“Cutting taxes on large corporations will continue to increase the ever-growing gap of economic inequality in this country. It will either force cuts to important services that many working Americans rely on - such as Medicaid, school lunches, and public transportation - or it will force individual Americans, who cannot afford it, to pick up a bigger share of the tax burden.”
- Bennet Yee Patriotic Millionaire
The United States is currently experiencing a $30 trillion intergenerational wealth transfer. For anyone still wondering how the U.S.A. could possibly afford a Green New Deal with a framework that includes a single-payer health care system and accessible higher education, there is an obvious way: Stop handing out tax breaks to us trust fund babies.
Please, vote to tax my inheritance. The estate tax makes sense.
The reason it is important for corporations and inheritors to be taxed at an equitable rate is so that revenue can circulate back into the community in an organized fashion that is determined by democratically elected public servants (government of the people, by the people, for the people). This process can ensure a safety net and strong, sustainable opportunities for all Americans, whereas individualistic philanthropy cannot.
Further information on this topic can be found at patrioticmillionaires.org and in Chuck Collins’ concise, thoroughly researched book Is Inequality in America Irreversible?
Sable Knapp is from Iowa and currently lives in Maine. She is a member of Resource Generation, “a multiracial membership community of young people (18-35) with wealth and/or class privilege committed to the equitable distribution of wealth, land, and power.”
Bleeding Heartland. This entry is available here.
Published March 18, 2019 online.