Below is my column in The Hill on the statement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that true billionaires do not exist because “you just can’t earn” a billion dollars. Figures such as Jeff Bezos are merely capitalist unicorns according to this new socialism mythology. The problem is that she, and other socialists and Democrats, are fast making this fable come true.
Here is the column:
This week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) came up with the best reason to tax billionaires: They do not actually exist.
On a podcast, Ocasio-Cortez declared with all the certainty of a freshman in a Smith College political science course that the notion of a self-made billionaire is simply a fantasy, because “you just can’t earn” a billion dollars. It is only the latest in a series of socialist fables that are being dressed up as economic facts.
The difference is that this fable, if told often enough, could become true.
In suggesting that true billionaires are a capitalist myth, Ocasio-Cortez is suggesting that people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos really did not earn their wealth and, therefore, it is really not their money.
“There’s a certain level of wealth and accumulation that is unearned. You can’t earn a billion dollars. You just can’t earn that. You can get market power, you can break rules, you can abuse labor laws, you can pay people less than what they’re worth, but you can’t earn that.”
In other words, you can only make a billion dollars through theft and exploitation rather than actual entrepreneurial enterprise. This statement comes as support builds for the California billionaires’ tax which, even before it has a chance to pass in November, has already cost the state trillions due to an exodus of these billionaires.
In my book, “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss common myths spread by the left to fuel economic factionalism. One common myth is that the “wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes.” In truth, the top ten percent of taxpayers pay the vast majority of taxes in the U.S. In the book, I also dispel the claim that most millionaires inherited their wealth or came from privileged backgrounds.
These myths are designed to make redistribution schemes more palatable. And Democrats are ramping up the “eat-the-rich” rhetoric ahead of the midterms in pushing both millionaire and billionaire taxes. Democrats from Washington to Virginia are pushing millionaire taxes, and the mere conversation has already set off a stampede of high-earning taxpayers to red states like Texas and Florida, which have no state income tax.
It was also evident in this week’s California gubernatorial debate. Candidate Katie Porter (D) said she opposes the billionaire’s tax because it would not go far enough. Porter then pressed the only billionaire in the group, Tom Steyer, who has been moving to the far left to grab voters in the wake of the departure of former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) as a candidate. Steyer said that he supports the billionaire tax but would want to go even further.
Steyer has spent a fortune of his own money on this race, apparently to convince Democratic primary voters that he is some kind of red billionaire in the mold of a George Soros or Neville Roy Singham. Good luck with that — after spending roughly $150 million of his own money, Steyer is still languishing between 12 and 18 percent support.
Of course, Steyer was not asked if he believes that real billionaires such as himself exist. Yet he has already apologized for making considerable money on private prisons, including those used to hold undocumented immigrants.
Ironically, in finance, a “unicorn” is a company worth more than $1 billion dollars, a term coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee to capture the rare and almost magical status of such enterprises.
Conversely, Ocasio-Cortez’s unicorn myth is part of a general denial of economic realities that has taken hold on the left. The cost of these policies is borne by workers, who are being left to eat soundbites.
Democrats have sold voters on raising minimum wages as high as $30 per hour, even though such policies cost thousands of jobs. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg bragged about blocking a merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, claiming that it would create cheaper flights and better jobs. Spirit has now been forced to close its doors, causing the loss of thousands of flights and jobs.
A rising generation of voters is eagerly devouring soundbites and promises of the “warmth of collectivism” from figures like New York’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. From promises of free buses to state-run grocery stores, voters are buying the same threadbare socialist schtick.
That was on display this week as socialist Seattle mayor Katie Wilson laughed when asked about the millionaires fleeing the city over rising taxes and crime. She delighted the crowd by mocking the departing millionaires with two words: “Like, bye!”
The last laugh, however, rests with those fleeing a city facing a projected deficit of $114 million. As Wilson faces major cuts in the city budget, she gleefully mocks those whose tax dollars the city will desperately need to close this gap if it is to maintain public services.
Ironically, Wilson and other Democrats are quickly making their myth a reality. Soon, there will be no billionaire unicorns roaming the land. Even millionaires may become scarce, as these wealthy citizens move to less hostile states with less delusional leaders.
The solution to this exodus is equally predictable. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who has campaigned for a billionaire tax in his state while representing Silicon Valley, has also joined with socialist Bernie Sanders to push for a national billionaire’s tax — an effort to guarantee that there is no place to hide. This is the same approach that tanked the French economy under François Mitterrand after the wealthy fled that nation.
