The average U.S. citizen associates social welfare policies with “communism,” and communism is a bogeyman to them. Meanwhile, successive governments squander money on wars without having to worry about looking after their own population.

Posted by: Carlos | Jul 7 2026 16:45 utc | 3

A good start would be to tax political donations, including personal gifts.
 
I suggest 99% tax.
 
But what pol will suggest it or vote for it.

Posted by: Mark2 | Jul 7 2026 16:53 utc | 5

This can not be remedied by any law or legal way, but with revolution and a lot of bodies dangling from the lampposts.

Lesson from history.

Posted by: Abe | Jul 7 2026 16:58 utc | 7

Thanks for the posting b….right up my alley
 
I would posit that along with wealth distribution is the power that the wealth coveys to the owner.
 
I see the bigger issue is having oligarchs bigger than nation states and owning the levers of global finance.
Until and unless the levers of global private finance are taken away from those bigger than nations the politicians will continue to be bought off to keep the oligarchs making money and staying in power.
 
When Eisenhower was president the take rate was 93% and here we are….how did we get here other than for the control over global private finance?
 
Just like Iran is showing the world, it is time for humanity to have the moral backbone to stand up to the God Of Mammon cult and its puppets and acolytes……and get rid of private finance along with the increase in wealth tax and inheritance limitations.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 7 2026 17:01 utc | 9

Keep your hands off my stuff or I will start shooting, imbecile. 

Posted by: frithguild | Jul 7 2026 17:02 utc | 11

No.  A wealth tax won’t stop until its paid by everyone owning any asset.  Poor people too.
Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Jul 7 2026 16:32 utc | 1
 
You explained it perfectly.  Rich people AND POOR people would annually be required to pay 75% of the amount that their net wealth exceeds 10 million dollars.
 
 
Computer version:  Annual Tax = 0.75 * max (Net Worth – 10,000,000, 0).
 

Posted by: Woke American | Jul 7 2026 17:02 utc | 13

As I have said, there are two Americas.  The vast majority struggle to maintain housing, gas, food.  A tiny group of Zio Imperialist parasites horde most of the wealth produced by the labor of the majority of the population.  When you trash America, trash the ruling class, not their hyper exploited politically disenfranchised slaves.  
 

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 7 2026 17:05 utc | 15

In response to
”
“The U.S. will need some kind of wealth tax to level this out.”Nothing short of a revolution can accomplish that, and sadly that is not on the horizon. Which does not mean that we shouldn’t work towards that goal.
Posted by: Iron Felix | Jul 7 2026 17:01 utc | 10
”
 
I want to inform you that the revolution you seek is occurring led by China/Russia/Iran. 
 
Will you and you friends be ready to take over the government reigns when the current folks are defeated?   I would suggest the ending of private finance and creating a Western version of China’s 5 year planning process that is not done in private think tanks but with public involvement and ongoing oversite.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 7 2026 17:09 utc | 17

Much more  disturbing is Germany‘s Median Wealth, the lowest  of 30 countries.How Long will German politicians and Media keep on spreading the lie of Germany as a „Rich“ Country? After years of burning taxpayer‘s money and taxing the Middle class into poverty, when will the chicken come  Home to roost? ? 
 

Posted by: Lesjeuxsontfaits | Jul 7 2026 17:11 utc | 19

Woke American | Jul 7 2026 17:09 utc | 18—
 
Are the wealthy leaving NYC? No. 

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 7 2026 17:13 utc | 21

Are the wealthy leaving NYC? No. 
 
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 7 2026 17:13 utc | 21
 
Wrong. They are in Miami.

