The Largest Upward Transfer of Wealth in American History

Soon there will be a critical mass of people who have nothing left to lose

"Upward transfer"
"Theft" is the word

The French solution
- Trickles down on the rich.

For republicans, “wealth transfer” is a dirty phrase if used in any shape or form that leans towards fairness, a level playing field, and equality. However, handing money to the already wealthy and fuck everyone else is perfectly acceptable wealth transfer.
- Well they have all been promised since the Reagan era that it would all trickle back down. I’m sure it will start doing that any day now.

The French public would have a called a general strike at minimum while the AmeriKans take it in the ass.
- did you know that protesting is not legal in many places in the US and also the police like to just murder people randomly
  
  Then, they should have protested when protesting was made illegal. Now, they're paying the price for that mistake, unfortunately.
- Because these two countries are otherwise identical in every way. Good thing you have an easy solution that still works in spite of the existence of assault rifles and wire taps
  
  Not exactly.
  The American political system turned into a gaggle of Mafias some time ago, France isn't quite there yet.
- To be fair the French complain about their access to stolen modern day African money

Of course, this is going to affect the working class first and worst. But stay with me here.
My wife and I are what you'd call upper middle class. Thanks to our college education, union jobs in public agencies, and mostly being smart with money, our assets are not meager.
Are you like me? Don't think you're exempt. They're coming for our assets too. They want all of us living paycheck to paycheck, begging our employers to not fire us.
What I'm saying is, the class struggle is everyone's struggle. If you're not a billionaire, you're at risk. Act like it.
- The #1 issue for all of us is Us versus Them. That's it. There's 1000 of them and 350 million of us.
  
  It is, but the narrative they want it “us vs immigrants”. Think of how long they’ve been rage baiting people with this, it’s nuts.
  Keep focus, it’s the 1%.
  
  There are about 8 billion of us
  
  But what will you do when the rest of the world's working poor turns around and suddenly you're "them"
- Exactly. I don't think I am poor but in there eyes, I am dirt poor. Anyone can't afford a seat at their table are at peril.
- I'm glad they're coming for your assets.
  You have more than enough and should not receive even more while others have less, just like the billionaires you're criticizing.
  Edit: All the people getting mad at this reality are the reason why we have to choose between clintons and trumps. As soon as someone threatens the wealth of neo-liberals, they immediately agree with conservatives.
  Greed and consumerism are the worst issues we face as a species. It makes sense most of you will react the way that you do when being forced to acknowledge your contribution to the problem.
  Now, who's excited for the switch 2 and gta 6?
  
  There's a massive difference between well-off, or even wealthy (think a practicing doctor/dentist or small business entrepeneur) and billionaire.
  Saying 'screw your savings' to people like that is the conflict the billionare class wants, instead of everyone focusing on them.
  
  Finally someone else who gets it. I kinda hoped lemmy would have a crowd that would at least be able to talk about this calmly but it looks like it's no less rabid about this topic than reddit.
  They don't have to agree with conservatives. They just have to go so far as establishment Democrat. The "moderate" who keeps kicking the can down the road. 'Wait till midterms'. Wait till the next red line so we can move the red line to some time in the future.
  The dream is not to become a billionaire. The dream is to become upper middle class. So you can sit in the middle and expound on virtues of those beneath you while reaping the benefits of those above.
  
  Jesus Christ, buddy, calm down.
  
  And I suppose you live in a yurt off-grid, and don't own a mobile device?
  Thought so, hypocrite. Fuck Trump.
  
  You could teach seminars on "Class Solidarity."

