• Rivalarrival
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    18 hours ago

    People born in the 1950s grew up with a 91% top-tier income tax rate, which ultra-rich people went out of their way to avoid by spending their excess income on “business expenses”, rather than investments.

      • Rivalarrival
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        17 hours ago

        Absolutely.

        It used to be that if you had $10,000 excess income, you could use it to buy $900 worth of stock, bonds, and other financial instruments or you could spend the entirety of that $10,000 on something you tell the IRS you plan to use for business purposes, and pay some salaries for making it.

        Now, if you are $10,000 over the line, you can turn $6,300 into stocks, and double your money in 4-5 years. There’s no point in actually spending your money anymore; just keep rolling the excess into the means of making more.

    • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      And instead of saving their money they spent it, and the people who got their money spent it, and so on until I got pennies in my ass that are going to Jeff Bezos