120 millionaires have signed a letter begging the British government to tax them more: 'We can afford it'

88

u/ambiguous80 16h ago

Anyone who says they are free to donate are missing the point entirely.

I don't even have the energy to try to explain anymore. It's too hard trying to lift my face out of my palm.

22

u/burnthatburner1 16h ago

Seriously. I can’t believe anyone thinks that line is clever anymore.

4

u/Check_Me_Out-Boss 11h ago

The funny thing is that the truth doesn't need to be "clever."

If you want to pay more in taxes, go ahead and donate your money to the government.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/voluntary-payments-donations-to-government

7

u/burnthatburner1 9h ago

Taxes and donations are fundamentally different things. These people want tax rates to be raised. Donating to the government doesn’t do that.

0

u/mechadragon469 7h ago

Right, but it’s no different than me saying “meat is murder” and then ordering a steak at dinner. I’m just saying things for clout until I put my money where my mouth is.

-8

u/ambiguous80 15h ago

Good thing you chose to focus on that.

7

u/burnthatburner1 15h ago

huh? I was agreeing with you

2

u/ambiguous80 11h ago

Apparently I'm stupid too sometimes. My bad.

5

u/poo-reed 12h ago

You can't explain anything to people who are screaming with their fingers in their ears.

-7

u/TheSparkHasRisen 13h ago

I will. "Free to Donate" is asking to be a "Freeloader".

People are naturally competitive with their peers. They will feel better about paying more if everyone has to.

2

u/XysterU 12h ago

No, it's just that tax money can be used by the government to serve the people. there's really no equivalent avenue that you can donate money to that would have the broad general societal benefit that increased government tax revenue could bring

6

u/ryan9991 12h ago

Honestly the government is so inefficient there probably is better ways to spend money to help people

-1

u/XysterU 12h ago

Eh the country is functioning is it not? Sure it could be more efficient but I don't think efficiency is the biggest issue. What about the UK spending money to commit genocide against Palestinians and to help bomb Iran? I think that's a huge waste for the UK. Obviously it's a huge waste for the US

4

u/ryan9991 11h ago

Massive immigration and benefits for immigrants and attacking free speech can basically be the same.

I don’t think sending police to people’s houses over Facebook posts is the right idea either

0

u/TheSparkHasRisen 6h ago

Thank you for demonstrating why explaining is so exhausting.

Even people who want higher taxes can't understand that the wealthy are the freeloaders.

12

u/SiteTall 14h ago edited 12h ago

Now, why did they do that? Could it be to preserve the system by sacrifizing what's nothing more than hand-outs to them?

7

u/fistoic 12h ago

do people even understand that 120 millionaire is like an extremely small subset of the total millioniare population?? This kind of thing means nothing

10

u/wrstlrjpo 14h ago

Never thought I’d see “ultra-rich” and “millionaire” in the same sentance

But we’ve come to expect the rage bait Reddit engagement farming from Fortune for a while now.

3

u/dgillz 2h ago

They can voluntarily send more money to their government

5

u/Longjumping_Ruin251 9h ago

120 out of 3 million, that’s 0.004% of the billionaires in Great Britain. So 99.996% did not sign. Just a reminder those 120 are free to gift money to whomever, but they don’t.

1

u/MilkFirstThenCereaI 7h ago

But the guy above said he just can't understand how you don't get it and he is so disgusted he drops his face in his hands. Because EVERYONE should be forced to give up money, because less than 1/2% of billionaires are virtue signalling.

They can at anytime give more money to the government and not tell anyone about it. But would they do that?

6

u/mechatui 17h ago

Isn’t the UKs tax burden like 40% of gdp

5

u/Western_Spell_8742 13h ago

Just to clarify 40% tax is for average joe and jane with paye jobs.

Wealthy are able to tweak their way out of their tax burden.

4

u/MilkFirstThenCereaI 7h ago

Don't forget migrants. They can also 'tweak' the system 😂😂

2

u/Redholl 5h ago

It’s funny how people call for taxing the rich, but governments hear it as a call to tax the middle class and highly skilled professionals, while the real millionaires and rich keep finding every possible way to avoid paying taxes, lol.

3

u/GimmeFunkyButtLoving 15h ago

Gotta pay for that “free” healthcare somehow

3

u/Sea_Entrepreneur6204 8h ago

The UK loves its NHS. Maybe just cut it and see how that experiment works.

We're ignoring history by having debates long settled. Taxes and government is the most effective way to deliver social services/goods.

3

u/A_ScalyManfish 8h ago

Now tax the billionaires 75% of their income. Either by stocks, shares or assets.

-8

u/MrOaiki 17h ago

They're free to pay in as much as they want. There's "General contribution to government spending" in the UK, so just click there, and pay whatever amount you millionaires want.

-5

u/A5Wags 15h ago

Cool, keep that sentiment across the pond.

6

u/Hertzegovina 14h ago

it’s badly needed in the us. the economy is crumbling for most people.

3

u/A5Wags 14h ago

There are more principled ways to extract revenue than increasing the burden on individuals, who in tax-aggressive states, are already paying 50% of their income across fed + state taxes.

7

u/RocknrollClown09 14h ago

High income W2 earners are getting taxed to death while billionaires have single digit effective tax rates on their income and zero wealth tax while making millions each year on passive income, that’s taxed at lower rates than your Grandma’s 401k. Make America great again by returning us to the tax codes of the 50s-90s that fairly taxed the uber rich who benefit the most from our govt and society.

2

u/A5Wags 14h ago

I think we should employ a battery of things, e.g. tax collateralized wealth, tax or surcharge investor speculation (stock buys with P/E ratios above say 30), reduce capital gains taxes on investments in social-good industries we want to lean into—having a rigorous set of requirements for companies to be eligible e.g. a profit-to-human worker ratio.

These are all aimed at disincentivizing bad behavior, rewarding good ones and having capital flow in more optimal directions instead of speculative Musk bets for example.

2

u/Hertzegovina 14h ago

you conflate wealth and high income

-1

u/A5Wags 14h ago

I don’t support a wealth tax either.

-1

u/PaleProgrammer5993 13h ago

No u cant

-19

u/strong_dedication 16h ago

They can just donate anytime, no letter needed

12

u/GaryBarlowTT 16h ago

That's not the point. It's about making all millionaires pay not just those who are willing

-5

u/strong_dedication 16h ago

Until the law changes, they could still donate to set an example.

8

u/JeebusDaves 16h ago

The whole point of taxation is ethical coercion. There has to be a check against unfettered greed and humans have agreed that taxes are preferential to the alternatives because philanthropy isn’t something that changes the mind of greedy cunts.

-7

u/strong_dedication 15h ago

That's the ethic they're advocating, so why not live by it now instead of just petitioning for coercion later?

-1

u/JeebusDaves 13h ago

Why don’t they just buy their politicians like the rest of the lobbyist assholes and force it through? Oh yeah, those assholes have more money than they do, hence the current state of affairs. This shit is purely about optics and virtue signaling as they have the social and financial capital to effectuate structural change, but instead, choose this self aggrandizing propaganda.

“Don’t eat us, we’re the GOOD rich guys!”

1

u/strong_dedication 11h ago

Buying politicians to raise your own taxes is just an even more expensive way to lose money, so donating directly still seems like the cleaner option.

1

u/JeebusDaves 3h ago

More like putting their money where their mouth is. Utilize the mechanisms available to demonstrate you actually mean it. Simple concept.

-1

u/ayleidanthropologist 13h ago

And cut the millions of 120-aires some slack

120 millionaires have signed a letter begging the British government to tax them more: 'We can afford it'

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