Germany's Left Party wants to halve billionaires' wealth
-
The mythical left leaning USA political party. I heard a long time ago it comes out once every thousands years before quickly crawling back under the rock for whence it came.
-
That's fine by me. Just leave me a piece
preferably the bit that contains all the hard work they did to become a billionaire. -
Better than no coverage at all imho.
-
That’s a fantastic quote. This is how you can still run campaigns today!
-
If they halve the billionaires wealth then there will be zero billionaires
-
Yeah, but it not unlikely that "Die Linke" wont get into Parliament because of the "5% Barrier"(A Mechanism that prevents parties from entering the German Parliament, if they are below 5% total votes. There are some complicated exceptions, but basicly this is it). Furthermore many Parties dont want to form a coalation with them and this could be against german constitution
...
So this is very unlikely to happen. -
Like cut them in half? The guillotine is more traditional, but I'd consider trying something new.
-
it's called Agenda Setting.
-
Actshually... we call them billionaires after their first billion, but many have more than just 1 billion. Btw, until recently I didn't really knew how different is a billion from a million... For the record, 1M seconds is about 11 days. Meanwhile, 1B seconds is about 31 years. I think this helps to get a sense of the scale.
-
The biggest challenge with an "owned wealth" tax is how do you actually measure it? It's easy if it's held in cash in a bank, but most billionaire's wealth is is land, property, and how do you measure the value of a Picasso stored in a vault if they can slip the valuator a grand to say it's worthless?
Closing offshore money transfer loopholes, heightened tax on luxury spending (100% VAT on private jets and yachts?), making fines income-based, and treating capital gains the same way as income, are all more achievable.
I'm totally on board with the sentiment though.
-
They are almost certain to enter because they'll get three or more direct seats. Which isn't complicated at all. It also doesn't look too bad when it comes to taking the 5% hurdle directly.
-
anti communist much?
-
Especially because its quite complicated or impossible (imho) to a enact a law that does exactly what they promise by not breaking the constitution:
Its just populism and a lie -
You can't say it'd be against the constituion. That is debatable (and debated, see e.g. Wolfgang Abendroth).
The interpretation of the constitution is subject to powerdynamics as well. And it's the only smart way to design a constitution if it's meant to be the everstanding stable foundation of a society. .. cause you know, those tend to change
-
Yeah, Well see :X
-
Why do you think art is used all the time for money laundering? It’s almost impossible to determine how much it’s worth. Well until someone buys it.
-
They are quite aware of the constitution and it's implications. Complicated, sure, but not impossible. I recommend to listen to van Aken talking about the topic.
Calling it a lie is disingenuous.
-
The difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars is about a billion dollars
-
I was posting this because, as was the case with FDR in the US, the burgeois press in Germany deeply despises "die Linke" for the very same reason: they are a threat to the power of organized money.
FDR certainly wasn't a communist but it seems kinda odd to me how you'd miss the main point of my post, especially given the context of my reply.
"Die Linke" is somewhere in between social-democracy and socialism in terms of economic policy, with party co-leader Jan van Aken going as far as repeatedly expressing his desire to expropriate billionaires. Certainly a breath of fresh air compared to the neoliberal controlled opposition party SPD.
-
Depends... Do the two halves grow back into two billionaires. Is that how they multiply?
