https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-11/bernie-sanders-a-millionaire-congratulations
When asked about his happy financial status, Sanders offered this bit of wisdom: “I wrote a best-selling book. If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.”
Socialist scum!
Genius.
Art of the thrill
Isn’t a best selling book just a perk of being an influential politician?
he can finally contribute meaningfully to society through taxes!
“When I was poor and complained about inequality they said I was bitter; now that I’m rich and I complain about inequality they say I’m a hypocrite. I’m beginning to think they just don’t want to talk about inequality.” May be said by Russell Brand, but he has a point. Y’all call people who are poor and support liberal policies you call them lazy and entitled for ‘wanting things for free’. Bernie earned his money and hasn’t changed his policy goals, now he’s derided for being wealthy. Maybe it’s not his income that’s the issue
Bernie’s not wealthy. He’s in his 70’s and he’s probably worth less than 3 million. The guy’s a senator and was almost president of the US should he be broke?
Good points.
I do think in general though, what’s holding back any form of policy progress is 1) lobbying and 2) voter and policymaker sophistication has not kept pace with the sophistication of the problems. The lobbying issue is obvious. For the other, it’s rare to hear a discussion of policies with healthcare and inequality that has two people willing to fully dive in and consider the complexity of the problem. Usually just two crowds memeing sound bites at each other. These are tough issues to solve and so far, few people have been willing to really dig in constructively.
I don’t normally care about seeing politicians’ tax returns, but in Bernie’s case it could be really interesting. If he itemizes or in any other way tries to minimize his tax liability, then he’s a hypocrite. He should lead by example and just take the standard deduction and (likely) overpay the government. That would show his willingness to practice what he preaches. Gonna guess that’s not happening though. Maybe. But probably not.
That’s a bad burden to hold people to. Bernie doesn’t advocate for people voluntarily paying higher taxes, he advocates for a tax system that is fairer. Bernie doesn’t rail against highly educated and successful people that are worth a few million dollars, he rails against the Kochs and the DeVos, those worth hundreds of millions.
Agree, especially on point 1. For 2, I think that the vast majority of voters have never really had a clue about the things they vote on. But lobbying is definitely a real impediment to any major policy changes. Plus it’s like a vicious cycle which is almost impossible to break without either a) very principled politicians, or b) revolution/violence. Right now, especially in the US, political power and wealth is so intertwined that all major policy decisions are ran through special interest groups. The special interest groups make sure their interests are taken care of, which increases their wealth, which then increases their political muscle and so on.
That’s one reason why I would like to see someone like Sanders to become the next president, and more politicians such as AOC to get elected to congress. I am very skeptical about their willingness to break the status quo when there’s so much to gain personally in not breaking it, but it would definitely be interesting to see how it would go.
stl - thats silly. just becasue you are maximizing your deduction doesnt mean that you shouldnt try to change the shitty tax laws. i believe warren buffett believes that taxes should be higher for the rich, but that guy will maximize his deduction and even collect his small amount of social security.
bs - healthcare is a very serious issue and the reason why we have a large deficit and debt. nearly 25% of our budget is dedicated to healthcare. its a huge liability for the government, and the people who fund the government: which is rich people. if you think about the 3 people who are trying to solve it through a non profit company. its warren buffet, jaimie dimon, and jeff bezos. all billionaires running the largest companies that prolly have shit ton of healthcare costs. they are trying to maximize the value we get per dollar we spend. As a percent to gdp, we can prolly cut healthcare costs in half if we use other developed countries as a benchmark. it is a more noble way than cutting the funding for healthcare.
should inequality exist? yes. but to what level? should everyone have the right to food? healthcare? to school? to a lambo? to malibu mansion? to a hot instagram model wife, maybe 2? where we draw the line doesnt matter, but we need to be able to fund it. if we are running a deficit, we cannot afford it. we are subsidizing the lives of people who are no longer productive, and we do not have the money to fund it. so unless we are willing to raise taxes,
AS OT Genasis once said, Your price is way too high, you need to cut it! so we must cut something, and i believe that healthcare is prolonging social security. you cut healthcare and i promise you social security will shortly follow.
