Imagine a small concert venue, hosting 900 people, give or take. That’s about the number of passengers and crew on a small cruise ship, or of students attending the average U.S. public high school. A group that size collectively holds more wealth than the bottom half of the country combined, because that’s roughly how many billionaires live in the U.S. But a new bill is asking the people in that hypothetical cruise ship, concert venue, or high school to chip in, and to bankroll multi-thousand-dollar checks for millions of middle-class Americans.
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna introduced the “Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act” on Monday, a proposed 5% annual wealth tax on individuals with a net worth of $1 billion or more. Sanders estimates a total of 938 billionaires live in the U.S. and hold a collective $8.2 trillion.
