We are talking past each other: I'm saying there are lots of ways that the wealthy avoid taxes, such as borrowing against equities for expenses (https://www.wsj.com/articles/buy-borrow-die-how-rich-america...). Trump had a private jet but paid $750.00 in income tax for a couple of years. Additionally, capital gains taxes are lower than many income brackets (cf. Buffet's famous quote about being taxed more than his assistant). Finally, carried interest loophole allows private equity managers to classify services as capital gains.
Basically, if you have enough equity, a bank will loan you the money you need, while you can leave those stocks untouched. You don't have to pay any tax, let alone the extremely preferential capital gains tax.
US has a tax gap of perhaps $1 trillion, and much of that is wealthy Americans who are too hard to pursue: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/business/irs-tax-gap.html. That could be 50% of the bill if we were able to cut healthcare expenses by dropping insurance companies, removing pharma control of prices, etc., to try to attain similar OECD healthcare costs.
The US is in a unique situation. We have to both reduce the amount of rent-seekers within the healthcare system while increasing the taxes we levy on the wealthy. Universal care might mean an increase in taxes on the middle-class, but universal care will ultimately reduce their expenses since it's more efficient.
PS. Please don't attack people personally: it's much better to say, "This comment does not account for X," than "You seem very uniformed [sic]?"
PPS. If you need a poignant example of the failure of the US healthcare system, look no further than maternal mortality rates. What a disgrace.
Basically, if you have enough equity, a bank will loan you the money you need, while you can leave those stocks untouched. You don't have to pay any tax, let alone the extremely preferential capital gains tax.
The Whitehouse in 2021 estimated that the 400 wealthiest families paid around an 8% income tax (https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2021/09/23/...).
US has a tax gap of perhaps $1 trillion, and much of that is wealthy Americans who are too hard to pursue: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/business/irs-tax-gap.html. That could be 50% of the bill if we were able to cut healthcare expenses by dropping insurance companies, removing pharma control of prices, etc., to try to attain similar OECD healthcare costs.
The US is in a unique situation. We have to both reduce the amount of rent-seekers within the healthcare system while increasing the taxes we levy on the wealthy. Universal care might mean an increase in taxes on the middle-class, but universal care will ultimately reduce their expenses since it's more efficient.
PS. Please don't attack people personally: it's much better to say, "This comment does not account for X," than "You seem very uniformed [sic]?"
PPS. If you need a poignant example of the failure of the US healthcare system, look no further than maternal mortality rates. What a disgrace.