And let's not forget. Tens of millions of magas, having witnessed the past few months, would vote him in again tomorrow if we gave them a do-over.
As furious as I am at the oligarchs taking over every last thing, evil greedy bastards gonna evil greedy bastard.
That anger pales in comparison to my rage at the tens of millions of my countrymen who dragged the rest of us into this fucking hellscape with them for no reasons beyond:
-Ignorance
-Hate
The ratio of those varies from maga voter to maga voter, but IME those are pretty much the only two reasons I see for why they have condemened not only themselves but also the entire rest of the nation to life in this emerging dystopia. They've already killed people in this country with their vote, and the numbers will only go up.
Yet somehow we all still have to go to work and get along every day, but I truly don't care if I never see or speak to a single Trump voter ever again, and that includes so-called friends and family members. They are all dead to me, or as dead as familial and work obligations will allow. Every last one can choke on a bag of dicks and razor blades as far as I care.
Edit - I beg you, random silent downvoter, to explain to me where I've gone wrong in the above.
- There is an option in your settings so you don't see upvotes or downvotes on individual comments.
  None of these imaginary points matter.
  (Lemmy is rad)
  
  I don't care about the points. I'd like the drive-by magas to stop for a discussion sometime.
- ...the sad part is that perhaps half those MAGAs aren't necessarily bad people, but they're so profoundly indoctrinated by its disinformation sphere that they legitimately believe their support serves a greater good...
  ...the other half are outright evil, though...
- You summarize it perfectly. I am so disheartened by my fellow countrymen. So put off that I left the country and have no intention of ever returning there to live. When I see someone like Klepper interview maga, it is always driven home just how absolutely stupid and ignorant maga are. It's really no wonder he got elected again. trump is indeed the symptom not the disease. I think the Leopards Ate My Face communities do a grave injustice because I see such communities giving people the false impresssion that maga is "realizing" something. That couldn't be further from the truth. Many of my progressive friends are stuck in the "surely they're all waking up", "surely he wouldn't try to do that", "surely he wouldn't get elected again" cycle.
  I believe there is a third reason in addition to ignorance and hate: tribalism. whether it's their religious tribe, or racial tribe, or sexuality tribe, conservatives tend to embrace tribalism more than anyone else. To them there are in groups and out groups. In groups that the law protects but does not bind, and out groups that the law binds but does not protect.
  Ignorance, tribalism, hate, xenophobia, intolerance have always been able to take root in the minds of the weak. But when the oligarchs realized that the ignoranti could be a powerful tool, they became a product. Those millions of maga people you mention have been and are groomed continually to be tools for enabling the transfer of wealth. They are groomed with fear, misinformation, manipulation, appeals to tribalism, and appeals to uncertainty. They are groomed so effectively that they groom themselves and their own children.
  
  Where'd ya go? Were looking to do the same.
- It's called false consciousness. The workers are socialized through media, religion, and other social institutions, to identify with and support the ruling class. You see this in the way they adore Elmo Skum. I've known IT workers who bragged about the fancy car they basically bought for their manager.
  Yes, it's a Marxist perspective. But Marx wasn't wrong.
- Can't trust the random public anymore. It's a real shame. There has been a massive shift in my perception of these people.
- They'd just blame the system and the party for the choice they chose to make. Chicken shits.
- Best is to let them go into poverty and famine, and go extinct

The poor die so the rich can get richer.

Again lol. U guys have not realized that two party system does not work ...
- It's working exactly as intended.
  
  This. This is the truth.
- Many of us realize that it's broken, but voting doesn't seem to fix it.........
  
  Yep voted for a long long time and tried to be progressive. At this moment I just want this to be over, so whatever the worse is.

Hey, yanks, until your centre right party (the Democrats) is willing to go all in and run candidates at all levels of government on the slogan of "The Largest Downward Transfer of Wealth in American History", your far right party (the Republicans) will keep repeating this. But if it makes you feel better, go back to blaming Muslims in Michigan or whatever.
- The swing voters in the US is dumb as a brick.
  They care a lot more about "culture war" issues.
  
  So make "tax the rich" a culture war thing. Left populism is a winning strategy too.
  
  "Swing Voter" == "Too Embarrassed To Admit Being A Republican"
  
  Don’t hate the 1%, hate the gays!
- The democrats are in on it too and it doesn't matter how many candidates they have politically aligned with the public's best interest. I keep saying this but the only way to break out of this loop is for both parties to split and take a large chunk of resources with them with they do. They also need to eliminate the "CEO" position for any party and all vote for the primary candidates instead of making arbitrary decisions. I get it, you need a leadership for housekeeping reasons, but the current RNC and DNC CEO's are not at all about housekeeping for the greater good. All of it is lip service while they take tax-free "political contributions" from all those shady "SuperPACS" . This is all wishful thinking and I'm just hear along for the ride in the billionaire made hand basket to hell.