This is not, however, a time for economics or history. It is the time of fables. Ocasio-Cortez has thrived in the land of socialist unicorns. She can even attend the ultra-rich Met Gala wearing an expensive “Tax-the-Rich” gown.
Like her dress, it is fashionable to deny that billionaires created their wealth. It is your money for the taking. The result is that billionaires and even millionaires in states like New York may go the way of unicorns, fanciful creatures that once thrived in a land of jobs and growth.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.“
Who cares what this grifter congresswoman thinks?
Alhysteria O’crazio Corkheads worked as a bartender and waitress in a Mexican restaurant in New York City’s Union Square before Congress.
you commented on an article about her. so you. you do. and we all love her
Then He said to them, “Watch out and guard yourselves against every form of greed; for not even when one has an overflowing abundance does his life consist of nor is it derived from his possessions. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
AOC IS VERY RICH COMPARED TO 99 PERCENT OF THE WORLD
IF OFFERED A BILLION DOLLAR SALARY, SHE’D JUMP AT IT
PELOSI SHOULD GIVE BACK WHAT SHE STOLE OFF THE BACKS OF HARD WORKING IMMIGRANTS
pelosi the crook will give it back when trumpys moronic children do the same. Sounds fair?
Trumps kids EARNED their money. Nasty Nancy stole it. She belongs in prison
In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny (and I say this in regards to AOC), “What a Maroon!”
ok boomer. do we have to get the antenne set up first to watch more cartoons
Just search Forbes billionaire musicians for a recent list.
AOC’s response to US defense of Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion:
“Um, you know, I think that this is such a, you know, I think that this is a um — this is, of course, a, um, very long-standing, um, policy of the United States. And I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point, and we want to make sure that we are moving in all of our economic research and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation — and for that question to even arise.”
Take a moment and visualize her as Commander-in Chief.
Kamalala Word Salad!
A Kamalala Word Salad!
Her Kamalala Word Salad!
“In truth, the top ten percent of taxpayers pay the vast majority of taxes in the U.S. ” This statement would only be logical and doesn’t really mean anything. The real question is do billionaires pay taxes at the same rate as the “little guy”; say those making $500,000 and under. I’m not in favor of states coming up with their own version of taxing if they can’t run their own financial houses. I am in favor of an IRS overhaul forcing a more equitable tax system.
[Billionaire X]… “really did not earn their wealth” …
That subject matter is ‘splitting-hairs’ wherein Billionaire-X didn’t do the ‘inventive work’, they manipulated the ‘Invention’ and benefited from it.
Musk for example manipulated the Inventive Labors of Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning by buying their interest in Tesla and manipulating it (parleying it) in a multi-conglomerate. He’s skinning Sam Altman CEO of OpenAI this very hour over control of OpenAI.
So that’s the method of Elon Musk’s success, capturing other’s Inventive Labor and using it to build wealth. The same with Bezos, Microsoft (Gates et.al.), Autodesk, on and on …
These Billionaire-X don’t really know how the Invention works but they know that it is profitable and can manipulat it.
(Think about it – Do you really want Elon at the steering wheel of a rocketship taking you to Mars? – No…No You Don’t)
Billionaire-X’s are a necessary evil that propels good Inventions to great hieghts. But do they realy deserve a $1 trillion pay package each?
Yes it does take insight and labor (hours of work) to do what these Billionaire-X’s do, but in so far as ‘creating wealth’ that is the Mother-of-Invention and the recognition goes to the Inventor.
So it’s ‘splitting-hairs’ on what is reasonable and what is not.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s crooked slant is purely political made for her own political gain. I would be curious to know if she came up (invented) with the Notion on her own or was it her parleying the Notion of her Campaign Manager.
After all – “It takes One, to know One”
Amazing how AOC a former bar maid worms her way to money and power.
It appears her voters are as dumb as she is.
it appears trumpers are pedos like trump
Do you have any real evidence to prove that?
