In a time when billionaires can cry over the wealth tax on live TV (while nobody would ever give the same platform to a homeless or a person without health insurance), it is nice if someones takes apart all the lies that are floated, to defend the riches of the 1%. Robert Reich took on the task in a as I think very interesting video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnoLAMHwf2I

Oh, by the way, this video goes into more detail about one point: Taxation isn't fair. Turns out, it is unfair - by advantaging the rich.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXCGbAv8YPw

According to your last video, the overall tax percentage is increasing with higher income (and more so the absolute amount of tax money being paid) in particular driven by the progressive income tax.

The 400 billionaires exception seems to be driven by "low % spending" on goods & services and thus the lowest % of consumption taxes. I assume capital gains taxes are counted as income tax? It seems too low considering that short-term capital gains are taxed at the ordinary income tax rate up to 37% and long-term cap gains at 20%, so how is that 9% billionaire income tax happening?

In the final graph everyone was pretty much at the same level, except the billionaires. For the data, it is all linked in the video-description on Youtube.

In detail:

• the data can be explored yia: https://taxjusticenow.org/
• the NYT-OPed is here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/opinion/sunday/wealth-income-tax-rate.html
• and the Vox-article with a lot more nice data-nuggets is here: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/11/4/20938229/zucman-saez-tax-rates-top-400

The 400 billionaires pay about the same overall tax rate of 23% as the low/middle class at 23.5% according to the video.

What I don't get is how the income tax % falls of so steeply from the high income group to the billionaire group. I get that income is replaced with cap gains but cap gains are taxed at 20-37% so even Warren Buffet should pay at least 20% cap gains/income tax rate for his long term cap gains.

I don't know if this is done by tax evasion but it seems much less than what is required by law.

I haven't watched the video (as I'm not in a position to do so at the moment), but heavy taxation against the rich is a band-aid solution for a bygone era; society can do better in 2020. It's similar to the government mandated minimum wage, we have it, it shouldn't be necessary.

What society should strive for is an economy that works for everyone. It should be incapable of producing these insane share hogs in the first place.

In my opinion, a system that balances the ownership of the means of production and wages for each and every employee makes for a happier environment, and one which should increase productivity. A large scale company where CEO's and boards are selected from the interests of a handful of people for their personal benefit isn't helpful to the working class of that same corporation, or their families, or the consumers of their products. Society as a whole can function with any manner of economy, but the hard capitalist economy is not ideal for the majority of people.

Plus, such an economy gives an easier time of convincing people of the dedication of resources to worthy and necessary projects (be they environmental cleanup, or simple infrastructure maintenance of upgrades).

Just my two cents.