Together, the wealthiest 10 Americans are worth $1.1 trillion dollars. Say we tax the billionaires at 95% of their assets. Let’s be generous, they earned it, right?
That would give us about a trillion dollars to use towards solving America’s most pressing problems.
First, we’d help those who have the most need. Estimates show that as many as half a million people are homeless in the US on any given night.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that ending homelessness in the US would cost about $20 billion.
Then, set aside at least three times that to cover the the 20 million people worldwide who are displaced during extreme weather events.
Fix Work Environments
Next, we address our labor conditions—the toxic work environments.
The environments that includes, “Hurry up, hurry up, do this massive amount of work because your’e the only person doing it.”
Bullying from managers and poor training. The employers who abuse and cheat employees that end up exploiting and ultimately killing workers.
Really dig into what’s going on behind the scenes. The stuff that customers don’t see.
We’d use funds to provide financial aid to workers who choose to go on a general strike in all industries at the same time.
This would shut down the whole American machine until they meet our demands. We want livable wages, healthcare, childcare, pensions and representation.
Preparing For Climate Change
Lastly, use the remaining funds to prepare for climate change. Wealthy countries like the United States have more resources to deal with the impacts of climate change.
Some of our citizens will likely have to migrate. As America’s sea levels rise, many of our citizen will need to leave major coastal cities.
This includes Miami, New Orleans and Los Angeles. People will need to move inland because you can only put so many buildings on stilts.
Sometimes you have to move an entire community. We need to accept that and plan for it.
The wealthiest 10 Americans would still have about $40 billion in assets to split among themselves. I think that’s more than enough.