Bill Gates and other ultra-rich Americans depend on ‘millions of poor people’: Ex-US presidential candidate
Former US Democratic presidential candidate and hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer has said the wealth accumulated by ultra-rich Americans like former Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Bill Gates depends on "millions of poor people."
Steyer, who supports raising taxes on the wealthy, said in an interview published on Sunday that billionaires must acknowledge that their success owes to a working-class of millions who made it possible for them to flourish, Yahoo News reported.
"I have always thought that the capitalist system should reward people for coming up with ideas and products that make other people's lives safer, healthier, more fun, more productive," he said. "Absolutely."
"Having said that, do I also think that those people when they succeed — when a Bill Gates succeeds, did he create Microsoft? Yeah, at some level he did. But he did it within a system that other people, millions of poor people, millions of unassuming people, had dedicated their lives to create,” he added.
"So he was building it — you know the old saying — standing on the shoulders of giants," Steyer continued.
His remarks came as taxes on wealthy Americans remain a key sticking point in negotiations among Democrats in Congress over a spending bill that would expand social services allocate money for climate change.
The legislation was initially aimed to raise taxes on wealthy people as a central source of revenue but now could end up reducing their tax bill.
According to an analysis released by the White House in September, the wealthiest 400 American families paid an 8.2 percent average rate on federal income taxes from 2010 to 2018.
The Tax Foundation found the tax rate for the wealthiest families over that period fell below the average 13.3 percent tax rate paid by US families in 2018.
Biden has backtracked on a promise to increase taxes on the wealthy and corporations, according to a report.
The White House told Democratic lawmakers last month that a proposed hike in US corporate taxes was unlikely to make it into their signature social spending bill, Reuters reported quoting a congressional source familiar with the discussions.
Biden had planned to hike the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 21 percent, a key campaign promise, but he regened on it in order to steer his economic revival package through Congress.
The US House of Representatives, controlled by Biden’s Democrats, passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill this week to repair the nation's airports, roads, and bridges.
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