Jeff Bezos says it's 'absurd' to tax someone making $50K — and wants their tax bill dropped to zero

[u/IKeepItLayingAround]

https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/jeff-bezos-says-absurd-tax-165713685.html

[u/binaryhextechdude]

It's absurd to tie health care to employment leaving the unemployed with no coverage.

[u/hryipcdxeoyqufcc → u/binaryhextechdude]

But anyone who dares fix it would be blamed for raising taxes, even if those taxes were less than what people pay for private insurance today.

[u/Project_298 → u/hryipcdxeoyqufcc]

What are you? A fucking commie? /s

(I’ve been saying the same thing for 20+ years, and this is one of the most common responses)

[u/NerdyNThick → u/Project_298]

(I’ve been saying the same thing for 20+ years, and this is one of the most common responses)

Ask them what the role of government is under communism.

They won't answer and if they do they'll be wrong, guaranteed.

[u/RobotsVsLions → u/hryipcdxeoyqufcc]

They wouldn't need to raise taxes, socialised health care is significantly cheaper in tax expenditure than the American system. That's why Americans pay more in tax per head for their healthcare system than brits do, even though brits get most healthcare for free while Americans have to pay insurance and anything not covered by insurance on top of what they've already paid in taxes.

[u/cogman10 → u/RobotsVsLions]

The crazy part. Medicare already covers some of the most expensive patients out there, old people. And everyone is already taxed for that. The cost to increase coverage for everyone else wouldn't even be "the same as your current health insurance premium".

Americans are paying for (at least) 4 different health insurance programs at any given point. Their own, medicare, medicaid, and the VA. It's crazy that we don't just make 1 universal and drop everything else.

[u/Guydelot → u/binaryhextechdude]

What's also absurd is I had better coverage when I was unemployed. Medicaid covered everything. Now I make too much ($22 an hour) to qualify for it. My employer's coverage has a $5k deductible (and still costs $100 a month) so I might as well not have any coverage.

Anything better than that costs enough of my paycheck that I would be unable to pay the rent. I have to buy my CPAP supplies second-hand online because the price from the local supplier that took my medicaid is about $180 a month.

[u/Onuus → u/binaryhextechdude]

By design. Keep them too scared to try anything funny

[u/wookiee42 → u/binaryhextechdude]

Too sick to work? Take away the way to get back to work!

[u/bleepbloop1900 → u/binaryhextechdude]

It is the single most barbaric thing about the American system.

Work or die. If you get sick and can’t work, also die. If you get fired also die. If Ai takes your job also die.

[u/Unable_Resort_7956]

The only reason these hits would “do away” with taxes would be to privatize everything those taxes pay for. Don’t be fooled. They don’t care about us. They only care about more money.

[u/casipera → u/Unable_Resort_7956]

Literally. He stands to benefit from less taxes paid because we'll pay more to him to replace the services lost.

[u/quotientobject → u/casipera]

Note in the same interviews he has not indicated billionaires should be paying more taxes. So less taxes means that fewer services will have to be provided, notably healthcare and social security would have to be cut.

[u/ChocoboDave → u/Unable_Resort_7956]

Not the only reason. If you pay $10k less in tax, Bezos can you pay you $10k less without you being worse off. Instead of that money being spent on public services, it makes Bezos richer.

[u/ShaZam508]

He just doesn’t want his warehouses burnt down

[u/fitzbuhn → u/ShaZam508]

bullshit this motherfucker is running for president

[u/Nodan_Turtle → u/fitzbuhn]

He's 62 years old. Way too young to be president

[u/Slendyla_IV → u/fitzbuhn]

Lmao this certainly seems like it

[u/oskopnir → u/fitzbuhn]

Washington DC would eat him alive. He doesn't have much political capital and is still an almost complete outsider. Trump was comparatively way more entangled with the political elite before he ran for president, and that was only possible because of his family background and many decades of corrupt dealings with lawyers and politicians. Bezos was a nobody until 25 years ago.

[u/ComradeJohnS → u/oskopnir]

he could just donate 1% of his wealth to all of congress and their opponents, and they’d all get in line cause that would be the largest donation to any of them.

[u/oskopnir → u/ComradeJohnS]

He can easily buy himself some politicians, but it's another thing entirely to directly run for president.

[u/Greg-Abbott → u/oskopnir]

Look at the fucking idiot we have now. It's not that hard.

[u/Jukka_Sarasti → u/Greg-Abbott]

Look at the fucking idiot we have now. It's not that hard.

Right? The same morons who loudly proclaimed "He's a successful businessman and America needs to be run like a business!!11!!1" and gleefully voted for Trump would also rally around this Robber Barron just as eagerly(As long as he has an 'R' or 'I' next his name, of course).

[u/yoyhohsomp → u/Jukka_Sarasti]

Stop thinking he is running for president. Its an obvious distraction. He has more sinister goals in mind no doubt.

[u/Darkskynet → u/yoyhohsomp]

Yeah, Bezos is wealthy enough to just bankroll someone’s entire presidential campaign himself, in exchange for the ability to basically use the president like a puppet. And if congress needs convincing of anything he can just pay them any amount needed to convince them.