Tells us, what would you say to this, Flight logs show Bill Clinton flew on sex offender’s jet much more than previously known
“Former President Bill Clinton was a much more frequent flyer on a registered sex offender’s infamous jet than previously reported, with flight logs showing the former president taking at least 26 trips aboard the “Lolita Express” — even apparently ditching his Secret Service detail for at least five of the flights, according to records obtained by FoxNews.com.”
https://www.foxnews.com/us/flight-logs-show-bill-clinton-flew-on-sex-offenders-jet-much-more-than-previously-known
agreed bill and trump should go to jail
There is a lot more evidence of wrong doing of Bill than Trump. A lot.
and pedo be pedo. except i didnt vote for any clinton, ever. can you say the same bout your votes for trump. like your politics outwayed whether someone was a pedo? the clinton pedo thing came out after he was out of office, but trump… so if you voted knowing he was a pedo and didnt care, what does that say about you? seriously
I dont know Trump was a pedo. There is no credible evidence of that. Never been proven. Just some weird Blue Anon conspiracy theory that keeps floating around. Kinda like the pee tape, Russian collusion, Alpha bank etc.
The globalist-leftist oligarchs nurtured this Frankenstein’s bride. Now she’s showing her gratitude. She’ll get around to the rest of us later, that’s for sure.
The same thing is happening in China. Xi is cracking down on his oligarchs so that they can never challenge The Party. Robber barons and communists only had a marriage of convenience to disinherit the rest of us. As soon as the left felt ascendant, they’d file for divorce and take the house and the kids. They don’t need Democrat billionaires anymore and neither does China. They all got Chads in Tehran and Gaza.
I’m wondering if I should embrace these gilded leftugees or cheer the cannibals? It’s a dilemma but it would be interesting to see Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg get trapped and roasted in California by exit taxes. Thoughts and prayers, dudes.
“Robber barons and communists only had a marriage of convenience” this is one of the dumbest things ive ever read. Communists hate robber barons; are working together? HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA maybe when we joined the russians after they defeated the nazis. the mental gymnastics you magats roll out is amazing talk about cognitive dissonance
It seems to me AOC’s starting assumption is that the word “earn” is limited to doing physical work for an hourly wage. If you start with that definition, then she’s probably right. But what that shows is economic ignorance. Earning is done with the mind even more than the body, which includes innovating and investing, i.e., steering capital toward projects that produce things the people highly value. That is a legitimate kind of earning, and in fact it is responsible for lifting millions of people out of grinding poverty.
But AOC may be more clever than we think: she’s after power, not truth. She senses that most voters in blue districts don’t understand economic reality. And if that’s her play, then she’s right. A lack of understanding by voters is the only explanation for why voters in blue cities and states continually vote for misery and destruction over economic improvement, as occurred for example when they elected Kathy Hochul over Lee Zeldin as NY governor, or when they elected mayors such as Katie Wilson, Mandami, or Brandon Johnson, and as will occur when they elect Karen Bass over Spencer Pratt as the next mayor of LA. This can also be seen in popular support for such economic-misery creators as raising the minimum wage in California, which has already caused hundreds if not thousands of restaurants to go out of business and thousands of jobs to be lost.
NotSoOld: An excellent addition you provide today, thank you.
Thanks Lin. Enjoy your day,
-Uncle Henry
OldManFromKS,
That is a good observation; these people do not understand basic economics as we are also seeing with some very uninformed comments here today.
We invest for our retirement. Our stock picks are investment of the mind. We are taking on the risk by our choices and in our case, for the most part, they have paid off.
People like AOC think that I did not actually do physical work for an hourly wage, rather in the markets, they should be entitled to a cut of my profits despite them not putting any of their own money in, taking the risk, and profiting off my investments of the mind.
Small Business Strain: Data indicates that while wage increases help workers, they disproportionately affect businesses with lower ratings or smaller profit margins, pushing them toward the “margin of exit”.Fast-Food Casualties: High-profile cases, such as California’s $20/hour fast-food law in 2024, have been directly blamed for accelerating the closure of some franchises and reducing employee hours.
So it looks like the business models only works when workers are exploited to reduce wages. So if an increase in minimum wage closes your business, it was the business that is flawed. Shut the doors of all places that pay people below cost of living in each state
Why exactly shouldn’t the 1% who own more than 75% of the assets in the US pay over 75% of the costs?
One word
RISK
Focusing on asset ownership is only a part of the tax system. Income is taxed too, as are sales, capital gains, corporate net income, and so forth. Generally assets such as real estate are taxed locally, and the tax is at a fixed percentage of their assessed value. So if you’re talking about real estate taxes, they do pay a proportionate share “of the costs.” Your question doesn’t make much sense as stated since it does not account for taxable events such as income, spending (for sales taxes), capital gains, and the like. I have noticed the economic literacy is basically non-existent among the “tax the rich” crowd, and you have done little to disprove that theory.
