SNATCH THE SCRATCH

The last year has been rough. Millions have been by drenched by the acidic economic "rain"unleashed by the bursting of "cloud Covid." Just as acid rain--both wet and dry deposition-- wreaks havoc on our plants, soil, treees, and buidlings, the rains unleased by the pandemic pounds away at socio-economic systems ravaged by racial, class, and gender injustices. And just as acid rain is especially hard on trees,--weakening them by washing away the protective film on leaves and stunting their growth-- the economic precipitation unleashed by the COVID induced recession dropped particularly hard on BlCack, Brown, and Native American bodies.

But when the Covid cloud broke open and started to weep in March 2020, not everybody got drenched. College educated persons were more three times as likely as high school graduates to work from home, and those pulling in $80,000 a were four times as likely as those making $33,000 to work out of their cribs. The greater ease at which they could self-isolate and still eat functioned as an umbrella of sorts, provding them with significant protection from contagion and death.

Not so for the people who, in the midst of a pandemic, continued to pick up our trash, deliver our mail, cut our lawns, flipped our hamburgers, watched our kids, and tended to our loved ones who caught more than a sprinkling and ended up in a hospital bed, trying to beat--sometimes unsucessfully-- the acid rain of COVID.

It's simply not true that "we" weathered this storm together. Some suffered a lot more than others. One can repeat the "togetherness tale" all one wants. Ad infinitum. But the truth is in the body count.

And in the pocketbook.

BILLIONAIRES BOUNCE BACK BIG

One thing's for sure, the nation's biggest billionaires are emerging from the pandemic with some seriously fat pockets. Between March 2020 and April 2021, the collective wealth of the nation's billionaires sky rocketed from $2.95 trillion to $4.56 trillion. That's a 55% increase. In the midst of pandemic induced recession.

If you're reading this, I'd bet that you'd be hard pressed to name one person from your tribe or hood whose networth--the monetary value of all assets minus liabilities-- actually increased during the past 13 months, months where millions lost jobs and hundreds of thousands caught a case of COVID and died And even if you could, I'd be willing to wager that the increase falls far short of 55%. I'd be willing to bet that, at best, your tribe members barely kept their heads above the water and, at worst, got scooped up and sucked under.

And, as if that's not enough, consider this: Since 1991, the networth of the nation's billionaires has raced from $240 billion to $4.56 trillion in 2021. Over the past three decades, in other words, the pockets of billionaires have blown up by an additional $4.3 trillion in networth. A hefty amount of that growth in wealth--more than one-third-- occurred over a thirteen month period, March 2020-April 2021. You heard that right. Of that enormous growth in billionaire wealth over the last three decades, one third of it occured between March 2020 and April 2021. During the Covid induced recession. During a time period where millions lost their jobs. During a time period in which over half a million persons got drenched and ultimately died from the virus.

This disconnect between the rich and this rest-- the piling up of wealth during a pandemic coupled with death and economic misery for millions-- is morally obsence, and ought not to be tolerated.

A PANDEMIC TAX ON PLUTOCRATS

So, how about this: A pandemic tax of plutocrats (PTOP).. We could start there, and then expand out to serious consideration and mobilization of popular support for an annual wealth tax.

The pandemic tax would impose a one-time tax on the wealth holdings of the nation's 716 billionaires. Anyone whose wealth is less that wouldn't have to cough up one red penny and, becasue the exemption level is so high (a billion bucks), the vast majority of families and households would remain untouched. A networth of billion bucks, though, you're in.

If the goal of PTOP is to claw back some of the increase in networth that billionaries took in during the heart of the pandemic--between March 2020 and 2021-- the tax would be imposed on the $1.67 trillion dollar jump that occurred during that period.

The actual tax rate would depend upon how much we'd actually want to eat the rich. Want to swallow them whole and clawback all of their inncrease in wealth they experienced during the pandemic? Then, a 100% rate would snatch back all of the pandemic gains and leave them roughly with the exact amount of wealth they had before the pandemic hit. Under this scenario, the collective networth of the nation's 716 billionaries would be $2.95 trillion rather than their current holding of $4, 563 trillion.

Your boy, Jeff Bezos, then would still be a "centi-billionaire" but his networth would be $113 billion instead of $197 trillion. Elon Musk? Well, he's made out like bannans during the pandemic, with his networth increaing by 600%, Snatch back all that pandemic scratch and he'd be worth $25 billion rather than $172 billion. Bill Gates? Buddy be worth $98 billion instead of $130 billion? Zuckerberg? 55 instead of 114 billion. Larry Page of Goggle? 51, not 97 billion.

So, even if a PTOP clawed back every single cent of the $1.6 trillion increase in the networth that billionaries experienced during the pandemic, relax. If you-- or any of your friends-- are worried about whether the ultra rich can take the hit, rest assurred they'll be all right. They'll still be able to have nice things.

One more thing and I'm out. During the First and Second World Wars, government actually implemented taxes to constrain and claw back excess profits made by some coportations Companies whose profits exceeded what had been their average prior to the were subject to a "war profiterring" tax. "Excess" profits were subject to being snatched backed. It was seen as morally obsence for corporations to be banging big bucks while millions of others were sacrificing and, in some cases, putting their lives on the line.

IT'S TIME TO SNATCH BACK THE SCRATCH

As in the case of war profiteering, it is morally odious that a small group have had their pockets swollen with increased wealth, while millions of others sacrificed--and risked their lives-- to keep stuff running during the pandemic. It's morally odious--it straright up stanks-- that a small group of folk are emerging richer than ever, while others--milliions of others-- are still confronting a dearth of decent jobs with benefits. Still at risk of being evicted from their crib. Still lacking access to affordable health care. Still without afforable and high quality health care. Still having more month than money.

It's time for a wealth tax. It's time, at the very least, to start with a PTOP-- a pandemic tax on plutocrats. It's time to snatch back the scratch.

Catch you on the flip side,

Doc Greene