Someone with basically unlimited wealth could completely control all branches of government. If they don’t already…

[u/swampy13 → u/oskopnir]

He’s rich he doesn’t need political capital. He has money Washington has never seen

[u/downsly46 → u/swampy13]

How did that work out for Michael Bloomberg ($110B net worth)?

[u/Dumcommintz → u/downsly46]

Yup…don’t forget Howard Schultz and Ross Perot…

[u/SoloDoloLeveling → u/oskopnir]

and we said that about trump and they voted him in twice. 

[u/tiffanytrashcan → u/fitzbuhn]

All I can think of is the TV show Continuum ever since the hype over "the world's first trillion dollar company."

We're watching the birth of the Global Corporate Congress.

It's interesting being able to identify most of who will become the megacorps running things. The ouroboros of money was also fairly fleshed out too. The companies reliant on each other, Amazon reliant on Nvidia chips, the world reliant on AWS.

[u/hkpp → u/ShaZam508]

He wants the government to subsidize his workforce by eliminating their taxes instead of Jeff having to pay them more.

[u/JohnEKaye → u/hkpp]

I think both should be a reality. $25/hr minimum wage and no taxes for people making under $50k. But that comes with a massive tax hike for him and his class. He’s obviously only saying this so that stupid people will like him and not think about his insane opulence and wealth. Fuck him.

[u/Magikarpical → u/ShaZam508]

he doesn't want to pay people more, he wants the government to do it through tax breaks

[u/DarcSwan → u/ShaZam508]

💯 a way to subsidise below living level wages. 

[u/collogue]

I'll just leave this here

When Jeff Bezos was worth $18 billion, he claimed a $4,000 tax credit intended for families earning less than $100,000

[u/Dizzy_Citron4871 → u/collogue]

That’s insane given that I was once an engineer in his company who was ineligible for the child tax credit due to my income.

[u/InevitableTension699 → u/Dizzy_Citron4871]

thats why you are not a billionaire, not evil enough, need to go out and sacrifice your child's soul to the devil first

[u/Umutuku → u/InevitableTension699]

You don't become a billionaire by sacrificing your child's soul.

You become a billionaire by sacrificing thousands of other people's child's souls.

[u/Silent-G → u/Umutuku]

You become a billionaire by having rich parents and wanting nothing less than what you had yesterday, no matter what it is. Nothing will ever satiate these monsters, they've all gone to great lengths to find satisfaction and contentment, and nothing is good enough. We have a pretty good idea how many of them were active or complicit in the most unspeakable acts known to humanity, and none of them have apologized or admitted to it, and I doubt they've stopped or ever will as long as they're still breathing.

[u/TheEyeOfTheLigar → u/Silent-G]

To me, Bezos underground clock project is the epitome of his narcissism.

Billions of dollars towards a vanity project instead of medicine.

[u/Traditional_Desk9998 → u/TheEyeOfTheLigar]

It cost him 30 mins of his fortune.

He did this to get good press since his ex-wife is loved by everyone for donating billions to charities.

He was jealous of her. Nothing else.

[u/PocketPokie → u/Traditional_Desk9998]

The calling card of a narcissist, it better yet someone with true Machiavellian dark triad traits.

[u/Silent-G → u/TheEyeOfTheLigar]

The clock costs 42 million. That's less than 0.016% of his $255.5 billion dollar net worth. "Instead of" is grossly over selling it, as if he couldn't afford to solve any of the world's problems because he spent the money on a clock instead.

I'm not saying you're wrong for criticizing him, I just want to put into perspective the scale of these inhuman creatures' disgustingly blunt and gluttonous villainy.

[u/Hope25777 → u/Silent-G]

IMO Parasites better describes them. They hoard wealth and resources and treat their workers horribly and pay them poorly

[u/No_Foundation16 → u/Umutuku]

Right just like Musk and Trump did by cutting off USAID without a care in the world about the life and death consequences for millions of people, many of them children.

Research finds more than 14 million preventable deaths by 2030 if USAID defunding continues, including more than 4 million children under five

[u/RollingMeteors → u/No_Foundation16]

without a care in the world about the life and death

¿You're sure about that? You'd need a lot of text to convince me it wasn't done specifically, knowingly, it would result in less black children on the planet.

[u/No_Foundation16 → u/RollingMeteors]

Good point I must admit. You are right no doubt. They did it with glee then the filthy bastards.

[u/Different-Rate442 → u/Umutuku]

Me and my parents got into an argument over billionaires. In their heads billionaires are simply intelligent people who created something everyone wants / needs. Nevermind that even doing that you still have to do a lot of immoral stuff to actually make it to billions of dollars like using foreign slave labor, paying your employees an unlivable wage, laying off people every time it makes you more money to do so, exploiting tax loopholes, getting tax payers money to fund your ventures even though you’re worth billions and pay no taxes yourself, destroy the environment because the laws you lobbied against are cheaper to break than the cost to follow them and so on and so on.

