Alexandria Ocasio-CortezVerified account

For those who don't understand marginal tax rates, if we created a new income bracket of 70% at $10M, and you earned $10,000,001, you would only pay a 70% rate on $1 not the other $10 million. It's a way of encouraging CEOs to give raises to their employees instead of themselves.

Jan 3 I got $26 cost-of-living increase in Social Security Jan 6 that cost me $51 less in food stamps Net loss of $25.

Great real-life example, and I'm sorry you have to personally experience the absurdity of targeted benefit clawback.

It was 90% under Eisenhower gop, in my lifetime. As a result, most of America shared somewhat fairly in post WWII prosperity. The middle class not only thrived. It blossomed. The rich did great too, as always. Tax the rich @AOC. No matter what, do that. It works. For everyone.

California currently has a 10.3% income tax at the top rate...are you really of the belief that taking everything from the rich will make you better off? If so, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

You aren't taking everything from the rich when they are taxed. As a matter of fact, the rich use more of our resources than any other group. They have access to state and federal resources that most people have never heard of. The facts are clear, we did better during Ike's era.

Difference between the 1950s and now is not the tax rates but the type of economy we had, back then it was a manufacturing based economy. We destroyed the manufacturing ability of Europe/Japan and helped rebuild the world. We need another world war to get those conditions again

You’re on the right track, but that manufacturing economy meant it was easier for the rich to also support the middle class by opening manufacturing operations. They don’t do that anymore, they leave their money invested in their companies to drive stock portfolios

They still invest in manufacturing, our manufacturing output is at 30 year highs. While at the same time the number of people working in manufacturing is at record low levels. Technology has killed a lot of manufacturing jobs

That’s the fatal flaw in capitalism we need to deal with: we’re producing more than ever, and yet most people are getting less and less; literally, all the gains are going to the top

That’s not a capitalism issue, it’s an issue with how we reward people based on the value they provide, which has changed over time. In a manufacturing economy, everyone was paid by the hours they worked. In a service based economy, they are rewarded by the value they create /1

Boy these comments are full of people proving your point. If it helps anyone, such a tax would have no impact on 99% of the country. It would only be applied to income above a certain threshold in a given year. Say 5, 10 million dollars. Are MAGA dudes really making that much?

Proving a point? Who does it affect when the 1% stop creating and cutting jobs.

It takes the 99% to make these companies successful, the labor and the 99% that buy the goods.

1. Let the super wealthy keep more of the wealth that they generate on the backs of the working poor 2. Let them stash it all in offshore tax havens or invest overseas 3. ??? 4. Job creation!!

These ppl worship the 1% as if their god. It’s really pathetic

They wanna be like them and have been lied to their whole lives that if they just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, they can be wealthy too. So they foolishly maintain a system they believe they can enter that is specifically design to keep them in place.