And it's behind a paywall. Chef's kiss.
- The Largest Upward Transfer of Wealth in American History
  House Republicans voted to advance a bill that would offer lavish tax cuts for the rich while slashing benefits for the poor. By Jonathan Chait House Speaker Mike Johnson Kevin Dietsch / Getty May 22, 2025, 9:21 AM ET
  House Republicans worked through the night to advance a massive piece of legislation that might, if enacted, carry out the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history.
  That is not a side effect of the legislation, but its central purpose. The “big, beautiful bill” would pair huge cuts to food assistance and health insurance for low-income Americans with even larger tax cuts for affluent ones.
  Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, warned that the bill’s passage, by a 215–214 margin, would mark the moment the Republicans ensured the loss of their majority in the midterm elections. That may be so. But the Republicans have not pursued this bill for political reasons. They are employing a majority that they suspect is temporary to enact deep changes to the social compact.
  The minority party always complains that the majority is “jamming through” major legislation, however deliberate the process may be. (During the year-long debate over the Affordable Care Act, Republicans farcically bemoaned the “rushed” process that consumed months of public hearings.) In this case, however, the indictment is undeniable. The House cemented the bill’s majority support with a series of last-minute changes whose effects have not been digested. The Congressional Budget Office has not even had time to calculate how many millions of Americans would lose health insurance, nor by how many trillions of dollars the deficit would increase.
  The heedlessness of the process is an indication of its underlying fanaticism. The members of the Republican majority are behaving not like traditional conservatives but like revolutionaries who, having seized power, believe they must smash up the old order as quickly as possible before the country recognizes what is happening.
  House Republicans are fully aware of the political and economic risks of this endeavor. Cutting taxes for the affluent is unpopular, and cutting Medicaid is even more so. That is why, instead of proudly proclaiming what the bill will accomplish, they are pretending it will do neither. House Republicans spent months warning of the political dangers of cutting Medicaid, a program that many of their own constituents rely on. The party’s response is to fall back on wordplay, pretending that their scheme of imposing complex work requirements, which are designed to cull eligible recipients who cannot navigate the paperwork burden, will not throw people off the program—when that is precisely the effect they are counting on to produce the necessary savings.
  The less predictable dangers of their plan are macroeconomic. The bill spikes the deficit, largely because it devotes more money to lining the pockets of lawyers and CEOs than it saves by immiserating fast-food employees and ride-share drivers. Massive deficit spending is not always bad, and in some circumstances (emergencies, or recessions) it can be smart and responsible. In the middle of an economic expansion, with a large structural deficit already built into the budget, it is deeply irresponsible.
  In recent years, deficit spending has been a political free ride. With interest rates high and rising, the situation has changed. Higher deficits oblige Washington to borrow more money, which can force it to pay investors higher interest rates to take on its debt, which in turn increases the deficit even more, as interest payments (now approaching $1 trillion a year) swell. The market could absorb a new equilibrium with a higher deficit, but that resolution is hardly assured. The compounding effect of higher debt leading to higher interest rates leading to higher debt can spin out of control.
  House Republicans have made clear they are aware of both the political and the economic dangers of their plan, because in the recent past, they have repeatedly warned about both. Their willingness to take them on is a measure of their profound commitment.
  And while the content of their beliefs can be questioned, the seriousness of their purpose cannot. Congressional Republicans are willing to endanger their hold on power to enact policy changes they believe in. And what they believe—what has been the party’s core moral foundation for decades—is that the government takes too much from the rich, and gives too much to the poor.
  
  By reading this, i had two thoughts:
  Someday soon, America will burn.
  The rest of the world should make a Blacklist of all those criminals who are robbing the working class so they cannot go anywhere exept from burning in the hell they created.
  
  It also has a bit where judges cant hold people in contempt anymore.
  