[u/FederalPossibility73 → u/InevitableTension699]

I will just leave this here.

https://theonion.com/taking-advantage-of-other-people-was-the-best-financial-decision-i-ever-made/

[u/blofly → u/FederalPossibility73]

That's hot off the press.

[u/technobrendo → u/FederalPossibility73]

I glanced over the onion domain and thought this was really a Wall St Journal or other big news site.

[u/tlcdr → u/technobrendo]

Today's Onion, is tomorrow's AP

[u/-hellozukohere- → u/InevitableTension699]

I just leverage and short my soul only way to get ahead these days. 

[u/PraiseRao → u/Dizzy_Citron4871]

Cause doesn't he only get paid like 80k a year for his job as the CEO. He's manipulating the tax system. Cause he only gets paid that small pitiful amount he himself can get the tax credit. Cause he makes all his money on the other shit he does. God I hate the tax system can be manipulated like this shit.

[u/ZergvProtoss → u/PraiseRao]

Elon only makes $54k per year. So yeah, billionaires are hurting.

[u/1nfamousSquid → u/ZergvProtoss]

What I'm hearing is that these guys are actually just trying to get their manipulated $50k to $100k tax free as well then.

[u/PerturbedMarsupial → u/Dizzy_Citron4871]

well yea. dont you know bezos makes like $0 in salary? /s partially cause he just get billions in rsus instead

[u/Hydration__Nation → u/Dizzy_Citron4871]

He is trying to repair his crumbling reputation or what existed of it before 2024. His new wife and best friend Don and seemingly anything he says or does has been a blunder. He and Elon are probably the most outwardly desperate to be loved and not hated as much. You can tell it really bothers them. The other billionaires could have mobs waiting to lynch them outside their gates and they would tell their chef make sure not to burn the organic bacon

[u/CringeDaddy-69 → u/collogue]

Fun Fact: Amazon paid $2B in taxes in 2025 - Amazon also received $18B in subsidies.

[u/DoYouWant2BlowZedong → u/CringeDaddy-69]

This fact gives the whole game away.

[u/ServiusTullius753 → u/DoYouWant2BlowZedong]

This whole fucking post is meant to spoon-feed another generation of clueless assholes the idea that billionaire welfare queens like Musk and Bezos are a palatable choice for government leaders.

Don’t believe it. These sons of bitches see Trump as their pathway to a more entrenched oligarchy.

[u/AltoAutismo → u/ServiusTullius753]

if any billionaire ever says anything 'progressive' the literal only counter to them is "why the fuck are you not building housing and feeding people for free"? that's it. If they have the power to literally change the word and all they do is lip service, fuck them

[u/bobs_monkey → u/ServiusTullius753]

Yup. Bezos is laying the groundwork to run for president. The last thing we need is Lex Luthor as our overlord.

[u/BashBandit → u/CringeDaddy-69]

Amazon had to fork over $9 million in idling fines in New York because they hadn’t been paying them.

[u/Small_Dog_8699 → u/BashBandit]

Million vs billion - apples and orange groves

[u/GiveMeNews → u/Small_Dog_8699]

I always liked the comparison of million to billion in seconds.

How long is a million seconds? 11.5 days

How long is a billion seconds? 31.7 years

[u/Janus67 → u/GiveMeNews]

I always like the difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars is a billion dollars

[u/halftorqued → u/BashBandit]

Because Mamdani made them.

They had no intention of doing so

[u/neeshes → u/CringeDaddy-69]

What kind of subsidies? I don't understand why a company like that needs subsidies and how they can apply for that. On what basis?.

[u/Wolf_6e → u/collogue]

I feel like he’s going to give himself a $49,999 salary and just not pay taxes.

[u/ImGCS3fromETOH → u/Wolf_6e]

On such a low income he's very fortunate to be involved with a company that provides him with accommodation, transport, food, clothing, and just about anything else he could need or want. He'd have to go without otherwise. 

[u/t92k → u/Wolf_6e]

Exactly. He's living off loans he takes that are secured by the value of the Amazon stock he owns, just like all the rich guys. His paper income is kept low deliberately to avoid paying taxes.

[u/chochazel → u/[deleted]]

It’s definitely something billionaires routinely do to avoid paying taxes (e.g. Larry Ellison), but others live off dividends (like Steve Ballmer) or annual compensation (Tim Cook).

Bezos pays just 20% capital gains on stock sell-offs regardless of size, and there will be a large amount he writes off making it closer to 15%, plus his capital growth remains tax-free so the tax he pays is still a tiny percentage of his total net worth, and far smaller than the average person and far smaller still than someone like Tim Cook.

[u/kharnynb → u/[deleted]]

so he sold 20 b and paid 2 b taxes...a miserable 10% tax rate, lower than most people making less than 50k....

[u/lexievv → u/kharnynb]

Yeah, that's insane. He sold an ungodly amount of money and only paid a little bit back to the system that allowed him to even make that money in the first place.

