One Nutter Saves the World: Defending the Income Ceiling

We all know that there are some people in the world who have too much money. Far too much money. I bet you know some of their names, or their family names. Way too many people make way too much money for themselves whilst those in their employ are starving to death in a debt prison... or the closest approximation of one.

Yeah, you know who they are.

The point is: they don't need all that money. No, not for investing in the future. No, not for a cool space program. No, not for "innovation" when what they're innovating is a bunch of new and creative ideas to bring back serfdom.

Cough, cough, for-profit-prisons, cough cough.

So. Everyone except the disgustingly rich agrees that there has to be a limit here, right? There is such a thing as having too much money. There is also a thing as having too much income.

Current estimates say that roughly $100K (US) per annum is the minimum necessary for a comfortable lifestyle. Something around $750K (US) is the maximum we need to be comfortable. I'm a writer. The odds of me reaching anywhere close to that are remote. You know, unless that Universal Basic Income kicks in.

Human beings need food, shelter, security, and a certain amount of health care. They do not need mega-mansions, solid-gold private jets, or their own personal space program to escape climate change by moving to Mars. [Like that's going to really work for certain. I roll my eyes in their general direction]

Meanwhilst, the paid pundits owned by these people endorse erasing NASA funding because "there's so many problems to fix here on Earth". Yeah. Wake up and smell the hypocrisy. But I digress.

Rich people with shit-tons of income need to be taxed at a higher rate. Letting them keep that income obviously does crap for the economy. What rich people buy has little to nothing to do with what the rest of the world needs. As I frequently say, ig you give a poor person $100, they will immediately spend it on something they otherwise can't buy - but if you give a rich person $100, they will most likely use it as toilet paper if they don't lose it down their couch.

Therefore, we as a globe also need an income ceiling. Taxes pay for important things, like medical care for people who need it. Or a decent space program. Or actual solutions to climate change.

You know. Things the entire world actually needs. Rather than another yacht the size of a mansion or a mansion the size of a small nation. Nobody needs any more of them, right? Right. Glad you're with me.

But 'Nutter, you amazingly creative soul -I hear a few of you cry- if the billionaires can't earn more than a set maximum, they will have no motivation to do the things they do!

You mean like... paying their employees so little that they need government benefits in order to survive. Or... hiking up the price of life-saving medicines to the point where entire communities have to fund-raise so a family's sole breadwinner can literally afford to survive. Oooh! Or how about the one where they exploit the prison-industrial complex as a slavery-expy to avoid sweatshop laws.

Less of all that is vital. Thanks.

Once the disgustingly rich can't earn squillions without encountering a 100% tax rate - maybe they'll use some of that income to spread around for the greater good. Powers know that rich people hate paying taxes, so spending their excessive amounts of wealth on their employees or the actual greater good.

Shocking.

All this time, the problem is the people hoarding the resources rather than the people who need them. Imagine that.