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Comment by JimWestergren | Hacker News Reader

Wonder how many HN readers are part of the 1% income earners ... but 0.1% is another thing of course.

How is it going with Wealth Tax proposal from the Democrats? It sounds reasonable: "2% annual tax on wealth over $50 million, rising to 3% for wealth over $1 billion."

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I wonder how much wealth the 0.1% has compared to the rest of the 1%, because I'm sure the problem is about that 0.1% or 0.01%. Very rich people must have a lot of influence.

This chart is always quite revealing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM

I made this to summarize:

https://i.imgur.com/BgoGzrI.jpg

The post is flagged and the comments greatly seem to support the 1% rhetoric (its not us its the .01%!,taxes don't work(because the rich dont pay them), wealth distribution is evil (as long as its not the rich who get the funds distributed to them of course, thry have no problem sucking money/value like a vacuum).

Almost all Hacker News readers will be part of the global 1%, of course most people in the 1% don't consider themselves to be in the 1%.

As of 2018, membership of the global top 1% needed a net worth of $871,320 https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/01/how-much-money-you-need-to-b...

To quote the New York rap group M.O.P. "I'm nine hundred ninety-nine thou short of a mil".

On the contrary, many more people think they are in the top 1% than actually are. A survey [1] done about 20 years ago showed that a full 19% of Americans thought they were currently among the top 1% and a further 20 percent expect to be someday. So that’s 39% of people who expect to be hurt when anyone proposes taxing the ultra rich.

1: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/opinion/the-triumph-of-ho...

isn't it a stereotype that americans consider themselves "temporarly embarressed millionares".

the false consciousness of the USA is stunning, especially compared to the southern hemisphere.

Inflation + capital gains taxes are similar to a wealth tax.

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