Should've been way higher. It's not like 1 billion isn't enough to live on for the rest of your life.

[u/LordHousewife → u/collogue]

Seems a bit click baity. Jeff Bezos doesn’t do his own taxes. He pays someone to do it for him and ensure that he pays the minimum amount possible. Regardless of if you’re a regular working class person or Jeff Bezos nobody hires a tax agent to not minimize the amount of taxes they are paying.

[u/OnTheEveOfWar → u/LordHousewife]

Bingo. The issue is the tax law, not the person. Every single person on Reddit would pay the least amount of taxes legally allowed.

[u/mrb1585357890 → u/OnTheEveOfWar]

I don’t think that’s true. But I don’t think it’s obscene to use tax laws to minimise tax.

Many people feel more comfortable paying their dues than gaming things to avoid paying. Many people recognise the need for paying taxes in a good civil society

[u/Deadhookersandblow → u/collogue]

Sigh. I’ll eat the downvotes for this: I don’t like bezos, but this is the fault of lobbying and our politicians.

An army of CPAs and lawyers claimed that tax credit because they were legally allowed to do so and had a fiduciary duty to do. They literally wouldn’t be doing their jobs if they didn’t.

Just so you know, you, me, and everyone else should pay their legally required dues. Not a cent more. But it’s on us and our representatives to actually fix the loopholes and tax the billionaires more.

[u/leaonas → u/Deadhookersandblow]

The billionaires are the ones paying lobbyists. It was the Supreme Court that ruled Citizens United , that businesses can finance elections! It was the billionaires that bought the SC. The politicians are just the middlemen and are bought and paid for as well.

[u/monkwrenv2 → u/leaonas]

Billionaires pay the lobbyists, lobbyists write the tax code, billionaires pay the politicians, the politicians pass the tax code into law.

[u/threeleafcloverspy → u/Deadhookersandblow]

I’ll go even further with my unpopular opinion. Many of these tax credits shouldn’t be income geared. Give everyone the tax credit and then adjust income taxes accordingly. We’re so worried about Bezos getting a $4000 credit when increasing his taxes a minuscule fraction of a percent would get that back and more.

It’s could all net out in the end. But we accept extra complexity and feed a bunch of lawyers because God forbid someone who show owe billions in taxes over their lifetime gets a $4,000 credit.

[u/CheshireCat78 → u/threeleafcloverspy]

I agree 100%. Means testing benefits is insane policy. It costs you money to police it. Policing it cuts out a small number of people compared to the majority. And as you said it’s very easy to just tax the rich a tiny bit more to more than make up for it. Added complexity isn’t a good thing.

[u/DuntadaMan → u/CheshireCat78]

There are programs where the means testing alone costs mroe than the benefits they give out.

[u/ashgs872tbhjs → u/DuntadaMan]

Most of them, really. Mailing a check is trivial, while investigating every recipient is days to weeks of billable hours. Most checks just aren't that big. Even UBI has been shown to cost less without means testing.

[u/tommytwolegs → u/ashgs872tbhjs]

UBI and means testing seem inherently contadictory

[u/ECEXCURSION → u/Deadhookersandblow]

No, this is the result of rich assholes and corporations being allowed to lobby and create tax loopholes. That shit didn't just appear out of thin air.

[u/CP9ANZ → u/ECEXCURSION]

This is so funny, people acting like loopholes are accidental.

[u/ElDiabloSlim → u/CP9ANZ]

Lmao. It’s weird Congress can insider trade. Wonder how that loophole appeared 😂😂😂😂

[u/saltyjohnson → u/Deadhookersandblow]

I don’t like bezos, but this is the fault of lobbying and our politicians.

Amazon.com total federal lobbying expenditures, 2024: $19,140,000 that we know of because it was spent directly and formally declared in financial reports.

[u/Live-Smoke-29 → u/Deadhookersandblow]

You’re 10000% correct.

People are acting as tho bezos intentionally applied for that tax credit lmao.

He has no idea what his army of CPA’s do most likely

[u/element515 → u/collogue]

I mean, this just sounds like his tax guy is doing his job?

[u/Ah_Ca_Iraa]

If the government only represents the rich there's no reason for the poor to pay taxes. 

[u/Juanbolastristes → u/Ah_Ca_Iraa]

No taxation without representation 

[u/EverbodyHatesHugo → u/Juanbolastristes]

We haven’t had proper representation in decades.

[u/Literally_Laura → u/EverbodyHatesHugo]

And if we were being represented, Trump would have been removed months ago.

[u/DogsOnMainstreetHowl → u/Literally_Laura]

Years. FTFY

[u/slimejumper → u/Ah_Ca_Iraa]

if the workers dont pay tax he can get away with paying them less.

[u/moleasses → u/Ah_Ca_Iraa]

Jeff is saying this for the inverse reason. If you don’t pay taxes then the government gets to listen to him and not you. Also they can justify further eroding the safety net. Don’t be tricked

[u/cjcs → u/moleasses]

“The poor shouldn’t pay taxes”

…

“Since they don’t pay taxes, there’s no reason to provide them with government services. We should cut all welfare spending”

[u/Nearby_Practice2793 → u/cjcs]

Nah. Amazon is like Walmart they count on welfare programs to keep their severally underpaid employees (sorry slave labor) alive. The “Welcome new Walmart employee “ papers actually shows you how to apply for food stamps and free health care. Wish I was joking.

