What do Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and TikTok star Neekolul have in common? They are both wealthy socialists who bathe in the excesses of the capitalist system. For the left, this has become a widespread trope for the neoteric disciples of Karl Marx and the Soviet Union; proselytizing on the virtues of socialism while consuming the fruits of the market economy. Capitalism is so great that left-leaning grifters can profit off of hammering this economic framework with their sickles and shrieking about its odious nature, much like the race hustlers who earn a living by triggering a supply-demand imbalance of racism. This is apparent in the broader tax-the-rich scheme advocated by the same champagne socialists who routinely move the endzone farther away in the middle of the game.
Dude, Where’s My 1%?
A decade has already passed since the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) embarrassment made international headlines. At the time, the talk of the town was about how evil the “one percent” is and why socialism is superior to capitalism. Yet, despite the attention it garnered, OWS hardly contributed to any meaningful action, except for taxpayer-funded municipal sanitary workers who had to clean up after the activists. So, was it in fact a public-works scheme designed to benefit government employees?
During the 2016 Democratic Party primary, the red star of the show was Sen. Sanders, who utilized his national platform to call out the one percent. Four years later, his messaging evolved, upgrading his gesticulations and grievances to spotlight the top 0.1%. So, what happened between the two electoral contests? The senator’s bank account swelled.
Sanders and his family joined the one percent in 2017, earning incredible wealth from his books that lamented on the free-enterprise system that allowed him to own three properties. Rather than transferring more of his earnings to the Treasury Department and leading by example, the two-time presidential candidate averred that “I paid the taxes that I owe.” Instead of feeding the hungry Leviathan in the Swamp with a more significant percentage of his money, Sanders has chosen to gripe about deodorant brands and billionaires.
"In 1978, the top 0.1% owned about 7% of the nation’s wealth. In 2019, the latest year of data available, they own nearly 20%," he recently tweeted. "I don’t think that billionaires should exist," Sanders told The New York Times in 2019. "In order to reduce the outrageous level of inequality that exists in America today and to rebuild the disappearing middle class, we must establish an annual tax on the extreme wealth of the top 0.1%," he elaborated during the 2020 campaign.
Neekolul, the social media influencer who got rich from donations by desperate guys vying for her attention, might have revealed the socialist millionaires’ ideas on what taxing the rich is all about.
"I think when people mean, like, tax the rich, I think at the end of the day they do mean, like, billionaires and people that have insane, unfathomable amounts of wealth,” she noted.
What is the 0.01% Anyway?
What is the one percent? In the United States, if an individual wants to join this reviled group, he or she would need to possess a net worth of $4.4 million. If Americans yearn to become members of the ultra-exclusive 0.01% club, they will need to earn approximately $9.5 million. No wonder Sanders and his brethren have kept quiet about the one percent and have focused entirely on the 0.01%. According to the longtime senator, it is easy to become a millionaire in this country, telling an Indiana crowd in 2019: "If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.” In other words, impoverished and middle-class Americans need to lift themselves up by their bootstraps and produce something other people value. That sounds almost like a capitalist idea.
Tax the Rich Becomes I Am the Rich
Tax the rich is a popular bumper sticker for a lucrative career in demonizing capitalism. However, like the defund the police blitzkrieg, there is now ostensibly nuance behind the phrase, especially if those uttering the statement take pleasure in gazing at the seven digits in their checking accounts.
For many left-leaning millionaires today, it is never about taxing their income – the dubious initiative is about confiscating assets of wealthier folks, namely billionaires. Indeed, it is easy to shout this ridiculous slogan without skin in the game. But once more people attain a modicum of success, the goalposts are shifted, and these perhaps genuine efforts are upgraded to higher brackets. That is until their wealth expands to the next income category, requiring calls to action to penalize wealthier people.
Sanders enjoys his three homes, and Neekolul loves her BMW. Ain't life as a champagne socialist in a capitalist society grand? All prosperity and no gulags.
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Read more from Andrew Moran.
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