How to make the rich pay their taxes (with Gabriel Zucman)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2019

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tax rates on the wealthy have steadily eroded in the United States over the last forty years, leaving us with an upside-down tax code that benefits the rich. And it’s surprisingly easy for powerful people to evade the taxes that they do owe, which inevitably inspires another round of harsh budget cuts from conservative lawmakers. Gabriel Zucman, the authority on wealth taxes, joins us this week to explain how the rich dodge taxes, and how we can fix the tax system. Gabriel Zucman is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the accumulation, distribution, and preservation of wealth, with a global and historical perspective. He is the author of ‘The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens’, and the co-author, with Emmanuel Saez, of the new book ‘The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay’. Twitter: @gabriel_zucman Further reading: The Triumph of Injustice: https://wwnorton.com/books/the-triumph-of-injustice The Wealth Detective Who Finds the Hidden Money of the Super Rich: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-05-23/the-wealth-detective-who-finds-the-hidden-money-of-the-super-rich

Transcript

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0:00.0	So we've done an episode on the wealth tax, Nick, but this is much broader and more far-reaching.
0:07.0	That's right.
0:08.0	The US used to have the most progressive tax system in the world.
0:12.0	Billionaires pay a lower tax rate than every other income group.
0:15.5	Only 23% of their income in taxes.
0:18.1	The proper way to tax the super wealthy is through a progressive wealth tax. The income tax is not enough.
0:27.0	From the offices of Civic Ventures in downtown Seattle, this is Pitch Fork Economics with
0:38.3	Nick Hanauer, a conversation about how capitalism actually works.
0:45.0	I'm Nick Henauer, founder of Civic Ventures.
0:51.0	I'm David Goldstein, Senior Fellow at Civic Ventures.
0:57.0	You know, for years now I've heard that one of the reasons why we shouldn't tax you know rich job creators like you and your buddies is that you spend your money so much more efficiently than the government ever could.
1:14.3	Right, and in particular the argument goes, well you know if you tax rich people then they won't give
1:20.6	the money away. They won't trickle down. You're saying they won't give the money away. They won't trickle down.
1:23.4	You're saying they won't create jobs.
1:25.1	No, it's not even that.
1:26.1	It's just that you like that we won't donate to charity
1:29.5	and that we're so much better at allocating this capital.
1:33.4	Right, because clearly you're so smart to have gained it all.
1:36.8	You must be smart and how you spend it.
1:38.3	Exactly.
1:38.9	And you know, it is certainly true that there are wealthy people who are deploying assets in
1:45.8	effective ways in doing good charitable giving. But the truth is that the
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