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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    7 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.

  • NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net
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    7 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.

  • nonentity@sh.itjust.works
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    7 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.

  • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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    6 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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    6 days ago

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

  • Earthman_Jim@lemmy.zip
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    7 days ago

    “Tax the rich” is putting it very nicely.

    They’ve dehumanized themselves with their monstrous exploitation.

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Bring back the tax brackets from the 1960’s. That should solve the problems. Fucking Ronnie Reagan and his deregulation.

  • blindbunny@lemmy.ml
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    7 days ago

    There’s only 700 billionaires in America, and I think we should kill every single one.

        • Oggyb@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          Someone could tip him off ahead of time so he can donate to charitable causes down to 900 million.

      • korazail@lemmy.myserv.one
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        6 days ago

        I hear what you’re saying, but counterpoint:

        I’d prefer Steam’s helpdesk staff were paid more, and their janitors, and their contractors, and anyone else involved in making that business work. Gabe doesn’t NEED a new yacht. Some of the people working for him do NEED healthcare.

        Gabe is definitely on the not-a-monster side of the billionaire spectrum, but you don’t get that much money with purely your output. You get lucky and have a good idea at the right time, inherit, or rent-seek. Two of those are stupid reasons to have immense wealth, and I don’t think getting lucky is worth the vast gulf between billionaire and struggling-to-get-by.

        I think if we could have a wealth cap… say 10 billion right now, an absurd sum, where it’s almost impossible to even spend it all… and after you pass that amount you get fed to a wood chipper; then we would see a lot fewer billionaires and a better world.

  • fodor@lemmy.zip
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    7 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.