Posted by: frithguild | Jul 7 2026 17:19 utc | 23

well Karl, perhaps the looming national debt suggests ab bankruptcy an restructuring.  It’s not far fetched to think we devolve to city states or regions.   12~ economic hubs account for 90% of our economic output, maybe we regionalize a new confederation of states.  As these parties erode, and politics makes exterminates itself, it’s regional services that make the water flow, and police and fire keep order.   It’s inevitable, not sure how long it will endure, hopefully it will prove better for the people 

Posted by: Scottindallas | Jul 7 2026 17:30 utc | 25

I saw this data about 5 days ago and had a rather lengthy exchange with a person I believe is American on his substack account.  The issue is that Americans actually don’t see the 5am alarm fire these  figures represent when comparing to both western and eastern countries,  developed and developing nations.  A wealth tax isn’t a panacea because there is a litany of legal schemes that will be set up to either minimize or fully evade. Don’t forget that the US is the most litigious nation and legal fees make up an exorbitant part of GDP.  However,  what was astounding to me was that this person on his substack actually used this data in a paradoxical way explaining to me that the median wealth in the US is the highest  in the world when adjusted for cost of living,  ppp and 5 times higher than China,  it represented a success in their economic model. of neo liberal service economy financialized capitalist system with basically 4 cents in every dollar of earned money is saved whilst China has 48 cents in every RMB saved,  a mean worth or person of about USD 90, 000 and median worth a round USD28, 000 in China.  Hence only about USD62, 000 divergence which means a greater pool of middle class,  greater equality in society,  greater pool of savings,  basically negligible household debt,  education as a public utility (hence the youth start debt free),  combination of public and private healthcare which doesn’t bankrupt anyone,  unlike the US,  over 500, 000 declare bankruptcy every year due to healthcare etc.,  he stopped replying. His initial argument was that the median wealth is high in the US when comparing to China and as such the Chinese have a lower quality of life because they save,  don’t spend and only export.  For the record I am Australian and don’t have a dog in this fight. However,  this is the issue,  many Americans due to education,  economic modelling,  social programming,  media,  government etc.,  still see their country as a perpetual success story,  even though 70℅ can’t meet a USD1000 out of pocket expense.  I will not even mention the poverty levels,  deep poverty,  food insecurity and those missing meals.  It isn’t a wealth tax that is needed it is holistic endemic peaceful revolution. 

Posted by: Sally | Jul 7 2026 17:35 utc | 27

Michael Hudson seems to me to be one of the few who knows what from which. and he says long lasting societies had a periodic debt forgiveness mechanism. Otherwise what happens is a few piggies collect all the goodies

Posted by: Space Cowboy | Jul 7 2026 17:44 utc | 29

Posted by: frithguild | Jul 7 2026 17:02 utc | 11
 
Don’t worry, neither you nor most Americans earn anywhere near enough to pay a wealth tax.

Posted by: ChatNPC | Jul 7 2026 17:45 utc | 31

Are we going to be taxing assets or liquidity? It is perfectly possible to be asset-rich but liquidity-poor, a trap many elderly people here in Britain face.
 
On a larger scale, it is an issue also recently faced by the Gulf nations, asset-rich, with $billions tied up in US Treasuries, that suddenly had no bid, at the same time free cash-flow liquidity from day to day export activities dried up as a result of military damage and the Strait being closed.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jul 7 2026 17:53 utc | 33

