Steve Lamar

And in addition, rich people have somehow managed to wiggle out of all the other taxes, out of the payroll tax, out of the estate tax, out of the income tax, out of so many other measures that were supposed to make sure they contributed fairly to society.

I hate paying taxes.

Even though I'm a good little liberal and I believe in more paved roads and universal health care and big government, I still don't like it.

It's not like you like paying taxes, right?

No, nobody likes paying taxes.

And that's okay.

We're not supposed to like it.

Professor Ray Madoff doesn't like paying taxes, even though she studies taxes and teaches tax law and wrote a great book about taxes called The Second Estate.

But as she once told me, taxes are supposed to be like this cat and mouse game where we citizens try to pay fewer taxes and find loopholes.

And the government goes, no, and we go, oh, man, and we grumble and we pay up like that's how it should be.

Here is how the wealthiest Americans pay no taxes.

Some of the richest Americans only take a small salary.

I mean, it's small for them.

It's only a tiny percentage of what their companies are worth.

Mark Zuckerberg makes a dollar.

Larry Ellison also paid himself a dollar a year.

Elon Musk once violated California labor laws by paying himself too little.

And all this accumulated wealth is just sitting there in their investments, and they do not sell their stock.

A lender is delighted to loan to Larry Ellison or Elon Musk.

So you take out a loan to pay the loan?