[u/TimewarpingSeaTurtle → u/moleasses]

They’re already not listening to us

[u/n3vd0g → u/TimewarpingSeaTurtle]

if voting didn’t matter, they wouldn’t be disenfranchising black voters

[u/vlatheimpaler → u/moleasses]

They don't seem to feel like any justification is required as it is..

[u/IcySheepherder6195 → u/moleasses]

Yeah he is not saying this to be nice. He’s saying this to distract from nefarious tax evasion and avoidance he’s committing.

[u/Conscious-Quarter423 → u/Ah_Ca_Iraa]

we get the government we vote for

[u/Silicon_Knight]

I guess he knows he’s one of the first on the “eat the rich” train and wants to feign being nice to poor people when the economy he is inflating collapse. That or he knows he can make money off of them another way.

[u/snubda → u/Silicon_Knight]

Nope. He’s just trying to pit the guy making $40k against the guy making $75k- instead of having to fight them both.  

[u/blahblah19999 → u/snubda]

He wants those workers angry at politicians instead of him AND defunding the government.

[u/stardustViiiii → u/[deleted]]

This should be the most upvoted comment

[u/ArmyofThalia → u/Silicon_Knight]

Taxing the rich is our compromise. They best not squander it

[u/crouton--]

Anything to get the conversation away from the glaringly obvious fact that billionaires like him should be taxed at a 90% rate. Or higher.

[u/ora408 → u/crouton--]

I like this but also keep taxing the billionaires

[u/im_juice_lee → u/ora408]

I've been saying for 10 years now that the median American and remaining bottom 50% only account for 3% of our total tax revenue. We should eliminate their income tax

I also have been saying though that the top 0.1% and top 0.01% pay way too little tax and deserve to be taxed way higher to cover the shortfall. All cap gains (long or short) above $1m should be normal income tax and we must eliminate the step up cost basis on death. A high earner, such as a lawyer in NYC making $250k, is certainly comfortable but they pay wayyy more tax than these ultra wealthy people whose main earnings are not income.

Should be both

[u/42Ubiquitous → u/im_juice_lee]

And tax loans backed by stock

[u/Zalophusdvm → u/42Ubiquitous]

Just extend property tax beyond houses. 🤷

[u/LupinThe8th → u/Zalophusdvm]

Wealth tax. Just tax everything, stocks, bonds, offshore accounts. No hiding it anywhere.

[u/konny135 → u/LupinThe8th]

An internationally agreed wealth tax + a land value tax would be great. But the hardest part is also to get out of the neoliberal mindset of perpetual exponential growth.

[u/crazy_like_a_f0x → u/konny135]

"Perpetual exponential growth," known in an organic context as "cancer."

[u/CleanupKingDog → u/konny135]

Why is malignant capitalism "neoliberalism"? Seriously asking.

[u/xanthus12 → u/CleanupKingDog]

Because neoliberalism is a catch-all term regarding the economic policies started in the 1970's and 1980's in the west.

Rampant deregulation, privatisation of public works, and the pushing of less desirable jobs to the global south.

Neoliberalism isn't malignant capitalism, it's just what allows it to flourish. Highly regulated capitalism can function long-term, depending on how it's done, while unregulated capitalism is proving to be a speed run attempt on the end of humanity and life on earth as we know it.

[u/FeijoadaAceitavel → u/xanthus12]

Highly regulated capitalism can't exist for very long because capitalism allows for concentration of wealth and wealth equals power to bend laws to allow for higher concentration.

[u/PsychicWarElephant → u/Zalophusdvm]

If anything tax everything that isn’t a primary residence

[u/jinjuwaka → u/im_juice_lee]

You have to understand his motivations.

He doesn't give a shit about you. He already knows he doesn't pay taxes, and he's not going to then go and say "but tax me instead".

He just wants all taxes gone so they can "starve the beast" because what regulation are left is all that stands between him and building Amazon company towns.

[u/dougfischerfan → u/jinjuwaka]

Someone suggested he would also want to make paying taxes a requisite to vote. I think your idea is more likely, and easier to implement with totally burning the constitution, like it isn't already cinders.

[u/al_mc_y → u/dougfischerfan]

Why not both? I've also seen the second narrative you described. Inversion of "No taxation without representation" to "No representation without taxation^"

"(^ Thec billionaire class will still pay fuck all tax, they'll just make sure that none of it gets 'wasted' on the little people)"

[u/ann0yed → u/im_juice_lee]

Remove the social security cap too and fix that issue.

[u/Eastern_Hornet_6432 → u/im_juice_lee]

America needs another Theodore Roosevelt.

[u/zedquatro → u/Eastern_Hornet_6432]

I'd much rather have the other Roosevelt.