Using taxes to solve the problems of inequality does not work.
The history of neo-liberalism, since the 1970s, is proof of that. Taxing the wealthy whilst leaving their control over the economy and society intact always proves to be a temporary measure- after a decade or so, a generation perhaps, the owners of the means of production, who also own the media, the Academy and everything else,  re-assume power and demolish, piece by piece the tax system and the ‘welfare’ institutions that were designed to eradicate the sources of inequalities. 
 A good example is the social health system, the NHS in Britain and its equivalents elsewhere: often held to be untouchable because it is so popular in all public surveys, it has proved to be very easy to cut to pieces over the period of a few years.
The same is true of Education- the free or subsidised Univrersity tuition that worked social wonders in many countries  has gone and the ruling class control over High Education is now almost complete. Ask an anti-Zionist!
Even secondary and primary education, where private institutions seemed to be dying out only a few decades ago, is flourishing to the enormous detriment of  society as a whole.
Reformism doesn’t work. Edouard Bernstein and his ilk were wrong. The first job of a government that sets out to eradicate inequalities and build a healthy society is to remove all control over finance and the economy from the capitalists and place it in the hands of the people as a whole. 
There is more inequality and, in particular malnutrition and ill health among children, in Britain today than there was eighty years ago when the country faced the austerity imposed on it to pay the Usurious State of America’s ruling class the debts incurred during two world wars. 
What the United States needs is to take the commanding heights of the economy into public ownership. Of course this too will involve a ‘tax’ on wealth, but it will be a 100% tax and it will eventually wither away. 
Every neo-liberal knows, though they tend to keep quiet about it, that democracy and capitalism cannot co-exist. So long as capitalism empowers a few exploiters they will fight to dismantle, first the popular reforms born of democratic influence over government. And then democracy itself- that is what Trump and his oligarch friends are bent of doing. It is also what is taking place all over Europe. 
The demand that all must sacrifice themselves for the national defence is a perennial excuse for the demolition of popular living standards, pension schemes, unemployment and welfare safety nets and any services beyond the profit system. 
We live on the cusp of the next iteration of dictatorship of which fascism was the last. And more than half a century of untrammelled reaction has demolished almost every one of the insitutions (Trade Unions, political parties, social movements) which could have prevented the dystopia in prospect. 

Posted by: bevin | Jul 7 2026 17:56 utc | 35

Such proposed taxes always backfire, because the wealthy…which I would say are the top 1%,  control Congress and every administration….

Posted by: pyrrhus | Jul 7 2026 17:57 utc | 37

Michael Hudson seems to me to be one of the few who knows what from which. and he says long lasting societies had a periodic debt forgiveness mechanism. Otherwise what happens is a few piggies collect all the goodies
 
Posted by: Space Cowboy | Jul 7 2026 17:44 utc | 29
====================================
 
Yes! The jubilee.
 
As Hudson so succinctly puts it, “debts that can’t be paid, won’t be paid”.

Posted by: George the Zeroth | Jul 7 2026 17:58 utc | 39

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 7 2026 17:09 utc | 17
 
 
<BLOCK,QUOTE>”Will you and you friends be ready to take over the government reigns when the current folks are defeated?   I would suggest the ending of private finance and creating a Western version of China’s 5 year planning process that is not done in private think tanks but with public involvement and ongoing oversite.”</BLOCKQUOTE>
 
I was reading Karlof1’s July fourth substack last night and continued with the comments including J. Matson Heininger’s link to his own substack and his writing about the need for americans to shred their constitution for something that works for everyone, not just the few. He, or she raises very interesting points for a completely new form of government and emphasizes its just a basis for a new constitution that desperately   needs debate and discussions to firm it all together. I found it most interesting and would be interested in what other barflies think of it, particularly psychohistorian and many others here, that I follow almost religiously. The link is below and now I suppose I’ll have to cross my fingers and hope this posts intelligently?
 
 
https://heininger.substack.com/p/phoenix-america-a-new-nation-rising?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=16lm0

Posted by: aye, myself & me | Jul 7 2026 18:01 utc | 41

Thanks for the Chart ‘b’
 
On the topic of the thread – well, I suppose the Bolsheviks might come to political power in the USA in the fullness of  time –
 
– in the interim the ‘US Wealth Tax’ is designed by the Wealthy with the support of its fully bought-up politicos in Congress to fully support the Wealth of the super-Wealthy. Period.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jul 7 2026 18:08 utc | 43

There used to be a Wealth Tax in Oz and other Western countries until the 1960s and ’70s. It was called Death Duties and was phased out when it became legal to make “Donations” to politicians and Political Parties.
 
