Date: 2025-07-02 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028337
TRUMP SAGA
AN EMERGING PUSHBACK!
CommonDreams: Patriotic Millionaires Unveil
Platform to 'Beat the Broligarchs'
AN EMERGING PUSHBACK!
CommonDreams: Patriotic Millionaires Unveil
Platform to 'Beat the Broligarchs'
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk
attend the inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025
in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Images)
Original article: https://www.commondreams.org/news/patriotic-millionaires
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
I got interested in socio-economic progress and the metrics when I was still a student at Cambridge around 1960. The widely used metrics in the media have not served us weill over the past 60+ years. From my perspective, they have been 'gamed' by the rich and powerful to misinform in support of national policies that are going to be good for the sich and powerful.
It is obscene, in my view, that a law like 'Citizens United' was upheld by the US Supreme Court some years ago and became the 'Law of the Land!'
I have been a 'power user' of management information in almost everything I have done in my working life. Sadly ... there are a lot of people in positions of power who use management information to inform themselves about choices that will benefit themselves rather than a broader 'everybody'.
Since 1980 ... since the beginning of Reaganomics ... the United States has become increasingly 'unequal'. Back then 50% of the US population had less than average wealth and 50% had more than average wealth. Over time there has been a huge change in this profile and 45 years later about 80% have less wealth than 'average' and only about 20% have more than average.
When I started my career in the 1960s there were a few millionaires but really no billionaires in the UK and the USA.
65 years later there are thousands of billionaires and millionairs are 'a dime a dozen!. A the same time, there is a poverty crisis for a huge part of the population because the socio-economic system has been 'gamed' for years to optimise for corporate profit ignoring everything else.
My knowledge of engineering, economics, accountancy, management, markets and academia has helped me to inform myself over the decades about a wide variety of big issues.
The good news is that the technical knowledge that exists is huge and with huge potential for good in many domains.
The bad news is that much of this technical knowledge has been devoted to generating profit and wealth for the powerful, with everyone else getting the 'left-overs'.
Inequality is now worse than at any time in history ... with little of substance being done to address the matter!
Peter Burgess
'Our economy should be judged on how well it takes care of working people, not on how many billionaires it mints in a calendar day,' said the founder of the economic justice group.
Written by Julia Conley
Apr 07, 2025
With economists warning that U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war will raise the cost of living for millions of American families and could soon fuel a recession, the economic justice group Patriotic Millionaires on Monday unveiled a 'bold, surprisingly simple economic framework' to stop the oligarchy from amassing more power at the expense of working people and 'permanently stabilize the economic lives of working people.'
Four pieces of legislation would form the basis of America 250: The Money Agenda, which Patriotic Millionaires proposed at an 'expert town hall' titled 'How to Beat the Broligarchs.'
The agenda would include:
- The Cost of Living Tax Cut Act, providing an exemption on federal taxes equal to the median cost of living for a single adult with no children—$41,600 per year—with the responsibility for those revenues shifted from the working class to the millionaire class with a millionaire surtax;
- The Cost of Living Wage Act, raising the minimum wage to $21 per hour to match the cost of living for a single adult with no kids;
- The Equal Tax Act, equalizing tax rates for capital gains and income over $1 million and closing the 'stepped-up basis loophole' which minimizes 'the tax obligations of the uberwealthy'; and
- The Anti-Oligarch Act, implementing significant taxes on the intergenerational transfer of wealth, on large sums of trust-held wealth, and on the true economic income of America's ultrarich to prevent further wealth concentration at the top, and taxing the wealth of the ultrarich sufficiently—including through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
'The extreme concentration of wealth has always, without fail, translated into an extreme concentration of political power. The stakes for the nation couldn't be more clear,' said the group. 'We must act immediately.'
At the How to Beat the Broligarchs event on Monday, the group assembled experts including economist Stephanie Kelton, Helaine Olen of the American Economic Liberties Project, and historian Rutger Bregman to discuss how unchecked wealth in the U.S. has captured the political and judicial systems—with 'broligarchs' like tech CEO Elon Musk and others 'working to pull the strings of the government towards their interests at the expense of the American people.'
'America's slide into oligarchy necessitates bold actions in order to reclaim democratic capitalism and forge a prosperous, equitable, and just future,' said Erica Payne, founder and president of Patriotic Millionaires. 'America 250: The Money Agenda is the only plan that will get us there. It will change not just our own lives, but the future and direction of our country. Our economy should be judged on how well it takes care of working people, not on how many billionaires it mints in a calendar day. By that measure, America is flunking its economics class. The only way to get better marks—and stop our country's slide into oligarchy—is by fixing our tax code.'
Morris Pearl, board chair of the group, said that if Congress enacts the legislative agenda proposed on Monday, 'we will build a community dedicated to the common purpose of improving the lives of all working people in our country—not just the ultrawealthy.'
'America 250 will bring to account the politicians and their enablers who are sustaining our backwards status quo and demand better leaders to put us on a better, more sustainable path,' said Pearl. 'The time for economic exploitation is over.'
An Unconstitutional Rampage
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next.
It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk.
Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support.
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Julia Conley
Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
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