The phrase “tax the rich” can be “just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs”, according to the New York City billionaire Steve Roth, who said that the top 1% should be “praised and thanked”.

Speaking on his company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Roth, the CEO of Vornado Realty Trust, expressed his support for fellow billionaire and the CEO of Citadel, Ken Griffin, who was singled out in the 15 April announcement by New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, of the state’s first “pied-à-terre” tax on second homes valued at more than $5m. In a video, Mamdani announced the policy in front of Griffin’s penthouse, which he said was purchased for $238m.

“We are all shocked that our young mayor would pull this stunt in front of Ken’s home and single him out for ridicule,” Roth said. “This was both irresponsible and dangerous.”

Edit: Mamdani’s video that sparked this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLKZnVB4F9k

  • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    Just to highlight that as a real estate magnate, his entire empire is built on rent-seeking, i.e. accumulating wealth by the hoarding of a limited resource, without having created anything of value.

    This billionaire did not create a billion dollars of value for society, even indirectly; he only took it from others.

  • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    Man with more money than he could possibly use in his life is upset at the suggestion that some portion of the money he will never used could be used to help other people.

    Being a billionaire is a sign of mental illness and needs to start being treated as such.

  • Clutter@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Mamdani is choosing the lesser evil here my dear rich person… The other options is: we kill you.

  • nonentity@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Financial obesity is an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal.

    Corporations are the only ‘persons’ which should be subjected to capital punishment, but billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafe
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      2 days ago

      Yeah, heading towards just taking it all, and leaving them destitute, and if they don’t like it, they can think about it in prison, if they’re lucky to survive that long.

      They enjoy their wealth at the pleasure of the Citizens, and those who don’t handle their wealth responsibly, will have it removed.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        Leaving them destitute is much more polite than the alternative too. That basically requires them to comply, which I assume they won’t. If it comes down to other actions being taken, because the systems aren’t doing their job, it’ll require some level of violence.

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafe
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          2 days ago

          How easy or violent it has to be is entirely up to them. If they want violence, we can oblige them, but they’ll still lose their money, and their family may not survive it.

  • NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net
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    2 days ago

    “TAX” is going to be the softest, most palateable verb that will be done to them, the alternatives are a little less polite.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      We really should make a list. Not like in list format, something more durable like baking it into some type of meme.

  • RunawayFixer@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago


    Source: https://www.moralambition.org/stories/tax-fairness-explainer

    Also, the above graph compares averages vs averages. The average of the top bracket is made up of some very rich people who accept that paying taxes is a fair thing to do, and some who try to contribute as little as possible by evading as much as possible. Because he’d prefer us to not talk about this, I have the suspicion that Mr Steve Roth falls into the 2nd category.

  • volore@scribe.disroot.org
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    3 days ago

    I feel like Mr. Roth has forgotten that being taxed is the alternative we came up with to beheadings for the upper class when they got too rich and powerful.

    • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net
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      2 days ago

      Yeah… tax the rich is the nicest thing we could be saying… they’ve definitely forgotten…

  • fodor@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    That’s pretty funny because the phrase doesn’t actually have a negative meaning. It’s a policy proposal at face value and at depth and that’s it. Doesn’t say the rich or bad people, although many of them are, doesn’t say that nobody should be rich, doesn’t even say how much they should be taxed.

    And certainly nobody should be thanking the top 1%. We all know that they got there by lying and cheating and stealing and inheriting wealth.