And as we all know, in Politics Donors are Owners.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 7 2026 18:10 utc | 45

Maybe this is the problem:
 
California Lifeguards Raked In Six-Figure Salaries on the Backs of Taxpayers
 
(excerpt)….An updated 2024 analysis from the watchdog group found that 134 lifeguards earned at least $200,000 in 2024, including benefits, while 34 of the highest earners received $300,000 in compensation packages, as noted in OpenTheBooks’ new report……
 
https://lawenforcementtoday.com/lifeguards-make-high-six-figures-and-the-taxpayers-are-the-ones-footing-the-bill
 
Note – After 20 brutal years of working 4 days a week, these Lifeguards get a full tax-free pension and a gold plated medical plan. 
 
 

Posted by: exile | Jul 7 2026 18:16 utc | 47

You cant tax your way out of this problem, the Pentagon hasnt passed an audit in almost 30 years, they have 20 Trillion dollars they cant account for.  the more the government taxes the more money will be sucked up and consolidated into the economic elite BECAUSE THE ELITE CONTROL THE GOVERNMENT!  the solution to the problem is Regionalism and Localism, delegate, to the greatest extent possible, regulatory, administrative, economic and legislative power to the provincial and municipal level.  It’s easy for oligarchs to control a single senate or house of representatives, it would be a lot harder to force them to control 12 or 50 or 100 various houses spread across the country.     

Posted by: Kadath | Jul 7 2026 18:17 utc | 49

My goodness.  ‘b’ has scared the gamey folks out of their bushes for fear of having their toothbrushes taxed away.
 
The neat thing about a “wealth tax” is that the revenue doesn’t need to be spent.  It can just as well be vapourized in a “debt jubilee” and the outcome will be the same.
 
 

Posted by: too scents | Jul 7 2026 18:22 utc | 51

Elon Musk was smart to leave California (as were other rich folks fleeing the proposed Wealth Tax). Here’s part of a ZH post by DeadHobo I liked (from Aug 2025):
The Democrat Master Plan is a simple cash grab. The simple goal is they get first dibs on taxpayer revenues and on government grants to the area they control. Then divert cash from public services to semi-private projects. The secondary goal is power over others so they can maintain revenue flows. Chasing away a significant number of Normal People is how they do it and why so many of their platform policies are so abnormal. If anyone is against these priorities, they are ‘Against Democracy’.
Criminals, vagrants, and the permanent underclass of ghetto monsters do not vote. Some people will vote Democrat no matter what. Some will vote Democrat because their income depends on Democrat control of the area.
The people Democrats need to fear are ‘Normal People’. The easiest way to deal with Normal People is to make them go away. The more uninhabitable a Democrat controlled area becomes, the more Normal People want to leave it. See any Big Blue Hellhole for a reference.
After The Normal People leave, all that’s left are a vicious and useless underclass who don’t vote and Democrats who profit from public funds.

Posted by: Norman French | Jul 7 2026 18:26 utc | 53

To sum up the naysayers about the chances for success for a wealth tax, at least in the U.S. at this moment, I’d say we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. I hate to say it but they’re correct here.
 
A wealth tax, let’s say like Mamdani’s plan, is a great thing. In theory.
As usual, the devil’s in the details.
 
Problem is the system here is so fucking corrupt—basically an upward-leading conveyer belt to the uber-rich—that any such tax would never actually benefit the untermenschen; it would probably only stir up more resentment at the “bottom feeders” and “welfare queens driving Cadillacs” and purported Commies.
 
Something else would be needed. Probably an actual revolution, which for many reasons just isn’t in the cards for the foreseeable future.

Posted by: George the Zeroth | Jul 7 2026 18:32 utc | 55

Thank you b.

I don’t know frithguild from Adam but I understand the rabid antipathy of the working class in the US to higher taxes given what we have lived with for decades.

I believe the following well illustrates what we are mired in:

‘It’s worth discussing the role of net transfer payments.

Under a very universalist transfer state, one might argue that the 11 percentage point increase in the role of transfers shouldn’t make anybody glum.

But the United States’ transfer system is far from universal.

