and ignore the reality of a Great Society left to become a rotting, derelict, 'Shithole Country'.

I'm sure Bezos said nothing about him and his bazillionaire friends paying more.

As much as he tries, he can't stop the tidal wave of the huge reforms that will be coming his way when Dems control the House, Senate and WH in 2 years.

Before the masses rise up and institute real tax reform.

Don't look at the man behind the screen.

He propose will pay for the endless appetite of cash for trump, GQP et al? And never ending war?
Ball rooms, statues, Arches and monuments to the king. Or wrestling matches and parades. Or Golf trips. Or Politician’s salaries, health care and travel on the 6 months of vacation they get annually.

Don’t fall for the flim-flam.

I read that as saying that the bottom half of the current taxpayers (who only contribute about 3% of the total, anyway) should NOT be paying any taxes.

That seems like a good thing to me.

I have previously written that the tax allowance should be variable per district according to housing prices, and other fixed costs in that area. The same $15000(ish) taxation threshold applies across the entire country now, but fixed living costs are highly variable. Federal taxation makes no acknowledgement of that. Perhaps higher wages in those areas make up some of the difference, but ONLY if one is lucky enough to be earning that higher wage. Federal minimum wage is $7.50 an hour. I don't believe there's anywhere in the country that someone could exist (far less live) on that.

Exempting them adds more motivation to keep wages low.

Instead of exempting half the population, perhaps we should raise the minimum wage to a living wage.

I'm all for taxing the rich. Get on it, for sure. But I'm all for raising wages as well. It would also do wonders for Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.

Raise wages to reflect the real workers' contributions.
Raise the taxation threshold perhaps on a per-county basis to allow people a good lifestyle.
Housing costs to wages ratios in the 1960's were vastly different from those today.
Whether one is single or a family of many, the taxation threshold is punitive for most.

Daily survival issues - like Food, Shelter, Utilities, Health and Dependant Care, Employment, Transportation - those are the things the average household under the median income care about.

Taxes at that level of income, whether it's a subsidized or retired households or a family business household, just don't have that much of a disruptive influence.

However, the inability for the government to equalize common resources for a generic household's ability to just survive, if not thrive does impact those "in poverty".

Jeff Bezos lives in a bubble, he has no idea what it's like to live in a poor or working household - it's remote; it's full of one and two dimensional literary characters (a bit more complex than NPCs) - like Tom Sawyer; all you need is pluck and a little luck, and you can overcome and succeed in life.

Bozos needs to pay up.

What would that be for an average couple or household?