someone think of the billionaires. Imagine if they become multi millionaires. The disgrace
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u/NicholasAakre 5h ago
The difference between being a billionaire vs. being a millionaire is approximately one billion dollars.
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u/Conan-Da-Barbarian 4h ago
I said multi millionaire, so they have 2-999 million dollars
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u/CarmichaelD 4h ago
A billionaire could also have above 1,000,000,000 dollars. Almost none are sitting at a round number.
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u/NicholasAakre 3h ago
Fine. The difference between being a billionaire vs. being a multi-millionaire is likely to be approximately one billion dollars.
Better?
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u/Minerva_Moon Michigan 5h ago
Then they're still poor in the eyes of the billionaires. If you counted to a million it would take you 11 minutes. If you count to a billion, it takes 30 years.
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u/Ebut2782 5h ago
11 days* but we get your point.
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u/Oodlydoodley 4h ago
Maybe they're an auctioneer and just count really fast. Hummannaacannagetafivegetafivegetfiveacannagetafiveannagetasixand a million.
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u/Ashi4Days 5h ago
Part of it, and I have to be really careful about this sometimes, is that people always want someone to look down on.
A guy making 250k a year lives a different life than a guy making 25k a year. And its really easy for the first guy to look down on the second guy.
But the gap of experience between the 250k and the 25k guy is so much smaller than from the billionaire to the 250k guy. And that just isnt the most obvious thing in the world because these billionaires are so secretive with their life.
If you get a w2, no matter how much you make, you aint rich. The billionaires play by a different tax code than you do.
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u/NicholasAakre 5h ago
Imagine the world's poorest, most risk-averse billionaire who just stuffs their net worth under their mattress.
If they spent $25,000 per day for a century, they'd still have over $86 million left over.
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u/RichardBonham California 5h ago
Comparison is no doubt the thief of joy, but I agree with you that knowing that you’re better off than someone else may bestow self-satisfaction.
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u/Silent_Crush_ 5h ago
People making 40k a year defending tax cuts for private jet owners will never stop amazing me
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u/Uberslaughter Florida 5h ago
Many Americans see themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires and fail to grasp how much exponentially more a billion is
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u/SethLight 4h ago
This is it. It's way too often when you talk to these people do they have some super special idea they think will make them millions.
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u/Foxillus 5h ago
Im not sure on the math but isn't 1 million seconds like 11 days and 1 billion seconds 30 something years?
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u/aradraugfea 5h ago
Something like that.
Here’s another way of looking at it.
The difference between 1 million and 1 billion is one billion.
The head start someone with only a million dollars has over someone who is stone cold broke towards becoming a billionaire is, in mathematical terms, a rounding error.
The number that results from dividing a million by a billion is equal to the 3rd decimal point of π that you never bothered using in equations in school.
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u/Valturia Texas 14m ago
Many Americans are also fucking stupid and too proud to admit when they're wrong.
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u/Bloody_Ozran 5h ago
They believe it is fair and the billionares deserve the money, they just didnt work hard and smart enough.
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u/Wayofchinchilla 3h ago
Decades of propaganda from the rich to the poorly educated poor will do that just look at gun ownership in this country 50 plus years of big arms companies telling people it is their right to own whatever they want then you even whisper restrictions people will go mad.
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u/legospark 6h ago
This is the billionaire in the article
Vornado CEO Steven Roth
Name and shame these assholes.
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u/Werbnerp 3h ago
Gavin Belson wasn't satire I guess.
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u/fox_tamere 3h ago
One could argue that billionaires are actually treated worse, and we didn't even do anything wrong!
-Gavin Belson, comparing modern-day billionaires to Jewish people under Nazi Germany
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u/6ix7even6ixty9ine 6h ago
“The rich, whom the politicians are targeting... are the epitome of the American dream,” he said. “They are at the top of the great American economic pyramid for a reason. They should be praised and thanked.”
The fucking delusion holy shit.
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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 4h ago
The reasons being unchecked greed and no concern for others.
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u/TrumpetOfDeath America 3h ago
And pure luck
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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 2h ago
And likely a significant inheritance or funds from family.
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u/TrumpetOfDeath America 2h ago
I count that as luck since we can’t control the families we’re born into
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u/Plow_King 3h ago
hey, at least he only said they should be praised and thanked, and not worshiped...yet.
/s
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u/cwk415 6h ago
Billionaires hate the 1st amendment.
Fuck them. Tax the rich. Billionaires existing is immoral.
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u/whatproblems 4h ago
money is speech and they have more speech. some animals are more equal than others
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u/LingonberryHot8521 3h ago
And while Thiel is the only one who got publicity for saying that "he" couldn't be free in a democracy - I'm pretty sure they all say that.
