U.S. Punishes Millions To Create First Trillionaire

Tax lawyer Bob Lord has warned that Americans should stop adoring billionaires and start punishing them with higher tax rates, increased estate taxes, and collecting taxes on their stock market transactions and offshore accounts.

Photo Insert: Lord, an associate fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), counseled Americans to rebel against the regressive tax system.

In an essay for Inequality.org on May 27, 2023, Lord scored Motley Fool for using the prospect of someone achieving a net worth over $1 trillion as a selling point. This sort of advertising works because we have millions of investors out there who emulate the billionaire class.

“Which brings us back to tax policy. Halting, then reversing, the obscene concentration of wealth in the US will require Americans in overwhelming numbers demanding real tax reform. Without that tax reform, the concentration of wealth will worsen and, before we know it, we’ll see the arrival of our first trillionaire. And as our concentration of wealth worsens, the political power of billionaires will only continue to increase,” he argued. Lord also serves as senior advisor on tax policy for Patriotic Millionaires.

Lord, an associate fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), counseled Americans to rebel against the regressive tax system.

“We’ll never have the collective mentality, as a nation, to take on the ultra-rich if millions of Americans identify with them and see the chase to become the first trillionaire the same way they see a football team’s pursuit of an undefeated season… To be sure, many Americans do understand the perils of concentrated wealth. But to make real progress on tax reform, we need more than a bare majority of Americans opposing extreme wealth concentration and supporting higher taxation of the rich," he said.

"We need to reach the point where for every average American citizen who sees billionaires as role models, another 10 see them as the wealth hoarders they are. Which means we should be fearing, not cheering, the prospect of an American trillionaire, "added Lord in conclusion.

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