Speaker A
It's all the taxes. I mean, the estate tax is certainly a big part of it. You know, there's this misconception, there's this lie essentially that the estate tax affects small businesspeople and small farmers, and it's not true. I mean,
Ben & Jerry's founders discuss why raising taxes on the wealthy is better than cutting them, highlighting inequality and corporate loopholes.
Key Takeaways
- Estate tax repeal affects very few and is not a burden on small businesses.
- Tax cuts disproportionately favor the wealthy and corporations, not average citizens.
- Addressing wealth inequality requires raising taxes on the rich, not cutting them.
- Corporate tax loopholes allow many companies to avoid paying taxes.
- Funding social programs and infrastructure benefits society and business alike.
Summary
- Estate tax affects only a tiny fraction of the population, not small businesses or farmers.
- Current tax cuts mainly benefit corporations and wealthy individuals, not the poor or middle class.
- Tax cuts risk throwing people off health insurance and worsen social inequality.
- Many corporations pay little to no taxes due to loopholes and exceptions in the tax code.
- Business benefits from investments in infrastructure and a healthy society.
- The growing wealth gap in the US is the largest among developed countries.
- The proposed tax cuts are seen as a payoff to wealthy donors influencing politics.
- Ben & Jerry's support raising taxes on the rich to fund social programs and reduce poverty.
- Individual efforts to pay more taxes are insufficient without structural change.
- The video encourages viewers to stay informed on economic and political issues.
Chapters
- 00:00Estate tax misconceptions and impact
- 00:20Who benefits from tax cuts?
- 00:37Consequences of tax cuts on health insurance
- 00:52Estate tax filings and public perception
- 01:01Political influence on tax policy
- 01:21Corporate tax competitiveness and loopholes
- 01:57Business benefits from societal investments
- 02:28Wealth inequality and tax scam critique
- 02:46Why advocate for tax hikes on the wealthy?
- 02:59Call for structural tax reform and social funding
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
it only affects, what is it, the point one percent of the population? No. So the issue is that the tax cut is for corporations and wealthy people, and it's not going to help poor people. It's not going to help middle-class people. It's
Speaker A
going to throw people off of health insurance. It's bad in so many ways. If they eliminated the repeal of the estate tax part of it, or that just disappeared, because you guys are right. I mean, I think it was 4,700 estate tax filings
Speaker A
that were subject to the estate tax last year. I mean, it's the tick on the back of a fly, but it gets a lot, it gets a lot of attention. If they eliminated that, would you still
Speaker A
have your complaints? Yes, because it's about a payoff to wealthy people in this country, businesses, wealthy individuals who have been making huge political contributions to get people elected to reduce their taxes. Does our corporate tax code make us uncompetitive
Speaker A
or not, in your opinion, in the rest of the world? Not at all. I think that our taxes, you know, when you look at what kind of taxes our corporations actually pay, you know, I mean, there's loads of our
Speaker A
corporations that don't pay any tax at all. You know, they've got enough loopholes and special exceptions written into the corporate tax laws as it is that they don't need any more tax cuts. Hey, do you think I
Speaker A
think it's fine where it is? You know, I think what people don't understand is that businesses really benefit from all the investments that we make in infrastructure in our society. Business benefits from a healthy society. It doesn't do any good
Speaker A
to have a society where we have a bigger discrepancy between wealthy people and poor people. I mean, we've already got a huge issue with that as it is. So I think that's the major issue, is that this tax scam that's being put out
Speaker A
now is just an excuse to give more money to already wealthy people, and we already have the biggest spread between rich and poor in the entire developed world. So why not just be against what is on the table in terms of proposed tax cuts? Why
Speaker A
go out there and actually say you want a tax hike and that taxes on the rich should be higher? Why not just keep taxes where they are and write a check to whatever charity or the U.S. government if you wanted? Well, I think I think we do
Speaker A
both. Certainly, we and the hundreds of other people who sign this letter are doing what we can, but it's a drop in the bucket unless we do it for everybody, for all the wealthy people in the country. So
Speaker A
it's not just individuals doing it, but it becomes structural so that our society can fund what we need. I mean, we have people without health insurance, we have people on Medicaid, we have people on Medicare, we have people in poverty in
Speaker A
the richest country in the world, and we're looking at giving a huge tax cut to wealthy people and corporations. It just makes no sense. Hey there, thanks for checking out CNBC on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe to stay up to date on all of
Speaker A
the day's biggest stories. You can also click on any of the videos around me to watch the latest from CNBC. Thanks for watching.
Topics:Ben CohenJerry GreenfieldBen & Jerry'stax policyestate taxcorporate taxwealth inequalitytax cutshealth insuranceeconomic justice