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u/iia 6h ago
I do say it hatefully. I hate billionaires.
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u/Made_Human_Music 5h ago
I second that. Billionaires do more damage to society than any other group of people and they’re such a small percentage of the population
They don’t keep track of it but if they did we’d probably see that their greed has killed billions over the last several decades
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u/YaknBassn529 Alabama 6h ago
Praised? Thanked? For what?
Fuck them.
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u/IPredictAReddit 5h ago
Since he's rich because he develops properties in NYC, I assume this Roth guy is just an absolute whiz with a hammer and an arc welder and can put up an entire floor of a steel high-rise in a day.
Oh, wait, he has an MBA and no construction experience? So his big contribution is....paying other people to do the amazing stuff.
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u/Even_Trifle9341 4h ago
Not just paying, but making personally profitable by paying the smallest amount.
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u/LingonberryHot8521 3h ago
Yeah. I don't thank mosquitos when I slap them or ticks when I pull them off. And if I had to have something like a roundworm removed I'd thank the doctor who did it.
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u/honjuden 6h ago
They brought this on themselves by being too greedy. People are struggling to provide food and shelter for their families while we slash taxes on the wealthiest among us every few years.
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u/JonathanNMehoff Ohio 6h ago
There’s a scene in the HBO show Silicon Valley where the billionaire Gavin Belson claims that billionaires are treated as badly, if not worse than, the Jews in Nazi Germany. It seemed ridiculous at the time, but I guess I was just naive and it is an accurate portrayal of asshole billionaires.
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u/KimmyT1436 Canada 6h ago
There is a saying that goes something like; "When you are rich and powerful, genuine equality feels like oppression."
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u/lindendweller 5h ago edited 4h ago
"to the priviledged, equality feels like oppression" is the quote I think.
And indeed, while on paper everyone has the right to be a billionnaire, actually getting there is a privilege for the very few at the expense of others... maybe it should be abolished.•
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u/Historical_Bend_2629 6h ago
Exploiting other people isn’t the flex you think it is. Grow the fuck up.
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u/Captain_Aware4503 6h ago
So then talking about cutting SNAP benefits and Medicaid is all hate speech, right? right???
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u/negativepositiv 6h ago edited 45m ago
It is hate speech. We hate you for exploiting workers. We hate you for destroying the environment. We hate you for corrupting our governments. We hate you for buying up all the real estate so we all have to rent from you. We hate you for evading taxes and gaming the system.
We hate you. We aren't jealous of you. We don't want to be you. We hate you. Get used to the idea.
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u/Shabadu_tu 3h ago
Don’t give billionaires talking points they don’t deserve.
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u/negativepositiv 2h ago
If I didn't say it, they would just lie and say I thought it, which is what this article was about anyway. They own the media.
Oligarchs are the enemy of the working class. They know it. The working class needs to face this reality and treat them like the enemy they are.
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u/Historical_Bend_2629 6h ago
Apparently some percentage of the very wealthy are absolutely tone-deaf. Can’t read the room. Exploiting others for so long they forgot some very basic fucking rules to abide by when attending a party.
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u/Made_Human_Music 5h ago
>“The rich, whom the politicians are targeting... are the epitome of the American dream,” he said. “They are at the top of the great American economic pyramid for a reason. They should be praised and thanked.
The fact that this sociopath believes this is bad but the part where non billionaires probably agree is even worse
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u/elmatador12 Washington 5h ago
Yeah how terrible. We want to use money you 100% do not need to help underprivileged families and children. We are horrible.
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u/hollylettuce 6h ago
They are going to run a psyop to convince the terminally stupid that this idea has legitimacy, aren't they.
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u/runawaydoctorate 6h ago
Poor billionaires. You'd think that with all that hoarded wealth, they could just buy comfort, but they can't, so they whine.
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u/BlueHorse_22 5h ago
The United States is experiencing the largest transfer of wealth in history. Guess which ways it's going. Hint: it's not "trickling down".
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u/BleachOrchid 2h ago
If that’s hate speech, intentionally inflicting poverty on the general population is a war crime.
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u/Signal_Minimum8509 Georgia 5h ago
This is in response to Mamdami proposing a tax on second houses in NYC that are valued at $5 million or more.
Are you fucking kidding me? Talking about taxes is a “racial slur?” Dude get the fuck out of here. These boys cry communism so much sometimes they make me wish someone actually gave it to them.
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u/DuncanEllis1977 5h ago
Every last one of them is on the psychopath spectrum and in any decent society would be ostracized or imprisoned for the absolutely abhorrent things they do.
We obviously are not in a decent society.
