It's really a pretty simple idea, and a good one. Make a limit on how poor someone can be, and finance it by making a limit on how rich anyone else can be. How rich? Ten million dollars? No problem. Twenty? No problem. Fifty million? Well, that's gettin' on up there now, isn't it? $100 million, more than a million a year for more than the average lifetime? Well, I think that's just about enough. Don't you? Because anyone who complains that $100 million isn't enough is either an idiot or an asshole. Or both. So for those of you who are neither, let's consider the following...
First, every billionaire on this planet is a thief. Period. Nobody can earn a billion dollars, much less twenty or fifty or sixty BILLION dollars. Nobody in history ever did anything so smart or so good, or worked so hard that they deserved a thousand million dollars. And the ones that have that much today aren't that smart or good, and they didn't work that hard either. And they sure as hell don't do much good with their money for the rest of us, do they? No, in fact, it's pretty obvious they use their money to find ways to make more for themselves by screwing the rest of us as hard as they can and every way they can 24/7, 365. And they spend their fortunes finding new ways to do it, and they do it every day. And you know it. All of them are thieves and assholes, but I think if they try, if they're as smart and tough (hard working, which is the true measure of toughness) and as virtuous as they say they are, they can figure out how to scrape by on a measley hundred mil.
And we're talking about a LOT of money here. The richest 400 people in the USA "own" (i.e., control) 2.4 Trillion dollars. A Trillion is a million million dollars. That works out to an average of $6 thousand million each, for each of those 400 people. Not for you or me, not for us, but for them, six Billion dollars. Each. If those 400 people were taxed 100% on everything they "owned" over $100 million, that would leave an instant surplus of two trillion. That ".4" in the "2.4" above is $40 billion, which is also what 400 X $100 million happens to be. In other words, those 400 people have two Trillion (remember, that's two million million) dollars more than they really should. It's not just sitting there, either. It's growing. And more for them is less for the rest of us. And I sure can't see any good they're doing with it. Can you?
Here they are, by the way, the 400 richest people in the USA, who own more than the 165 million poorest Americans. The Forbes 400. Take a look at them. Notice how they're all smiling? Except, of course, for the ones who are so rich that there aren't any public pictures of them. Anywhere. So rich that they literally can't be seen, at least by regular folks like you and me...
Check out 400 smiling assholes and thieves on Forbes 400 »
So, what could we do with two trillion dollars? Well, it would actually be a lot more than $2 Trillion. Because there are a lot more than 400 people in the USA who control over $100 million, and a 100% tax on that surplus would be another astronomical number. But whatever it is, here's what we should do with it - how about free guaranteed housing, medical care and education for every citizen. Hell, how about a guaranteed minimum income of say $40,000 for every adult in the USA. The GDP split among the US adult population works out to about that, BTW. So it's doable.
The "murderous dictator" Fidel Castro provided free medical, housing and education to all Cuban citizens, and that under an economic blockade by the world's most powerful nation. The "madman" and "terrorist" Moamar Gadaffi used the wealth from Libya's natural resources to provide free housing, medical care and education to every Libyan citizen. Food and fuel prices were subsidized (gasoline was 14 cents a gallon) and electricity was free for domestic use. He also gave every newlywed couple a wedding present of $50,000 dollars, and a $5,000 birthday present to the parents of every newborn child. Think about that for a minute. And don't try to tell me it can't be done, because it already has been. Some might say it only worked on a small scale, for 11 million in Cuba and 6 million in Libya, but they conveniently forget about the Soviet Union, which with all its imperfections did basically the same for hundreds of millions of people for generations. So, yeah, it has been done, and what has been done once can be done again. And this time, even better.
There is much that can be done, and much to be done, but the starting point is to understand the real conflict and who the real enemy is. The richest 1% consider us as their livestock, their inferiors. They intend to exploit those of us who are profitable, and to dispose of the rest. They are the true enemy of Humanity, and it is up to us, the vast majority of Humanity, to understand this and to do something about it.
The idea of $100 million maximum wealth (not "wage") is a good one, at least for all of us who never have to worry about owning more than $100 million. That includes me, and most likely you.
My vision of Communism...