Nerdy, I never argued against healthcare reform, just stated the obstacles.
Cod, voters may have not known in the past (which wasn’t my point) but the problem is the issues have become more sophisticated with the rise of a more complex economy and the gap therefore has widened.
STL, I agree with the others, people can advocate for better policies without immolating themselves in some inconsequential act of martyrdom.
Of course people can advocate for change while still using the current rules to their advantage. But 99.99% of those people aren’t socialists and running for president. If Bernie wants to tax high earners at a significantly higher rate, he can choose to do so on his own right now. I’m fine with Buffett not doing it. He’s not a politician, nor is he nearly as magnanimous as some make him out to be so it’s not surprising. But at least he’s leading the charge with Gates on the whole giving away your wealth to charity thing.
What’s a better political move? Bernie makes a few mil on a book and (inexplicably) doesn’t have a good answer for how he’s treating his newfound wealth; or, he tells America he pulled down $3mm in 2018 and has decided to pay the IRS what he would propose people making that much pay if he’s elected president?
I’m no campaign manager, but I’m pretty sure the press and the far left would be doing backflips if he held himself to his own standard and taxed the hell out of his own income (or gave most of it away to charity). Instead he’s, again, being made out to be an old, out-of-touch curmudgeon by telling people to write a best seller if they want to be rich.
It’s just an incredibly myopic POV. You can draw imaginary lines of distinction between him and Buffett or talk about being campaign managers and campaign tactics, but that’s not really a point anybody is making. Maybe he isn’t building his entire life around a campaign but is simply saying what he thinks is true.
It’s really just fine for him to advocate a set of policies without crucifying himself to appease a few keyboard warriors that don’t think he can hold a view on best regulation.
Nah, the next time Rand Paul gets in a beef with his neighbor, he can’t call the police because that’s not libertarian. Trump can’t use things made outside of the U.S. because that won’t make America great again. Republican’s need to die of treatable diseases rather than use medicare/medicade. The liberals can’t use the protection generated by the military because they want to cut funding or police because they support restrictions on the use of force.
Forcing someone to act in the extreme of what they’re advocating for is not a good ideology. Just because you think something is on-balance bad, doesn’t mean it is 100% bad.
I think the police need more/better training, but i’ll happily call 911 in an emergency; and while I think the current tax scheme is fiscally irresponsible, I’m not going to shoot myself in the foot and pay more.
Trump making things in America would also be a good political move, but we don’t fault him for being a business man and outsourcing. He’d be dumb to pay more for no reason.
“When you’re white… you don’t know what it’s like to be poor” - Crazy Bernie
I’m not a Bernie bro, but until we solve this issue of moving the average through the use of extremes, I’d rather have a political spectrum with him in it than one without. He’s making a lot of valid points and some bad points, but he’s hardly the biggest problem in DC.
I think he means well, that the nicest thing I can say about him. He seems concerned about the people, even if his views are different than mine, like Obama and unlike Crooked Hillary who was trying to take power to destroy the world. In other words, he’s not evil.
Anyone else see Bernie’s town hall? Felt like Fox was repeating the same talking points that they only apply to democrats. 1. Why doesn’t Bernie pay more money instead of being a millionaire. (It’s a dumb and inconsistent standard to hold people to)
Taxes will go up! Bernie handled it well, explaining that taxes will go up, but expenses on health care will go down. it’s a net positive trade.
People don’t like to switch healthcare. (They do it now when they get a new job or their employer changes providers)
The national debt. (It only matters when Dems are speaking, not when Trump passed tax cuts.)
Bernie handled the questions well and stuck to his message – that Trump has given the billionaire class the biggest tax break it’s ever received and wealth inequality is getting worse. Bernie is for the working class, not political parties. The hosts seemed unable to comprehend that people were supporting his message. I do not think they’ll be doing this again without doing a better job stacking the audience.