Posted on 02/15/2019 7:20:49 AM PST by Lockbox
Billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Richard Branson said Thursday that taxing the rich "makes sense," arguing the extremely affluent have a responsibility to tackle some of the biggest problems in the world, including wealth disparities.
"People like myself are incredibly fortunate," the Virgin Group founder told CNBC's Morgan Brennan in an interview. "I suspect there should be higher taxes for the wealthy around the world and I don't think they would object to that."
Branson — with a net worth of $4.1 billion, according to Forbes — is part of the growing circle of elite business leaders questioning wealth disparity in the world. He said that governments need to get taxes from "somewhere" while helping the middle class and poor.
During the Milken Institute Summit in Abu Dhabi earlier this week, Branson expressed similar views. "We have to try and do everything we can to lift the vast majority of people up, when for the last few years the vast majority have not seen their living standards improve," he told an audience on Tuesday evening.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Step 1 – pay 3 billion dollars to the poor. You would still have 1.1 billion dollars.
Step 2 – Tell your companies to help also. Poor and need to fly somewhere? Well Virgin Airlines could provide a free flight!
This article follows the Bill Gates’ article : Bill Gates: 'I don't deserve my fortune'.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says he doesn’t “deserve” his fortune and thinks taxes on the rich should be much more “progressive” than they are in the United States.
“I have paid more than $10 billion in taxes, but I should have paid more,” Mr. Gates, who is worth roughly $96.5 billion, told the UK.’s Daily Mail in an interview published Tuesday. “I more than followed the law but I think things should be more progressive.
“I don’t deserve my fortune,” he said. “Nobody does. It has come through timing, luck, and through people I worked with. I certainly worked hard and I think software has been a beneficial thing, but I benefited from a structure too.”
Bill Gates is worth 96.5 billion dollars. Well Bill let me explain what you can immediately do to help!
Step 1 – pay 95.6 billion dollars to the poor. You would still have 1 billion dollars.
Step 2 – Tell your companies to help also. Poor and need software? Well Microsoft could provide free software!
Step 3 –Microsoft could provide free software also to schools and governments!
Step 4 – and Microsoft lets not forget under privileged countries. Give China free software!
Step 5 – No need to fight for IP protection, after all you made your fortune on the backs of those who could pay for software, now just give it all away! Help the rest of the world Bill!
Let’s see if Richard and Bill act on their words.
Nothing is stopping him from giving a few billion to the government!
A simple revision to the tax code will solve this.
CHECK BOXES
Give millionaires the option to raise their own tax bracket brackets by 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 30%
Why wont they support this?
Because they don’t want it to be optional. They want to force everyone to not only think like they do, but more importantly to do like they would.
Except they wont. Not unless it’s foisted on all.
If far left U2 left Ireland to avoid taxes...the uber wealthy will do the same.
Right! Give it away, set yourself free Richard and Bill.
Lead by example guys. But none of us hold our breath for that to happen.
Yep, typical Lib all talk and no action!
Since they are the ones encouraging the illegal alien inundation, I agree.
I wouldn’t shed a tear if some entity confiscated all of this his money.
"...billions of dollars..."
Of course no matter what they say or who they beg to help their causes, the rich Libs never spend their money and figure out how to pay less taxes!
Plank #2 of the Communist Manifesto: A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
The 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, 1913 (which some scholars maintain was never properly ratified), and various State income taxes, established this major Marxist coup in the United States many decades ago. These taxes continue to drain the lifeblood out of the American economy and greatly reduce the accumulation of desperately needed capital for future growth, business starts, job creation, and salary increases.
http://laissez-fairerepublic.com/tenplanks.html
He doesn’t need a tax for that. The government is more than willing to accept a donation.
If he wants to make this as a personal decision, I have no problem with it. However; his best bang for the buck is NOT through taxes.
More BS virtue signaling.
Branson: “Sure tax the heck out of me, I deserve it!”
But the reality is, most of his wealth is not in the form of an income. Branson has an army of accountants, so whatever taxes come his way, he’ll avoid them. And, if it gets to be too bad, he will just move. All he has to do is say “move” and a task force will mobilize and move him. It will be seamless and effortless.
All the while, he can look like he cares.
The big problem is envy and jealousy over wealth disparities, not the disparities themselves. Encouraging globalist/socialist thought makes the problem worse, whether the disparities get bigger or smaller. The solution is to stop pretending that the forcible redistribution of wealth is virtuous or even ethical.
If Branson doesn't like being a billionaire, he can pay for 250 miles of border wall and help Make America Great Again, or he can do whatever he thinks would be best. What he cannot do is take money from others to redistribute and pretend that is anything other than wallowing in envy and fake generosity (using other people's money to pretend to be generous is as fake as it gets).
I have a better idea Richard, let’s just confiscate all of your money.
So Branson, you need to be told or ordered by law to pay in more? If you think you should pay m ore just do it, otherwise you are just blowing smoke about it and really don’t want more of your money going to pay for govt things.
“A simple revision to the tax code will solve this.”
Yes it will. 10% flat tax across the board. A 5% national VAT tax instead of state sales taxes and a corporate tax of 15% across the board.
Exactly, the rich Libs always want others to pay for their causes. ‘After all I’m giving my time to the cause!’
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