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with Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar (Premium)

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alternative to billionaire tax

You want a way to tax the huge gains a few billionaires have made since the pandemic. True under current law you dont pay a tax just because your Amazon stock went up, even if you borrow against it. I think we would get too far into the weeds though if we irs determine income from unrealized gains in capital assets. Plus a lot of tech companies stock gains are on paper and dont match their book values with real money. One thing I do think the IRS could do that would be a lot simpler: enforce and expand the existing excess accumulation penalty on corporate profits. Amazon, Google, like most high tech companies dont pay shareholders dividends. Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway has not paid a dividend in over 40 years. You could tax companies for refusing to pay dividends to shareholders.

How much of the "China Threat" is real, and how much is it related to the military industrial complex looking for a new home to justify itself?

I really enjoyed your coverage and perspectives on the issues around Afghanistan. Now, I am seeing increasing coverage on the threat to the world that China is. Looking at the Afganistan story, I am skeptical. How much of what we are hearing about China is just more of their traditional nationalist rhetoric? How much of this is due to the "military - industrial complex" needing a new enemy in order to justify its existence? I am super interested in your perspectives on this.

Big Pharma, even worse than I thought

Huge fan of both of you; never miss a BP episode or any of your other side projects. Not a question per se, but highly recommend you both watch Alex Gibney’s Crime of the Century Documentary as there were fantastic detailed insights in the big pharma practices of Purdue, J&J etc. specifically around the opioid epidemic in this country. I know you guys have covered this theme multiple times but the depth of corruption this doc revealed in every sector of the medical economy as well as in local and federal government was sickening. There are key bad actors still in play today and it would be amazing if you guys could cover their moves more regularly to help keep light shed on the situation and stoke conversation about what can be done to fight back. After watching this doc, i am convinced we will never have anything close to Medicare for all until there is a major overhaul in legislation and regulation to hold these companies to account as well as rewriting the rules around ‘revolving door’ practices and gobs of money going to our legislators. Love you both!

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Why are lying ?

I support you because I thought you didn’t lie. You keep refusing to learn about Elon Musk. Name a single individual who’s climate achievements are measurably more than his? The problem is you may be looking at everything negative the media brings up and you propagate it. AOC now drives a Tesla. Ask her why. Maybe she finally did some research and realized it’s the best EV out there and because of legacy auto can no longer claim there is no EV demand. I wish I could have a conversation with you or your staff so you can see I’m not crazy or defending the rich.