The phrase “tax the rich” can be “just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs”, according to the New York City billionaire Steve Roth, who said that the top 1% should be “praised and thanked”.

Speaking on his company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Roth, the CEO of Vornado Realty Trust, expressed his support for fellow billionaire and the CEO of Citadel, Ken Griffin, who was singled out in the 15 April announcement by New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, of the state’s first “pied-à-terre” tax on second homes valued at more than $5m. In a video, Mamdani announced the policy in front of Griffin’s penthouse, which he said was purchased for $238m.

“We are all shocked that our young mayor would pull this stunt in front of Ken’s home and single him out for ridicule,” Roth said. “This was both irresponsible and dangerous.”

Edit: Mamdani’s video that sparked this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLKZnVB4F9k

  • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    Just to highlight that as a real estate magnate, his entire empire is built on rent-seeking, i.e. accumulating wealth by the hoarding of a limited resource, without having created anything of value.

    This billionaire did not create a billion dollars of value for society, even indirectly; he only took it from others.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafe
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      4 days ago

      Yeah, heading towards just taking it all, and leaving them destitute, and if they don’t like it, they can think about it in prison, if they’re lucky to survive that long.

      They enjoy their wealth at the pleasure of the Citizens, and those who don’t handle their wealth responsibly, will have it removed.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        4 days ago

        Leaving them destitute is much more polite than the alternative too. That basically requires them to comply, which I assume they won’t. If it comes down to other actions being taken, because the systems aren’t doing their job, it’ll require some level of violence.

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafe
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          3 days ago

          How easy or violent it has to be is entirely up to them. If they want violence, we can oblige them, but they’ll still lose their money, and their family may not survive it.

  • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    Man with more money than he could possibly use in his life is upset at the suggestion that some portion of the money he will never used could be used to help other people.

    Being a billionaire is a sign of mental illness and needs to start being treated as such.

  • volore@scribe.disroot.org
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    4 days ago

    I feel like Mr. Roth has forgotten that being taxed is the alternative we came up with to beheadings for the upper class when they got too rich and powerful.

    • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net
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      4 days ago

      Yeah… tax the rich is the nicest thing we could be saying… they’ve definitely forgotten…

  • nonentity@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    Financial obesity is an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal.

    Corporations are the only ‘persons’ which should be subjected to capital punishment, but billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.

  • NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net
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    4 days ago

    “TAX” is going to be the softest, most palateable verb that will be done to them, the alternatives are a little less polite.

  • Clutter@sh.itjust.works
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    3 days ago

    Mamdani is choosing the lesser evil here my dear rich person… The other options is: we kill you.

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 days ago

    "He will learn over time that growing a tax base is a winner and raising taxes is a loser … and that the hard-working 1% are allies, not enemies.”

    Translation: “we’re still working on finding ways to make him do our bidding”

  • crusa187@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    Perhaps he would prefer “Eradicate the rich.”

    (Through even more taxation, of course.)

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Or guillitines. Or Luigi. Look, I’m not really picky on how we make the streets flow with a river of their blood. Dealers choice really.

  • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    He views the Rich as a separate ethnic group.

    from wiki:

    An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of humans who identify with each other on the basis of perceived shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Attributes that ethnicities believe to share include language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, religion, history, or social treatment.

    He’s mostly right, but that doesn’t invalidate criticisms of the Rich.

    • StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      That’s like admitting they live in a completely different world. That’s what blows my mind. By implication, he’s admitting the wealthy exist in a completely separate reality. That the shadow economy is real, and that the average person is effectively a second-class citizen. It’s an acknowledgment that it is, and maybe always has been, us versus them. I’ve always said they exist in a completely different world, one that operates on different rules than the rest of us. More than just the obvious. Everything you posted, culture, norms, ancestry, history. They will never change to help you. They will always operate from a place of exploitation. It’s their culture. They made it so.

    • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I think it’s more that he views anyone not rich as not human. Only him and his rich friends are actually people and the plebeian masses should defer to them as such.

    • liuther9@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I’ve met some people with this mindset of “i dont give a single fuk if it is not good for me”. They also tend to praise billionares and bad dictators. Makes me really curios how their brain works