  Wow. Fuck these republicans and fuck the people that voted for them
  
  Hakeem Jeffries and anyone else thinking we are ever going to have fair elections again are Fing morons.
  
  Thanks!
  
  The spiraling deficit will just be something they ultimately blame the democrats for. The rubes will lap it up and vote them in again.
  
  passionate french chef's kiss
- Disable JavaScript to bypass.
  
  Huh. I haven't heard this tip. Does this work with most paywalls?

Non paywalled version of article

I really want this to be it. I want a big enough mass of freak conservative boomers to die off of old age and for the republicans to finally push everyone else hard enough that this country finally fucking snaps and swings left so hard that Reagan's grave belches black smoke for a month. I hope we swing left so hard that all the Fox News assholes run bawling off to Russia, all the neoliberal dickheads move to their neoliberal paradise of [some offshore oil rig], and we end up fixing all kinds of shit that's been broken for basically my entire life.
I know it won't; we'll just get a bunch of working class republicans standing around the wreckage and mumbling "can you imagine how much worse it would have been under Biden?" to each other.
- I want a big enough mass of freak conservative boomers to die off of old age and for the republicans to finally push everyone else hard enough that this country finally fucking snaps and swings left so hard that Reagan’s grave belches black smoke for a month.
  Look at Mike Johnson's face--he's not dying for a long long time. Get over the idea that evil people are all old and you just need to wait for them to die, it's not going to happen. New evil ones are born every day, they exist in every generation, they've been with us forever and will be with us forever.
  
  J.D. Vance is only 40.
  
  Gen X voted for Trump in greater numbers than the Boomers, who on average voted for Trump less than Gen Z males.
  
  Theres an evil motherfucker born every minute
- Apparently young people aren’t going to save us. Young men are farther right than the previous generation. Boomers aren’t listening to Joe Rogan.
  
  Idk, it's easy to get depressed about it, but I think that there's another interpretation. It shows that Gen Z recognizes how fucked everything is, and recognize the urgent need for drastic change, which is what Donald promises, even if he's a colossal piece of shit and the changes he promises are pure grift. Yeah, they've been taken in by the right, but only because the right has seized on the populist moment while the institutional left is still fretting about decorum, rank, seniority, process, and literally anything else before results. If the left gets out there and starts swinging for the fences, I think we can turn things around. So, of course, the democrats are preparing to rise to the occasion by offering Gavin Newsom and his plan to build the biggest bulldozers on earth for bulldozing the homeless.
  I think this is part of why Bernie was yelling at people to run for office. We need more options, more people who are willing to turn their back on the establishment, on the left.

Considering the entire history of the US is one big upwards transfer of wealth, that is really saying something.

Our country is being robbed, our futures stolen
- Not me, never had a future.
- The floodwaters can only be dammed so long before breaking free. Whether that happens via controlled release of pressure or a disastrous blow out is up to the people with the regulatory power. Their failure to address the tide can only end in their painful ruin. For their sake, they better have fast legs if they don't grow some hearts.
  
  It's less that the regulators are failing to do their jobs and more that regulators are being given toddlers' first toolset to do the job that requires some high end tools.
- That's okay.
  We'll take the futures from their offspring.
  This will not go unpunished.
  
  These faceless devils have finally sent the scale crashing down on us. That overstep is going to need a correction. Destroy corporate property every where you go. Burn it all down until the flames reach the heights of Musk and Buffet. A civilized future requires us to band against the oligarchs now.

And yet we get banned for talking about the solution.
- Well that's the power of federation.
  
  Except… when most of the action happens in one spot.
- We get banned for talking about increasing taxes on the wealthy through like progressive tax policy?
  
  Asking the rich to be less rich doesn't seem to be working so well to me.
  
  So how do we increase taxes on them when they control all our politicians?
  
  Sweet summer child, that won’t happen. It’s far more likely that we just kill them all before those things get voted in.
- Senseless killing is a superficial solution. Organization is the sustainable, but less glamurous one.
  
  That won’t ever work in the US.
- Senseless killing is a superficial solution. Organization is the sustainable, but less glamorous one.
  