Its beneficiaries are mostly the poor (whose modest means-tested benefits are unlikely to persuade them things are great), the old, veterans, the unemployed, and the self-identified disabled.

Most working Americans are net contributors, rather than recipients of benefits.

That doesn’t make these benefits bad!

Of course we want a social insurance system that receives a broad base of contributions and pays out to those who can’t work or can’t earn a great living when they do.

But from the perspective of working Americans without asset wealth, who are net contributors rather than net beneficiaries of these transfers, these payments contribute to income streams that are not theirs.

Of course we should make the political case that insurance programs against sickness and unemployment, disability and poverty, and the debilitations of old age benefit everyone.

But given the vast gap that has grown between labor income and full economic participation, it’s understandably a hard sell to ask workers to be net contributors.

One thing that would help is providing more universal benefits, so that payers perceive themselves more as purchasing benefits rather than funding charity.

Another thing that would help would be reducing the barrier placed between labor income and full participation created by the increasing role of asset wealth.

In a decent society, it shouldn’t be that bad to become penniless. One should always be able to pick oneself off the floor and afford a decent life from the wages of a job.

Societies that allow their definition of a decent life to expand very far past what employment and universal benefits can typically buy are asking for turmoil and trouble.’

https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2026/07/06/why-are-americans-so-unhappy/index.html

Once again:

From the perspective of working Americans without asset wealth, who are net contributors rather than net beneficiaries of these transfers, these payments contribute to income streams that are not theirs.

Posted by: Agonizing Reappraisal | Jul 7 2026 18:33 utc | 57

The neat thing about a “wealth tax” is that the revenue doesn’t need to be spent. It can just as well be vapourized in a “debt jubilee” and the outcome will be the same.

 Wealth are things that have value.  Money is a medium of exchange which is inherently worthless.  I dont think you grasp the difference.
 
At any rate your not wrong based on what you wrote.  Wealth, the valuable things, will indeed be vaporized  and then we can all struggle to survive on what remains to be salvaged.

Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Jul 7 2026 18:36 utc | 59

Anyone care to describe for us how an actual debt jubilee, say in the U.S., would work? (Thought experiment, not a prediction at all.)
 
I’m having a hard time imagining how it could be done, and what all the consequences and ramifications would be.

Posted by: George the Zeroth | Jul 7 2026 18:39 utc | 61

Naive ?
 
‘splain 

Posted by: exile | Jul 7 2026 18:40 utc | 63

I will say there is some value to repudiating odious debts.  At a certain point if enough interest has been paid to cover the principal theres room to reduce or eliminate the debt.

Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Jul 7 2026 18:42 utc | 65

‘the system is working exactly the way it was designed to work’

Yes.

‘Given the vast gap that has grown between labor income and full economic participation, it’s understandably a hard sell to ask workers to be net contributors…

…and so, from the perspective of working Americans without asset wealth, who are net contributors rather than net beneficiaries of these transfers, these payments contribute to income streams that are not theirs.’

This was and is by design.

It is insanely divisive.

Posted by: Agonizing Reappraisal | Jul 7 2026 18:43 utc | 67

Don Firineach | Jul 7 2026 18:08 utc | 43—
 
One could say we already have a wealth tax policy which is not to tax wealth. Personally, I thought Andrew Carnegie had it right with his Gospel of Wealth, which was to return one’s wealth to the community from which it came. Too bad his ethos didn’t attract a following during his life or after. 
 
Scottindallas | Jul 7 2026 17:30 utc | 25—
 
Thanks for your reply. How much longer will the Neoliberal parasitic political-economy survive is the key question with an unknown answer. Will the looming Depression cause a political upheaval that motivates the masses to finally participate in a political movement that generates a new direction? Or are the masses too stupefied as depicted in Lil’ Abner so many years ago? If price/cost levels could be lowered by 75%, a Service Economy could become viable since reestablishing an industrial economy doesn’t seem likely. Ecological issues will arise as we move deeper into the century, particularly in the Southwest, and that will create additional problems. The Outlaw Empire continues to insist on being an Empire thus wasting trillions of dollars and the parasitic economy it promotes contributes to its decline. Until the Mafia Nature of the federal government gets challenged and ousted, nothing will improve nationally, although there will be a few bright spots.
 
 aye, myself & me | Jul 7 2026 18:01 utc | 41—
 
My reply to Scott is what I’d reply to you, although much more could be added.      

