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To the editor : Columnist Veronique de Rugy’s assertion that billionaires are fairly compensating us will certainly come as news to the millions of Americans facing unaffordable housing, higher education, child care, health insurance, groceries, medication, utilities, gas and the vehicles they need for their employment ( “Billionaires compensate us many times over. Wealth taxes endanger that,” Oct. 29). The truth of the matter is that those on the receiving end of the compensation are the billionaires themselves.
For decades, wealth interests, in league with the GOP, promised that tax cuts at the top would actually provide a gusher of public revenue that would deliver budget surpluses. Now, instead of surpluses, we have a deficit of more than $40 trillion, gifting every consumer an additional borrowing burden as well as climbing inflation. It is long past time for suffering workers to reject this transparent nonsense and change their voting preferences if they desire the “lower prices” and “higher wages” cited, but not delivered, by De Rugy and those she defends.
Eric Carey, Arlington, Va. .. To the editor : De Rugy plays the same old saw that many conservatives use to defend the ultra-rich: “They pay their fair share of taxes.” No, they don’t. While she makes a few good points, such as why the current 5% wealth tax proposal is bad and why California does not need even more money to waste, the fact is that Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, David Ellison and others do not pay anywhere near the same percentage of taxes that you and I do is proven.
Why? Because they don’t get “paid” much (i.e., Zuckerberg and Brin each receive a base salary of $1, Musk’s base salary at Tesla is $0, Jeff Bezos’ is $81,400); they make their money in stock, which they borrow against to fund their extravagant lifestyles. The tax codes are clearly slanted toward the rich: Passive income tax is a fraction of that of waged income, meaning that those who actually work pay more.
If America wants a fairer system, fix the tax codes that have made senators wealthy and the top earners multibillionaires. David Comden, Ventura .. To the editor : When discussing taxing the rich, corporate tax rates must be part of the consideration.
During the Eisenhower administration, the top corporate rate was 52% . Today, the rate is 21% . Part of the change can be attributed to the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling that gave corporations the 1st Amendment rights of people — which allowed a massive increase in corporate political contributions.
One of the major causes of today’s dramatic difference in the wealth of the haves and have-nots was the Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court. Corporations now control the political agenda. Roy A.
Fassel, Los Angeles
Source: Los Angeles Times