Economic education in the public school system is DEAD. AOC can get away with these silly statements because young people have been failed by public schools. As a social studies teacher (retired for 17 years) I saw the collapse happen. Younger teachers, brainwashed in college, were so ignorant of basic econ.principles they couldn’t teach anything in that field. Now a large number of our young people are ignorant.
Should they also get 75% of the voting power? If we are talking about fair shouldn’t we honor “he who pays the piper calls the tune”?
No.
this is just dumb, you are dumb
> Why exactly shouldn’t the 1% who own more than 75% of the assets in the US pay over 75% of the costs?
The top 1% own less than 1/3rd of wealth and pay 40% of the total income taxes.
Silk purses aren’t made of pigs ears. Brick houses aren’t made of mud and straw.
It’s a congregation of ignorance, low intelligence and basic immorality. Starting from there, what kind of nation can be built?
Take a look at the Ken Griffen / Mamdami occurrence. Mamdami doesn’t understand the building is an investment by a group of groups and pensions for firemen, police, teachers and many others depend upon sound investment. Mamdami is an example of unintelligent officials in high places. It’s everywhere.
Wishing all a good and prosperous day.
^^^ The point is quite serious for thinking people. Understanding these people and creating an economic and political system that works is the task. Providing systems for ignorant, low intelligence and instinctual people may prove to be daunting if not impossible.
(OT) Good News
Starmer and the UK Labour Party just got spanked.
AOC has run the Jolly Roger up the mast. She wants you to see it as billionaires are a bad idea. Do you remember Johnathons’ piece about the professor who stuck Adam Smith’s labor theory of value in the eye of his university’s demand for a land acknowledgment? Karl Marx had his own labor theory of value. And it is the skid that “there are no billionaires” rides on. AOC’s Jolly Roger flies over gun ports below deck aimed at our theory of value and the concept of property itself. AOC wants you to salute the Jolly Roger, because “you will own nothing and you will be happy”. You won’t get any better mousetraps, either.
The majority of people owning nothing will be the result of billionaires, not something prevented by billionaires. First of all, who is pushing this idea? Billionaires, no?
Billionaires are not an “idea”. Their existence is definitely a good thing.
We still have free markets for us to choose to buy their products or not.
I still have free will to, in a free market, buy something from them or a local mom and pop store.
In AOC world, she would have no free market, no free will and only one mandated state ran store, just like the former Soviet Union did. Look how that worked out for the people of the former Soviet Union.
ok boomer. go watch rocky 4 and red dawn while playimg with yourself (after your blue chew of course)in your reagan mask in your pathetically bare divorced apartment. poor boomers youre just so sad
Wrong again. Not a boomer.
I am married, with adult children who are out on their own, successful, financially independent of us. My daughter is on her second home. It is new.
What is sad is Gen Z, failure to launch like you. Still dependent on your parents for nearly everything. They are so ashamed.
AOC (An Ordinary Communist) has once again demonstrated her idiocy. She was supposedly an economics major in college. Her theory as to what a billionaire does not do is understandable only in the crowd she hangs with (other self appointed economists ike Warren, Sanders. Khanna and others of that ilk). Actually, economists take the prize for spewing theories that are real mind-twisters that have no meaning.
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Book by Thomas Piketty
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty is a landmark 2013 book that argues capitalism inherently generates inequality, driven by the formula r > g (the rate of return on capital, r, often exceeds the rate of economic growth, g). Using extensive historical data, Piketty shows that when r > g, wealth concentrates at the top, threatening democratic societies, and that the 20th-century’s reduced inequality was an exception, not the rule, necessitating policy interventions like progressive taxation to counter this trend.
An economic truism… “Capital goes where it is teated best.”
I think AOC has taken an act from the Trump playbook. Say something false and insane sounding, let a compliant media trumpet it to the world and watch the dogfight.
Who’s dumber AOC or those who elected her, that’s the question? She’s done nothing for her district to date except keep Amazon out along with jobs.
the answer is C. [both]
you
The other way to see this is to take AOC’s line literally and translate it into baseball. Saying there are no real billionaires is like saying “there are no true championship teams” in Major League Baseball. The trophies are right there in the case, the games were played in public, the wins and losses are in the record books.