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 7 2026 18:46 utc | 69

Not helped by VAT, excise duty, fuel duty, lottery tickets etc all different forms of regressive taxation that the poorest pay a far higher percentage of their income than the richest. A land value tax would be a step in the right direction. The Overton window has shifted so much that Margaret Thatchers tax rates eg 60% top rate were well to the left of ‘commie’ Corbyn’s.

Posted by: andy | Jul 7 2026 18:46 utc | 71

‘It should be obvious to the working class that taxes must be levied on Capital and not on Labour.’

I believe you missed the point entirely and further your comment is insultng to the average worker but maybe if you begin where you’re at and just start telling everyone you know and everyone you meet that ‘It should be obvious to the working class that taxes must be levied on Capital and not on Labour’…well, that will suffice I am sure.

I can tell you TPTB would love to have you on their side.

Posted by: Agonizing Reappraisal | Jul 7 2026 18:48 utc | 73

Join the MMT heterodox economics Discord server and ask any question to expert Neil Wilson – including on wealth/rent seeking
Spread to friends and people studying economics etc question the mainstream!

Posted by: Dan A | Jul 7 2026 18:49 utc | 75

@exile | Jul 7 2026 18:10 utc | 44

Why can’t taxes be voluntary ? If the services gov’t provides are so valuable why does it take armed thugs to get the money ?  No one forces me at gunpoint  to buy a loaf of bread at Costco. Why are gov’t services any different ? 

The reason is simple: government services are valuable and essentials for poor people, while rich people can buy private services if they need to. That is why in the USA you have paradoxes, like Amazon making billions of dollars, while many of its workers in the USA are so poor that they get government food stamps, paid by the taxes of other workers: rich people in the USA can exploit their workers, making millions and billions, while not paying taxes.
That squeezes the middle classes, those people who are wealthy enough to have to pay taxes, but not enough wealthy to avoid to pay taxes. Third world countries have no middle classes for this very reason.

Posted by: SG | Jul 7 2026 18:53 utc | 77

Beautiful women obtain wealth, violent men get rich   proverbs, 3000 years ago 

Posted by: E | Jul 7 2026 18:54 utc | 79

Ummmm the world needs a wealth tax. I agree the states should show the world an  exceptional example.of this.  You know lead instead of destroy.
 
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Jul 7 2026 18:52 utc | 76
====================================
 
OK, so now go to the next step:

• How would that tax be implemented?
• Where would the proceeds be spent?
• What would guarantee that the proceeds benefitted those who needed them the most?
• What would prevent the über–rich from circumventing the whole shebang and continuing their greedy depredations?

Posted by: George the Zeroth | Jul 7 2026 18:57 utc | 81

The US does have a wealth tax which is called the Estate Tax.  Its purpose is to prevent family dynasties from running the country and the rate is pretty high, 40%.  What the US needs is enforcement of the US income and estate tax against our gangster criminal elite.  The IRS is not focused on collecting taxes where the wealth is concentrated because the wealthy have armies of tax attorneys to protect their wealth or they are blatant criminals like in the Panama papers.  Instead, the IRS goes after the defenseless Joe Shmo nobody because that is where the easy money is for them.  Trump started out his second term trying to appoint a convicted tax fraudster as the IRS Director and is currently gutting it.  The issue isn’t the tax system, which is actually pretty solid, the issue is having criminals run our government.

Posted by: Deniz | Jul 7 2026 19:01 utc | 83

Taxing wealth doesn’t seem doable. Instead, I’d suggest a tax on any transaction involving stocks (including options) as well as commodities futures. I’d also forbid compensation in the form of options.
 
