"conservatives inadvertently reaching the point"

they almost get it. theyre so close

No such thing as a free vaccine. You pay for it somehow. (Which means taxation)

Indeed, Bernie wants to tax the rich so everyone can have nice stuff.

Tweets are not amenable to such subtleties but anyone who follows his career knows he does not believe healthcare grows on trees

So “free” is deceptive. It’s only free to anybody not at the top of income rates. Right now the top 1% pay 40% of all federal tax income. Bernie’s fallback and most democrat’s fallback is to just keep taxing them more.

Top 1% pay 40% of all federal tax income

That is stunningly close to the actual share of wealth they own

This suggests that our taxation system which is often described as "progressive" is in some ways actually remarkably flat

You don't think those folks could pay a leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetle bit more?

Your graph is 4 years old at its most recent and the point you're trying to make is based on the 2008 recession, not at all what we're talking about. Also the "leeeeeeetle" bit more is sugarcoating it. The actual amount needed to pay for not free covid vaccines and chemotherapy would cost the 1% somewhere around $1,400,000,000 dollars every year (at its lowest estimate. The realistic estimate is 14,320,000,000.)

Something else about that chart

The data cuts off at 2016, i.e. *before* the Trump tax cuts took effect, and before the pandemic shocks to the economy made the rich even richer and the poor even poorer

Wonder what that wealth breakdown updated for 2020 would look like?

Here's your up to date graph. As you can see, during the pandemic the 1%'s wealth has noticeably dropped. Huh.

"Q1 2020"

Ah, right about when the stock market had its big dip this year, then?

That sure seems to explain the Q4 '19 and Q1 '20. As the ongoing trajectory shows, they made it all back.

tl;dr: the rich in this country are still doing

J U S T

F I N E

I will admit you did find a actual current graph. You got me there. Do you have a rebuttal for any of my other points?

As if being rich alone is some sort of punishable sin.

The real answer is to cut down on our 5 trillion dollars per year spending and instill a 17% flat tax on everybody, no matter who you are.

"cut down on our... spending"

--Interest rates are currently at historical rock-bottoms.

--There's a growing economic consensus that national debt levels previously thought unsustainable are actually quite sustainable.

--And our economy is in the toilet thanks to the pandemic.

All this adds up to a prescription of more stimulus in order to keep our heads above water in the short-term and to invest in education, infrastructure (green and otherwise) to plan for the long-term

I'm talking about federal government spending, which is currently in the 5 trillions, which is ridiculous. Spending less is needed to get rid of debt. Also, green infrastructure, on strictly an economic level is horrific. It would take decades and an 85% tax increase plus a 2,000% increase in mining to build and replace all the machinery. Not to mention the strip mining will be arguably worse than all current air pollution.

Still think we can just tax the rich again and make it happen? It'll be a reverse French revolution scenario because the powerful won't just sit and let it happen. Your plan will have caused 2 major catastrophes that nobody has a solution to yet.