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Worried About Debt? Play Soak The Rich!

By: Jason Hart (Diary)  |  May 5th, 2012 at 06:48 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

SoakTheRich.us started as a series of pie charts and turned into something much bigger. Here’s why!

Promising the moon and hoping no one will ask, “hey, what’s a moon cost these days, anyway?” turns out to be the one business model Progressives endorse. If you’re an Obama bundler, a union boss, or Ezra Klein, it’s great news — you can get rich selling snake oil, riding a limo to Occupy Wall Street rallies, or trying to make intensely stupid things sound smart.

If you’re a productive human being, the results are less sunny: national debt now exceeds GDP and has piled up to roughly $50,000 per American.

That’s where Soak The Rich comes in. Corporations and CEOs have tons of money, and the U.S. has tons of debt, so the math should work out: Tons – Tons = No worries! Using Soak The Rich, you can track the impact of doubling corporate income taxes and taking CEO pay from S&P 500 companies simply by clicking industries in a list. There’s even a “Soak All Industries” button for the benefit of MSNBC employees!

When you’re done, you can see detailed results and brag about your good deed on Twitter.

Hear a friend or relative parroting the “fair share” meme? Share Soak The Rich and then ask if they have any better ideas!

Follow Jason on Twitter: @jasonahart

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COMMENTS

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  • Aaron Gardner

    Very cool.

    • http://thathero.com Jason Hart

      Thank ya sir – glad to hear it!

  • snowshooze

    They would just spend the money rather than pay down the debt.
    So everyone would get soaked, then poked.

  • uncmike

    for all those on the left who really believe taxes are the answer. I assume you used a static model that doubled the income when taxes are raised, and does not try to consider how businesses might actually react to such an increase. Good work!

    • retrocon87

      We have unapologetic conservative austerity right now in the UK, will now have unapologetic “soak the rich and screw the banks” socialism in France, and six months from now when the UK is stable and France has officially imploded we will have empirical evidence that “soaking the rich and corporations” flat-out doesn’t work… right before the election.

    • norris

      I appears the difference will be added to my taxes .

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  • renl57

    Their first idea is: Soak Everybody.

    The Left has been constantly calling for the abolition of the Bush tax cuts. (Which is going to happen automatically anyway in another year)

    And that will result in a huge across-the-board tax increase.

    It doesn’t bother them that their hero, Obama, pledged in 2008 not to raise taxes on the middle class.

    Their second idea is: Just inflate the debt away.

    That one is Paul Krugman’s suggestion: A multi-trillion dollar debt won’t be a problem, if by the time we get to pay it off, a dollar is worth only what a dime is worth today.

    At 7% inflation, the debt will be cut in half (in inflation-adjusted terms) in 10 years, and then in half again in another 10 years.
    So Krugman is demanding that the Fed raise its inflation target.

    What is wrong with these proposals “will be left as an exercise for the student,” as the textbooks say.

  • retrocon87

    nt

  • romeg

    to refer to a thing rather than calling it by its proper name then we cede the argument to the opposition.

    The So-Called Bush Tax Cuts are not that at all. They are Clinton Tax Increases. They want to re-instate the Clinton Tax Increases. George W. Bush merely repealed those taxes increases.