I also like Mark2’s suggestion that we tax political contributions.
 
Oh, and while I’m dreaming, kill the tax-exempt status of churches. 

Posted by: malenkov | Jul 7 2026 19:02 utc | 85

Instead, I’d suggest a tax on any transaction involving stocks (including options) as well as commodities futures. I’d also forbid compensation in the form of options.

Posted by: malenkov | Jul 7 2026 19:02 utc | 85
 
Yes, 100% agree with this, it, at least in part, taxes liquidity rather than assets; if someone doesn’t have the liquid wealth to play in the financial markets then they don’t get taxed.
 
As a parallel, I would also tighten up on accounting practices and audit declarations. Closer scrutiny leads to more transparency.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jul 7 2026 19:10 utc | 87

A big part of the trick is that the majority believe they are just a bit of luck away from being one of the rich people – the envy blinds them so that they don’t even see the class divide. For example, the lottery cruelly mocks working class people but we fucking love it. Has been said before, but there won’t be even a whiff of real R till people are hungry.

Posted by: Rae | Jul 7 2026 19:19 utc | 89

For those interested in more numbers: https://wir2026.wid.world/download/
 
The genereal website: https://wid.world/
 
And the twitter of Piketty: https://x.com/PikettyWIL whose thick and boring books ‘Capital in the 21st Century’ and ‘Capital and Ideology’ for some reason managed to become bestsellers. The man is a euro liberal, but his books are very matter of factly, with a million statistics, repeating the same pattern. Nevertheless, once you read them and have them in your bookshelf, you not only become the life of any party, you also strike fear in the heart of  capitalists.
 
The first book mainly prvides hard evidence for the marxist notion that in capitalist economy capital always makes more profit than labour, spiraling the system in an everincreasing inequality that will always lead to some sort of cataclysm, like war or collapse.
The second book is more interesting, as it does what the title suggests; it sheds a light on some of the ideas and consequences of capitalist ideology.
 
Only recommended for people with way too much time on their hand!

Posted by: Hamburger | Jul 7 2026 19:23 utc | 91

I’ve told this story here before. I knew a member of the elite, painted his house. Partner at Morgan Stanley. Total alcoholic. When he was diagnosed with cancer and given a year to live he got sober and had a personality transplant. Became social. Also gave away all his money. Once I asked him what an investment banker does. His answer included “Basically we’re gangsters”. Start from there.
 
The wealthy have more money than you because they took it at gunpoint. You owe them nothing. They owe you. 
 
The headline wealthy in the immediate vicinity are the Crown family. General Dynamics.  Masters of War. Also the family that ran what they obliged the newspapers to identify as the Al Capone gang. If your wealth is based on gangsterism and warmongering you have no good claim to it. Ill gotten gains. 
 
Also from my Morgan Stanley informant. ‘Yes, we have a personnel department. For partners, or for any senior position of any type, there is no qualification but the ability to keep your mouth shut. That doesn’t show up with degrees or resumés or credentials. The only way we know you can keep it shut is if we know your family. Preferably for at least a few hundred years.”  “What you are describing is aristocracy.”  Well, yes. Has there ever been another way of ordering a society?”  The French Revolution had a maxim about that.
 
Don’t tax the wealthy. Hang them.

Posted by: oldhippie | Jul 7 2026 19:24 utc | 93

Social Contract ?
 
Show me where I signed that contract ?
 
🤣

Posted by: Exile | Jul 7 2026 19:27 utc | 95

‘Don’t tax the wealthy. Hang them.’

Or drone them.

A public square droning.

Posted by: Agonizing Reappraisal | Jul 7 2026 19:29 utc | 97

¿Los datos de Alemania son correctos? Si lo son lo que se necesita allí con urgencia es una revolución.

Posted by: Frasco | Jul 7 2026 19:30 utc | 99