make billionaires pay their fair share

Today’s email is about a guy named Ray Dalio.

Maybe you’ve heard of him. Maybe you haven’t.

Either way, stick with me.

Ray Dalio is the founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates.

His net worth is estimated at $19.1 billion.

Here’s what that looks like: $19,100,000,000.

Big numbers can be hard to put in context.

• Let’s say you make $54,000 a year — right around the median income for an individual in the United States.
  

• It would take you 353,704 years to earn $19.1 billion.
  

• Of course, you’d have to discover the secret to immortality.
  

• And if you actually needed to spend any money or if you paid any taxes — something it’s way too easy for billionaires to get away with not doing) — it would take even longer.
  

• Also, that’s longer than human beings have, you know, existed.
  

In other words, Ray Dalio is unimaginably — insanely — wealthy.

And he is retiring.

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that he has fought for a rather generous retirement package that could make him several billion dollars richer than he already is.

Because of tax loopholes that benefit the hyper-wealthy, billionaires often pay a lower tax rate than everyday Americans — or even no taxes at all.

In his State of the Union Address earlier this month, President Biden once again called for a minimum tax on billionaires, so that America’s 700+ billionaires have to pay their fair share at last.

Ray Dalio has said he would support a billionaire’s tax — if it was spent on things he favors. Except that’s not how taxes works. We all pitch in our fair share to pay for what our democratically elected government decides to spend on. You don’t get to refuse to pay just because you don’t like those decisions.

Add your name if you agree with President Biden that we need a billionaire minimum tax to make America’s 700+ billionaires pay their fair share.

Thanks for taking action.

For progress,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen