MoJo's Josh Harkinson has been live-tweeting Tom Perkins' "War on the 1%" talk in SF tonight
https://twitter.com/JoshHarkinsonSome of the tweets from the last hour or so:
I'll be tweeting some about Silicon Valley VC Perkins' talk, which follows controversy of him likening persecution of 1% to Jews by Nazis
Perkins: "I think the parallel holds" between persecution of Jews in Germany and the 1% in US. #DiggingAHole
Perkins: "I don't think people have any idea of what the 1% is actually contributing to America."
Perkins now detailing "persecution" of the Koch brothers.
Perkins says "the extreme progressivity" of the US tax code "is persecution" of the rich.
Perkins points out that "the twitters" about him "are all pretty negative." Chalks it up to the youngs.
Q: "Are you connected to reality?" A: "Philosophically, probably nobody can prove that they are connected to reality."
Is this performance art? #TomPerkins
The "demonization of the 1%" is "frankly new with the Obama administration....The whole tone has changed."
Perkins: Obamacare "is what you get when you elect an amateur president." Ouch.
As is customary here, Perkins now being asked, as last question, how to save the world.
He says answer will make more angry that WSJ piece
Answer involves returning to idea that you have to be a landowner to vote.
"The Tom Perkins system is you don't get to vote unless you pay $1 in taxes" and "if you pay $1M in taxes you get 1 million votes"
Now having a nice intimate press chat. First Q: "Why are you doing this when you know you will get ridiculed?"
Adds: "I won't keep going on"
Perkins looks worn out and frustrated. He's nursing a glass of white wine. "You need and we need another Margaret Thatcher"
Adds: "I've met Margaret Thatcher, actually. Charming lady. Look, free market capitalism is what has created wealth in the world."
I just asked Perkins how he would address stagnant wages in the face of rising worker productivity if not through taxes.
Answer: Education. "Our education system is just appalling, and I lay that directly at the feet of the teachers unions."
Q: "Were you serious in the end about more votes for more taxes?" A: "No. But I do think that Margaret Thatcher was on the right track."
Perkins: "I won't comment on Hillary, but when she walks into a room the temperature drops 20 degrees>"
Q: "So Hillary is not your candidate?" A: "Who else is running?" And with that, it's a wrap.
Anyway, I thought it was interesting reading, especially after one of Chris Hayes' guests tonight, a venture capitalist who doesn't side with the 1%, referred to these plutocrats as borderline sociopathic.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I skipped through and watched about 15 minutes. This pompous ass makes Rmoney sound like man of the people.
Last edited Fri Feb 14, 2014, 05:05 PM - Edit history (1)
Tax bracket thresholds, 1913-2013 (married filing jointly, in 2013 dollars)
OK, too hard to see? Here it is again, just limited to 1942-2013. The farthest one on the right side is the "extreme progressivity" he's talking about.
Maybe it's the rates he means? We have the most extreme progressivity of the rates? The answer to that would be no (note, the graph is not complete):
We have some of the least progressive income taxes that we've had since it was instituted. ALL progressivity affecting very high incomes was eliminated under Reagan, and and has stayed that way. There hasn't been a tax bracket kicking in above a half million (in 2013 dollars) since 1982.