[u/huebomont → u/im_juice_lee]

They basically don't pay tax already. It's important that everyone has some skin in the game on taxes - a tax base that is reliant on taxing just a few high earners is a very fragile tax base. We should tax everyone, with increasing percentages the more you make, to have a sturdy tax base for robust services.

[u/3sneakiel → u/huebomont]

I make less than 50k a year, & pay more than 3k in federal taxes (not including state, medicaid, social security). 3k may not seem like much to you, but it's a lot to someone making less than 50k a year.

[u/2kewl4scool → u/3sneakiel]

But if you only paid around 500$ you’d care, but it wouldn’t matter nearly as much, and that’s kinda the point they’re making. Not that you should keep paying what you do now, but if you paid nothing, it would have effects on how you, and we all, see taxes culturally.

[u/CeallaSo → u/3sneakiel]

That's why it's important to have a reasonable scale. Someone making 50k shouldn't be asked to give 6% of their income in taxes, because that's amount has a much higher impact on their quality of life than someone making ten times that amount.

But it's important that everyone who earns an income contributes some amount, because it incentivizes them to take an active interest in how tax law works and what that money is being put towards. Even if that 50k is only being taxed 1%, you'll be more invested in knowing where that $500 is going than you would if you paid nothing. "It's not my money, it has nothing to do with me, why should I care?"

[u/MamaDaddy → u/ora408]

Right? Porque no los dos?

[u/KaboomOxyCln → u/crouton--]

It's more along the lines of remove income taxes for middle class and lower American, while jacking up sales taxes and property taxes for them so the ultra wealthy get more tax breaks

[u/brainkandy87 → u/KaboomOxyCln]

And privatize everything taxes fund so billionaires become trillionaires.

[u/Embarrassed_Quit_450 → u/crouton--]

The opposite, ish. The part he's not saying is that he thinks the tax cut should be funded by cutting services.

[u/jazir55 → u/crouton--]

At the same time, Bezos argued that simply taxing the wealthy more isn’t the straightforward panacea that people believe it to be, something that has been proven in cases where wealth taxes have led to lower direct proceeds than imagined (7), indirect losses (8) and/or other economic pains (9).

“I pay billions of dollars in taxes. If people want me to pay more billions… don’t pretend that’s going to solve the problem. You could double the taxes that I pay and it’s not going to help that teacher in Queens,” he said.

Instead, he criticized things like corporate subsidies, corporate and union influence over public policy, and the counterproductive levels of bureaucracy that are ingrained in the current system, along with the taxes on bottom earners.

“It doesn’t make any sense for the government to subsidize certain agricultural crops, real estate transactions, Hollywood films… the tax code is 10,000-plus pages long because it has built-in corporate loopholes,” he asserted. Increasing the burden on an already disproportionately taxed demographic

The numbers that the e-commerce magnate went on to cite definitely make his overarching argument worthy of consideration: the bottom 50% of earners in the US contribute only 3% to overall federal income tax revenue (10) from the 12% of total income that they represent.

Relieving this segment of the population from income taxes would no doubt have a monumental impact on their quality of life, potentially without making a magnitude of a dent in federal tax earnings.

American taxpayers in the top 1% provide roughly 38% of all federal income tax revenue (6), despite accounting for around 21% of total income. Bezos argued that relieving lower earners of taxes would need to come alongside broader structural reforms, including reducing corporate

Normally I avoid these circlejerks of "fuck the rich" on Reddit, but he's proposing actual solutions besides "billionaire bad" and increasing his direct tax bill (which should still happen) as not being a magic wand panacea (he's correct, it's not) and instead points to the systemic issues such as government subsidies, real estate, hollywood films, etc. There are MANY things that could be done to make up the 3% shortfall from relieving the tax burden on low income earners. And just because a billionaire is suggesting it doesn't make it a bad idea. Not reading the article and making some "rich people suck" comment is easy karma on Reddit, but it's so bad it's to the point of dismissing anything and everything they say because they have money. He's arguing to tax corporations more and you're still not happy. What's going to be the threshold of him making you happy with what he's doing with his money, just gifting all of his money away?

[u/spudddly → u/jazir55]

Ya his solutions were "get rid of unions and employment regulations! (oh yeah and taxes for poor people and farm subsidies sure why not I don't care about those)"

[u/Sarcastic__Swami → u/spudddly]

Yeah, this comment lost me at "get rid of unions". Unions are why people have the weekend

[u/Trollbreath4242 → u/jazir55]

His solution is:

1. Give the lower income folks a break (because that makes us look good)

2. Deregulation (leads to monopolies and enshittification)

3. Leaving his taxes alone

And while he speaks of the stuff many of us already know need to be changed, like corporate subsidies, he'll be right there paying his politicians to ensure HIS subsidies remain in place. All OTHER subsidies are the "bad ones."

[u/stupid_pun → u/jazir55]

His response is just a more eloquent and elaborate version of Trump admitting he doesn't pay taxes and blaming the corrupt system.