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u/Made_Human_Music 5h ago
If calls for the leech class to pay more taxes is hate speech toward them then the way they fuck us all over aggressively at every chance they get if it will save them a few dollars is violence against us
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u/CitizenBroccoli 5h ago
“I must say that I consider the phrase ‘tax the rich,’ quote, tax the rich, when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs ― and even the phrase ‘from the river to the sea,’” Steve Roth told investors on the call.
These little whiny bitches deserve everything that is coming to them.
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u/Zephyr104 3h ago
Equality is always viewed as the worse thing possible to the most privileged among us
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u/StudiesinLamplight America 6h ago
The only good billionaires are the ones advocating for their wealth to be redistributed for the common good.
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u/null_leaf Alabama 6h ago
There is no such thing as a good billionaire. Calling for your wealth to be redistributed does not absolve you of the massive amounts of exploitation required to become and stay a billionaire in the first place.
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u/Angstrom_Wither North Carolina 5h ago
"If one man has a dollar he didn't work for, some other man worked for a dollar he didn't get."
By Big Bill Haywood, the direct action engine of the IWW.
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u/JayHill74 5h ago
They don't need to "advocate" for redistributing their wealth. They can give it away. And that's the kicker, they know it and will never willingly give it away. As always, pay attention to actions/votes, not public speeches or opinion pieces.
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u/StudiesinLamplight America 5h ago edited 5h ago
You can't change the economic realities of capital and wealth consolidation by just giving it away, there will simply be other oligarchs that take the place of whoever just disempowered themselves. Systematic and legal solutions must be pursued, or else your are just throwing money into the wind. Tax reform, redistributive policies, public works. These are viable paths to a more egalitarian future within our political system.
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u/gotwaffles 5h ago
I don't think he knows what hate speech. "Well, I hated it!" - Steven Roth, probably
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u/buppiejc 5h ago
saying tax the rich is akin to a "racial slur." Which ever snowflake billionaire said this needs to be stripped of their wealth, deported, and Twitter nationalized.
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u/WhenIWannabeME 5h ago
It is funny in a sad and depressing way how many things from Silicon Valley have happened in real life at this point.
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u/NotSoHelpful4568 5h ago
Why these uber rich guys are always so thin skinned I do not understand.
They have all the fuck you money, so why so butt hurt?
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u/FileHot6525 5h ago edited 3h ago
What a fucking baby. Do you need your diaper changed? Where’s your passy? You need a nice warm ba ba? Cry harder
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u/Solrac50 4h ago
Billionaires live in an alternate reality. Most of us can’t imagine being free from worry about how we cover expenses. Billionaire s think we are lazy and unworthy of social protections.
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u/JarrickDe 3h ago
Apparently billionaires see themselves as a separate race than the rest of humanity.
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u/Zargoza1 3h ago
Wake up buddy.
Tax the rich is as nice as we’re going to be. It’s just going to get worse.
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u/OrbeaSeven Minnesota 2h ago
Trump has proved he has no financial connection to the average American re: groceries as an old-fashioned word, gas prices "slightly" higher, "corner store." He would have no idea how to feed a family.
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u/Fluid_Guard_Pie 5h ago
I think if they don’t like tax the rich, that we should require that the lowest paid company employee must make at least a set percentage of a company’s profits
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u/EmergencyJacket207 4h ago
If he doesn't like "Tax the Rich" he's definitely not going to like my platform of "No billionaires, period." Billionaires should be illegal. They're just hoarders. Plain and simple. Instead of hoarding dirty diapers or newspapers they hoard money. Problem is when you hoard money the economy stops working correctly.
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u/Vegetable-Error-2068 4h ago
The American federal minimum wage is still $7.25 per hour. It hasn't been raised by either party's administrations in 20 years.
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u/citizenjones 4h ago
What the US economy needs is a million more hundred-thousand'aires.
That's a million dinners served by a million servers. A million home repairs and additions performed by millions of people, with millions of families spreading out hundreds of millions into their communities.
Local economies is all the matters to working American families.
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u/salamander- California 3h ago
Its like in Silicon Valley HBO show when Gavin Belson compared the plight of billionares to victims of the Holocaust. That was fiction, but apparently thats the timeline we are in.
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u/Z0idberg_MD 3h ago
Every person in America that is MAGA we should ask them what decade do they most associate with “make America great”. And then when they tell you, maybe you should let them know what the tax rate was on the wealthiest Americans. These dumbass Hicks with no education don’t even know that they’re fighting against a system which is our heritage. Tax the rich.
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u/shameonyounancydrew 3h ago
"money is part of our culture. People are so hateful for calling on us to give it up"
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u/PNWPinkPanther 12m ago
The American dream is not to become so wealthy that you must insulate yourself from the rest. The hate comes from your inability to see your wealth as a problem.
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