  Untrue, naked violence has solved more conflicts in this world than anything else so yeah
  
  That would be a brilliant point if anyone, at all, ever, advocated for senseless killing.
  
  Heh. Senseless.

That's what they said about his last tax bill.
- The largest upward transfer of wealth so far...
- And it was true then too

So far

The largest upward transfer of wealth in history... so far.
Not counting the ones during Covid or 2008.
- Everyone seems to forget the Libor scam/conspiracy. Trillions.
  
  Everyone seems to forget offshore tax havens, or as I like to call it, 'The Well of Souls'. (£36 TRILLION as of 2016)

So far

Wait, didn't you guys just do this last year?

This bill also fully bans Medicaid Gender Affirming Care, adults and all.

Guess I'll give up on everything, not have any kids and shoot myself at age 60,... unironically. I have the gun already.
- This is not end of the world, history is full of bad moments and we got out of them.
  We need people to join protests to help change things, not kill themselves. If we accept that we have no power, we will have no power.
  https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/
  https://fiftyfifty.one/
  https://maydaymovementusa.org/
  
  Are we beyond the point of protests yet? Our politicians are actively taking affirmative steps to avoid listening to them.
  
  Oh I will, all the way up to age 60. I'm not going to wait quietly for old age. I have lots of time to flick off conservatives.
  But do I actually have any hope at all?
  nope!
  
  That is such a funny fucking joke you made there old buddy old pal. "We got out of them" no we didn't you fool do you see where we are now?? This has been a build up of events that have happened before. Ignoring that is just plain ignorant and dangerous to the situation at hand, we got here because we never truly "got out of them".
  By all means fight the good fight and keep your friends, families, and neighbors safe. However, we need to stop placating people with this rhetoric.
- You could do so much more good with that gun.
- That's most millenial Americans' retirement plans.
  
  I hope they consider overdosing on opiates instead. Put to sleep, probably the only way I'll know true peace
- I have given up on the idea of retirement or security/safety in my lifetime a loooong time back. We live in the worst possible type of dystopia, a world where "evil" won long ago, and has had ample time and opportunity to sink its claws into every aspect of our lives, forever.
  And the worst part is that most people won't even believe it. In fact, almost a majority seem to relish it somehow. Like they want the world to be as terrible as it can possibly be, even for themselves.
  
  And their kids. I couldn't imagine setting them up for life like this. Then again perhaps they dont really care about them beyond having the "reproduce" achievement unlocked.
- If your mental health is in that kind of state, please get rid of the gun. The world is better with you here, and we need each other the fight that's coming.
  And if we need guns later, I'm a hobbyist that's been collecting them for years and I've got a TON of them.
  
  Yes, please, no matter how you feel right now if you are super depressed and you buy a gun anyways, keep it at a friend's or family member's place who has guns that you trust, there is no shame in that hell everyone understands, let them have it and go to the range and stuff to target shoot and have fun together as a way of connecting.
  Don't keep it in your house, with ammunition.
  Life is really fucking hard right now and brutal permanent choices are almost always a bad idea.
  
  The world is better with you here
  I can't imagine any 100lb bag of rice being worse off because one grain is missing.

Haven't we seen this headline a few times already? I feel like this was a point made after 2008 and covid lockdown at least.
- That was when he was doing the PPP loans and required them to be untraceable, at the time it was the biggest transfer of wealth, this apparently does even more and goes even further
  
  Yeah, it just keeps repeating itself and gets bigger each time. I meant my comment more to read that this is a repeating theme in the us.
- It was true then and it's true now.

They weren’t overly specific in who the bill was beautiful for.

https://archive.ph/YuxiG

This is the kind of thing that could lead to the chop chops. But, don't worry guys. I'm sure it'll trickle down any day now.
- Too bad the republican propaganda machine will blame Biden or brown people or something else, that this is going to remove freeloaders and make the gutted programs save them money. Even if they personally lose their healthcare, somehow it'll be the democrats that made it that bad. Somehow...
- Could? Should

I can also play that! The most majestic! An incredible opportunity. A friend in need. News you can! Flying around! It was tasty with some. It will never! Not like that anyway.