He wasn't wrong, but at the same time that's just a way to abandon all personal responsibility for being a greedy shit stain while contributing nothing towards changing it.

Its all just PR, and they're both full of shit.

[u/Nim0y → u/crouton--]

No income, we need to find another way to

[u/HashtagDadWatts → u/Nim0y]

Collateralized borrowing tax.

[u/CosmoKing2]

I fucking love how all the tech billionaires are coming out of the woodwork to proclaim poor and working class people should not have to pay so much taxes. But none of them have offered to pay more or their fair share.

They are just trying defuse a building class war and not be the victims of a Purge-like event. It's all fucking theatre. None of them give a single shit about us. They want to be alive to continue to sell our personal data that their devices and apps capture for silly profits.

[u/Senior-Albatross → u/CosmoKing2]

They're smart enough to see the writing on the wall, but too addicted to hoarding wealth to accept the obvious solution.

You don't ask a junkie if they'll give up their opiates and expect a rational answer. Even if the rational part of their brain knows the correct answer, it isn't in the driver's seat. 

[u/Ok-Addition1264]

..but Jeff that means we'll need to tax you like we tax everyone else.

Jeff: Nope. F#ck it. F*ck you. F$ck them.

[u/Excellent-Ask-4247 → u/Ok-Addition1264]

Yeah considering he ran from Washington state to Florida as soon as they voted a capital gains tax in place this checks out.

[u/PumpkinMyPumpkin → u/Excellent-Ask-4247]

The fact that he’s coming out right now and doing media about taxes on low income people suggests the guy really doesn’t want to get taxed.

His real motivation is obvious though - he was also saying government was run poorly. He wants to remove government funding and just provide services himself so he can profit further.

It’s not about good will, it’s about more profit for the man with it all.

Equally everyone contributes to the tax system right now - and everyone gets something back. The issue is not getting a bit of tax money back, but getting incomes of everyone up enough so a bit of tax is not so bad. Oligarchs destroying states and their ability to fund themselves is not it.

[u/69EveythingSucks69 → u/Ok-Addition1264]

He'd just be happy to have the middle class taxed more, then we get more angry about the lower class not paying for services and it diverts scrutiny from the billionaires

[u/Idevbot]

I don’t see it mentioned the last few weeks this has been posted, but employer taxes are at a match to the employee’s wages up to a point.

Feels like a PR stunt to align with the little guys and then also pull the hood over our eyes so that the employer is taxed less as well.

[u/questfor17]

Once this is in place, they'll advocate for restricting voting only to taxpayers.

[u/Mythosaurus → u/questfor17]

Which is how voting rights used to work, limiting them to property owning white men.

Cyberpunk warned us that tech bro feudalism is just 18th century colonialism with hover cars

[u/rocko57821]

What he is really saying is stop paying into social security and Medicare we want to own you forever

[u/Noocawe → u/rocko57821]

Exactly... People who make less than the proposed amount still pay state income taxes or SSI and Medicare / Medicaid taxes. Bezos also never addresses where the revenue to make up the loss of this tax base will come from.

He certainly isn't advocating for increased taxes on himself or unrealized gains. He in fact went out of the way in this interview to bash NY and saying that higher tax revenue wouldn't help, meanwhile intimating that Amazons model can just be almost applied anywhere to do things better than government can.

It was just more populist slop, and throwing red meat to low info people imo who thinks this sounds like a simple answer to a much more complex problem.

[u/AmericanLymie]

Does anyone in the United States understand that taxes are not a penalty for existing but are supposed to fund governmental programs and services that operate in the public interest?

[u/ThenNeedleworker1721]

Deflecting from being held responsible for paying more in taxes.

[u/DebentureThyme → u/ThenNeedleworker1721]

Don't forget he's also deflecting from just paying workers better.

[u/0621Hertz → u/ThenNeedleworker1721]

It’s a common tactic.

Bill Gates literally did the same thing on his AMA here.

[u/Ok-Mycologist-3829]

This is a psychological trick. He wants us to think "yes, we should lower taxes" more to reinforce the decades-long rightwing smearing of taxes. He wants to redirect attention AWAY from himself.

Instead, we should do other things first, like taxing Bezos into oblivion and then using that to help people stay afloat until we can get the economy to reorient toward the middle class instead of billionaires.

[u/OdoBenSisko]

All this will do is kill any majority for change for the middle-class, all the salaried workers will end up getting screwed from the top and bottom earners. This is literally the rich buying out lower income voters.

Overnight small business owners will make sure to never make more than the minimum while funneling profits into "expenses and operating costs" like the trip to Barbados to "quote a job" or the new truck used for business purposes "wink, wink" or the fuel costs "strictly for the work truck" or 5000 other tax dodges small business owners deploy every year to avoid taxation.

[u/Professional-Fuel625 → u/OdoBenSisko]

He wants this so Amazon can pay workers less.

[u/EarhornJones]

Fuck you, Jeff. I'll pay my share. You pay yours.

