Ray Madoff

Taxes.

And that is how we're getting growing wealth inequality.

When we see our rich, they do look like us.

And so they seem less alien.

For purposes of this book, the rich are anybody who doesn't need a salary.

If somebody can get by without earning money, they have enough money that they can live off of, those are the people who are able to grow their money tax-free.

People with high income are much more aligned with people with low and moderate amount of income in that we all pay a lot of taxes.

But people with huge amounts of wealth don't have to pay taxes at all.

They thought these people, they're a bunch of lazy layabouts.

They live these lavish lifestyles.

And all of this is a big problem, and therefore we need to have taxes on inheritances.

I think that just like the rest of us look of the very wealthy has served a protective function.

And sometimes people say, I don't want to tax the rich because I'm going to be rich someday and then I don't want to have to pay taxes.

But the thing is, what people don't realize is that their likelihood of becoming rich is significantly limited by the fact that they have to pay taxes.

People who have salaries or other gig workers or anything, right, they're moving two steps forward, one step back.

Meanwhile, the richest Americans are moving two steps forward, four steps forward, six steps forward, a hundred steps forward, a thousand steps forward.

Poor people were being completely taken advantage of in their horrible working conditions, their horrible living conditions.

Almost everyone was poor.

These two worlds were being presented at the same time.

So let's start with the first transition that caused the wealthy to be subject to taxes.