You can argue all day that the Dodgers or Yankees had an unfair structural advantage because of payroll and market size, and as a Padres fan I feel that in my bones. But nobody seriously claims the Dodgers “didn’t really earn” their World Series titles, or that those banners are a capitalist myth. They won under the rules the league adopted.
If you think the rules give big‑market teams too much power you change the rules of competitive balance and revenue sharing going forward. What you do not do is wipe the past off the books and declare the champions counterfeit after the fact.
AOC’s rhetoric about billionaires functions the same way. She does not just dislike the standings, she wants to deny the legitimacy of the win column itself.
What BS. A baseball analogy? What BS.
Go back to the basement and send in more rants. Really. . .say something positive for once.
“. . . .get a life and say something positive for once”
Imagine that. . .exactly what I was saying about your posts.
“. . . .get a life and say something positive for once”
How do you feel about Barry Bonds’ asterisk?
A better example would be why call it a World Series when they don’t play against other countries teams. They declare the winner world champions without ever playing against another team from another country. It would be more accurate to called the national series
“You can get market power, you can break rules, you can abuse labor laws, you can pay people less than what they’re worth, but you can’t earn that.”
I generally disagree with labeling liberals “Marxists”, because in fact they are almost always closer in thinking to fascists and corporatists. However, this fallacious nugget is Marxism 101, the theory of “excess value”. Basically, the worker creates with his labor a product that the business can sell for more than the cost of the labor that produced it, and the difference between the labor input value and the sale price is “stolen” from the worker.
Anybody who understands what it takes to take a product from a concept through engineering and manufacturing design, then onward to sustained sales in a market, knows where the value is added and who adds it, and understands how little sense this proposition makes. That’s why people like AOC doesn’t understand how little sense this proposition makes.
they are neither, they are insane, being taught by the insane…
Well said.
And notice what that Marxist theory of wealth omits from the equation: human intelligence.
Same,
I would also add to human intelligence is free will in a capitalistic market.
I can order something on line from Amazon and it benefits Bezos.
Or, I can order a used book from Thriftbooks and they benefit from my business. Or the local bookstore.
I can walk into a Wal-Mart and buy something. They benefit. Or I can walk around for an hour and buy nothing.
I can goto a national chain restaurant for a sit down breakfast/lunch. Or I can goto a local mom and pop greasy spoon for breakfast/lunch (I opt for this, they serve a local coffee which is waaayyy better!).
AOC and her ilk make it seem like we have no free will and like mindless zombies just give the billionaires our money for their shiny plastic pumpkins. That is not the case in a capitalistic market. It is not like we have only one choice like a mandated state store like the former Soviet Union did.
i wanted a coffee from the mom and pop shop but starbucks opened and destroyed the business. i wanted to go to my local hardware store but walmart took all their business. the bookstore aroud the corner died when amazon cut into their market share.
you say market forces, i say thats three families whose livelyhood is gone, countless more who manned the store, waited the tables, served customers. you think bozos, waltons, etc… need more? you are anunamerican capitalist pig. you boomers are almost gone
Customers selected Starbucks and Amazon over the mon-and-pop businesses. Anyone’s opinion about whether the owners of those corporations “need more” is irrelevant, as is your comment, unless you think customers should have been forced to buy from mom-and-pop businesses instead of making their own free choices. Speaking of “un-American”.
Boomers are almost gone. Compare the world they inherited to the world they bequeathed to you, then apologize and thank boomers for the world you live in that you had no part of creating.
True.
The simple fact of the matter is that it is not laborers who create “excess value”, but engineers. Not only do engineers take ideas from concept to reality, they also design manufacturing processes that ensure products can be produced DESPITE ERRORS AND FAILURES OF LABORERS MAKE DURING THE MANUFACTURE OF THE PRODUCT.
Nowadays, “hand made” generally means that a finger on a hand pushed a button on a machine, and a machine made the item. Well, that machine was designed and programmed by engineers, and the manufacturing design included the requirement that the only skill needed by the hand was to push the button; the computers that control the machine do the actual work. Engineers created the “excess value” there, the workers simply pushed the button, then cleaned up the shavings and other waste when the machine finished making the part.
A laborer’s “success” creates one usable part. An engineer’s success creates the entire future of the product.
This is why engineers get paid so much more than laborers, the only possible interpretation of “excess value” that makes any sense.