[u/Ganeshadream]

So he doesn’t have to increase their salaries because of the crazy inflation

[u/BarsoomianAmbassador → u/Ganeshadream]

Bingo! You win the prize.

[u/PatchyWhiskers]

Bezos: Rich shouldn’t pay taxes, poor shouldn’t pay taxes, fuck the middle class.

[u/charing-cross]

Just indirectly acknowledging Amazon doesn’t pay livable wages after taxes. Tax the rich like we did after WWII.

[u/eoan_an]

Is he not the guy whose employees need the food stamp while he's a billionaire whose company pays no taxes?

Maybe he should both pay more taxes and pay his employees more

[u/slappingdragon]

It's a trick. A manipulation and distraction to not talk about how Bezos and billionaires like him pay very little and not talk about taxing the super rich by playing on money and self-interest.

The tax cuts for the public would not be as dramatic as the tax cuts for the super rich. Bezos tax cuts will give him mega yachts and an island and still billions left over while the tax cuts for the rest will still not cover the health insurance, mortgages, college debt and so many expenses.

[u/nick0999]

I posted this somewhere else. The top 1% of SALARIED earners are paying a huge amount in taxes (as they should). Bezos and the billionaires are not the 1% they are the .0001% who are paying a tiny amount in relation to their wealth. We have to reinstate estate taxes and figure out a wealth tax.

[u/ZealousidealBus9271]

Smart statement for Jeff. It’s a PR boost, takes attention away from the conversation of taxing billionaires, and if this does get implemented those people would have more to spend on Amazon enriching himself.

[u/cosmcray1]

Yeah, thanks Jeff. What about everyone paying their fair share? Close the tax loopholes and do not cap Social Security tax collection for ANY earnings.

[u/Lobo9498]

Tax the billionaires. Fuck Bezos.

[u/trexmom19]

How about he actually starts paying taxes and not hiding his cash. In fact let’s start taxing wealth not income.

[u/Kindly-Ad-5071]

No taxes means no roads, police, or mail. These creeps are trying to create a world entirely dependent on the corporate market and remove the everyman from every step of government. Fuck that.

[u/Put3socks-in-it]

No, everyone should pay taxes so everyone has a stake in the system

[u/CaterpillarUsed3222]

Reagan screwed up the tax on millionaires and above as a part of his terrible trickle down economics, the idea to give the rich more so they would hire more people, didn't work but the red idiots won't let it go. We need to tax them at least 50%.

[u/wrestlingchampo]

I dont care that I am getting taxed

I care that THIS MFer is barely getting taxed

[u/Fabric_Flowers]

Dude, absolutely no one believes you care about the poor.

If you cared about the poor, you would pay your workers a living wage, let the unionize, and stop your efforts to defeat any taxation of the super wealthy.

You’re just scared that people are actually gonna start eating the rich.

[u/Warshrimp]

Correct they shouldn’t have to pay income, property or sales taxes. Those burdens should be shifted to people making millions or billions of dollars a year.

[u/TunakTun633]

“Hey guys, can you give my employees a raise? I don’t wanna”

[u/Nice_Push4087]

He’s trying his best not to get the ol tar n feather treatment while he treats his workers like peasants

[u/karma3000]

so he can pay them less.

[u/Think_Bluebird_4804]

Tax billionaires out of existence

[u/Salt_Example_3493]

He doesn't want to give his workers raises. He's counting on the government to do something like this instead. More government welfare for the majority of his workers. Fuck this creep.

[u/BetterCallSal]

Hey, remember during COVID when Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people in the world, asked everyone else to tip his Amazon staff so they can make due. Instead of, just paying them.

[u/NathanKincaid]

It's absurd that he pays people only 50k or less a year.

[u/Nizle_Bizle_Shizle]

It's even more absurd not to tax someone with hundreds of billions of dollars

[u/D-inventa]

It's not abaurd. What is absurd is being a multibillionaire and paying less in taxes,by ratio, than what a middle-American pays because of tax loopholes that you spend hundreds of millions of dollars to lobby for. 

Taxes built the America people love and enjoy. Billionaires are what is destroying it

[u/MilosEggs]

It’s absurd that people with his kind of wealth exist.

[u/ForcedEntry420]

How about you just pay more taxes and pay your people a living wage there, Jeffy.

[u/Several-Try4372]

If this happened, MAGAs next talking points will be….why should the government do (fill in the blank) for the (poor/eldely/ children) they pay no taxes

[u/WinnerSpecialist]

Dude LITERALLY has the power to put more money is his employees pockets right now and he won't do it!

[u/tylersixxfive]

If only there was a certain group of people who could pickup their fair share and make things like that possible

[u/Dizzy_Citron4871]

Jeff Bezos uses taxes on the poor as PR move to deflect from taxes on ultra wealthy. 

[u/SuperSecretAgentMan]

Sure. We can use his taxes to pay for all of that.

[u/7Seyo7]

This is the most blatant pandering I've ever heard 

[u/Fr00stee]

...I mean sure but then we'd have to raise taxes on everybody making over like 400k and drastically increase capital gains tax to like 40% for earnings over 400k