A new “millionaire’s tax” in Massachusetts was expected to generate $1 billion in revenue last year to help pay for public education, infrastructure, and early childcare programs, but projections were a bit off, according to a fresh state analysis.
The state Department of Revenue estimated late last week that the Fair Share Amendment, which requires people with incomes over $1 million, to pay a 4% annual surtax, will add $1.5 billion to state coffers this fiscal year, which ends in June—surpassing expectations.
Universal free school meals, much-needed improvements to an aging public transportation system, and tuition-free education for community college students are just some of the programs Massachusetts’ wealthiest residents have helped pay for after voters approved the law in 2022 amid growing calls across the United States to tax the richest households and corporations.
While Tax the Rich is fair and accurate, I wish we could point out that this isn’t some undue burden. This is just reclaiming the surplus wealth they’ve extracted from the economy.
We can and should do far more, but this is a good start.
It’s beyond me why Americans, who scream about government taxation, can’t see how large corporations essentially have added a hidden, ever increasing line item tax to their paychecks to extract wealth.
And then we fawn over billionaires donating their money to causes we perceive as beneficial to society - they’re just returning stolen money without interest or penalty, which could have been better used when money was actually earned.
It is largely because they see these price increases as consequences of some hidden government hand, while price cuts are attributed to a competitive marketplace. In short, its propaganda.
We train people, from an early age, to believe that competition brings prices down and regulation forces prices up. We don’t learn about the profit motive as an upward price impulse or spend significant amounts of time on monopolies and their impact on marginal pricing. We absolutely 100% do not ever discuss the difference between Exchange Value and Utility Value when discussing economic productivity. The impact of speculative investments on retail prices is straight out never mentioned ever.
So all anyone has left to go on is “gas prices are up because the government did a war” and “computer prices are up because the government did a tariff” and “food prices are up because the government did a tax”.
Philanthropy is when a single incredibly rich guy gives money away for free.
Public Spending is when a soulless bureaucracy steals Peter to pay Paul.
Therefore, public sector bad and private sector good.