Plutocratic Taxes

Whether Bezos, et al, pay taxes depends upon your point of view. Bezos is a capitalist. From his point of view as a capitalist, the workers, plant and equipment, land and even the shareholders are HIS. So are the members of Congress and local elected officials that he donates to.

He does not just employ these things, he owns them. Full-time Amazon workers do not have agency and they work too hard for a second job. We insist that they are paid a living wage (which, by the way, many of them are) because we recognize this ownership. 

When he pays benefits, including those that are tax advantaged, the money is coming out of his pocket. If he choses or causes his benefits manager to choose a less expensive provider, he gets two-thirds of the savings. It is not distributed to the workers. If he pays for more expensive benefits, his workers pay a third of the additional cost, but he pays two-thirds. If he were to not offer insurance, the two-thirds he pays would not go to employees to buy their own unless he wants to do that. They have no say.

So what taxes does Bezos pay?  

• property tax on all of his facilities,
• sales taxes on the supplies his company uses, 
• payroll taxes - both as an employer and for his employees
• income taxes for his employees wages (they never see the money), and
• corporate income taxes paid by Amazon.

All of these factors impact his pricing structures and his profits. This is why rich people fight for low taxes on everything, not just themselves. Our economic discussions hint on this fact, although usually only in terms of small businesses. Small businesses sympathize with Bezos, by the way. They consider the taxes that they write a check for to be on them and affecting their pricing and profits. The same is true for the big fish as well.

I could do a back of the envelope calculation on the taxes he pays to maintain his empire, but I think the idea has been conveyed. The lesson is, if you are going to talk about class, it is best to do so from a Marxist perspective. Neo-liberalism just does not cut it.

Why mention this? Because it leads to the solution on how to fix it. If agency and ownership are actually given to employees, then they are owners and the taxes paid are theirs. They will make the pricing decisions and pay attention to the relevant tax policies. 

For now, they need to pay attention to one such policy - how do they get the wealth held by their owners into their pockets - not because they envy that wealth, but because that wealth means control over their very lives. 

Capital gains zero rated for ESOP sales - or a less dodgeable asset VAT, with distributed shares, option exercise, first sale after inheritance, gift or donation marked to market unless sold to them will quickly and efficiently put them in charge of their own destinies. 

A wealth tax has the opposite effect. It legitimates worker servitude by reinforcing the idea that the wealth of Amazon belongs to Bezos, not to them. Using social democracy to take the decisions out of the hands of Bezos and giving them to Congress (and who owns Congress?) does not leave the workers in charge. It is not socialism. It is a better cage. It is not freedom.