Gary Stevenson

So I think the next thing you should recognise when you see this argument of let's not tax me more, let's tax working people less is

I think it highlights a little bit the stupidity in a way of the way we discuss tax in the media which is we talk about we should tax this people more this people less and sometimes we talk about spending we should do more of this spending or we should do less of that spending without realizing that these things have to be funded essentially.

And people are only really able to come out with these sort of ridiculous suggestions, like let's just tax everybody less, because we don't connect the tax side and the spending side.

And you know, obviously, there is also the option of borrowing more, but or even printing money.

But whenever you say we should cut taxes, you need to be clear, okay, where is that going to come from?

Where is the money going to come from, basically, in whichever way.

And this is why

from a couple of years ago now we've really been pushing the like the tax wealth not work message because even in this country i think that from very very early on because people don't really understand the difference between like a billionaire and which is a billion is just an insane amount of money it's like it's really not in any way realistically attainable to an ordinary person whereas a million is still maybe something you could get if you manage to get a good job or if you inherit a house from your parents

They use this confusion between a billionaire and a millionaire such that when somebody like me or somebody like Gabriel Zucman or somebody like Zoran Mamdani or Zak Bielanski says increase tax on the very rich, they want you to think we're trying to tax you.

And it's this classic bait and switch that when I say tax the super rich more, they say, watch out for Gary.

He's trying to tax you more.

And that is why I've been really aggressively focusing on this like tax wealth, not work message.

Now, tax wealth, not work is, you know, although it's extremely concisely summarized, it is a coherent economic message because we take some money from this group and we give that money to this group.

And it's like balanced from a government perspective.

What Jeff Bezos is suggesting, which is tax me less and tax you less.

It raises the obvious question of where does that money come from?

I mean, what Jeff Bezos actually said was, should we tax you more?

And he's like, don't talk about that.

Let's tax the viewer less.

And he's doing this thing which I often do in my interviews, which is when I'm being interviewed by someone who is maybe a bit of a dickhead, which happens sometimes, rather than debate the interviewer, who is often debating me in bad faith, jump over the interviewer, go to the audience and say, listen, I'm the one who is on your side, basically.