The National Debt Scam

They got rich off Uncle Sam; it's time for Uncle Sam to collect.

💰 We always hear some politicians scream about the national debt.
📉 They act like America is drowning in red ink.
🚨 But here’s what they won’t tell you: that debt didn’t just disappear—it turned into wealth.

While working people stress over deficits, billionaires sit on trillions in assets built from that very debt. They didn’t create all that wealth alone. The roads they use, the educated workforce they hire, the technology they profit from—all of it was funded by national spending, backed by public debt.

And yet, when the bill comes due, the ultra-rich refuse to pay. They push tax cuts for themselves, gut public programs, and demand “austerity”—for everyone but them.

Here’s the simple truth:

🔹 If you built massive wealth, you did it in an economy that incurred debt to enable that wealth-building.
🔹 Regular people already contribute 100% of their income back into the economy.
🔹 But billionaires? They hoard wealth, siphoning money out of the system instead of paying their fair share.

This is not just unfair—it’s a scam.

It’s time to flip the script and make those who profited off Uncle Sam pay Uncle Sam back.

The National Debt Created $180 Trillion in Wealth—Who Benefited?

Let’s look at the numbers:

• As of 2024:Q3, total assets in the U.S. amount to $190 trillion.

• In 1979:Q4, total assets were just $10.4 trillion.

• In contrast, federal debt stands at $31 trillion today, up from $726 billion in 1979.

Sources: Federal Reserve Balance Sheet of Households and Nonprofit Organizations & Debt of Nonfinancial Sectors

That means while the U.S. took on roughly $30 trillion in debt, our total national wealth exploded by $180 trillion.

If that debt helped create that wealth, shouldn’t those who accumulated it help pay for it?

Instead, wealth has been hoarded at the top. The ultra-rich didn’t just win the game—they rigged it. Wages stagnated, costs skyrocketed, and most people saw none of that massive increase in national wealth.

The problem isn’t that the U.S. has debt. The problem is who actually pays it down.

We Used to Tax the Rich—Then We Got Conned

There was a time when we taxed the wealthy much more heavily, and the economy worked better because of it.

For decades after WWII, top income tax rates were as high as 90%, corporate taxes were much higher, and the economy boomed. The middle class thrived, infrastructure was built, and America led the world in innovation and growth.

Then came the great con.

We were told that instead of taxing the rich, we should cut their taxes, claiming this would "trickle down" to the rest of us. But that wasn’t all. Instead of making up the lost tax revenue through taxation, these policies created massive deficits, and to cover them, the government borrowed money from the very people whose taxes were cut—at interest.

Think about that: we cut their taxes, lost revenue, ran deficits, then borrowed money from them to cover the gap, and now we’re paying them interest on what we should have taxed in the first place.

This was a double giveaway to the ultra-rich. First, they got a tax cut. Then, they turned around and bought up government debt—earning interest, paid for by taxpayers, on money they should have contributed in the first place.

The last 50 years of economic data prove this was a disaster.

• Wages stagnated.

• Wealth inequality exploded.

• The economy became dominated by monopolies.

And instead of that wealth recirculating through productive investment, much of it remained locked in financial markets, stocks, and other non-productive holdings, driving up asset prices for the rich while doing nothing for the real economy.

We must reverse this immediately. But here’s the thing—this cannot be fixed with just an income tax.

A wealth tax is the only way to claw back the ill-gotten benefits of this scam. The rich didn’t just earn their way to the top—they benefited from a system that allowed them to accumulate massive wealth while contributing far less proportionally than working Americans. It’s time to rebalance the scales.

The Unspoken Reality: Who Already Pays?

Right now, working- and middle-class Americans already contribute nearly all of their income back into the economy.
They:
✅ Spend most of what they earn on necessities.
✅ Pay income, payroll, and sales taxes on nearly every dollar.
✅ Save for retirement in long-term, locked-in accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs.

Meanwhile, billionaires extract, hoard, and manipulate:
❌ They avoid taxes through loopholes, offshoring, and stock buybacks.
❌ They park their wealth in financial assets that contribute nothing to the real economy.
❌ They buy politicians to ensure they never have to contribute back to the system that made them rich.

This is why a fair wealth tax isn’t just about redistribution—it’s about economic responsibility. If you built wealth in an economy that took on debt to enable it, you should proportionally clear that debt.

How a Fair Wealth Tax Would Work

A bold but fair wealth tax would:

✅ Exempt essential wealth—including:

• Primary residences.

• 401(k)s, IRAs, and other retirement accounts (exempt up to $2 million per household, adjustable based on actuarial analysis).

• A baseline exemption for savings (e.g., $100k per person).

✅ Adjust the tax base to reflect real taxable wealth—

• Before applying the tax, the government estimates total exempted wealth across all households and subtracts it from the national wealth total.

• This ensures only non-exempted wealth is taxed, making sure the tax closely matches the full national debt.

✅ Provide flexibility in payment options—

• Those taxed would not be required to sell their assets—though they could.

• Instead, they could choose to borrow against their assets to cover the tax—effectively converting public debt into private debt.

• Those who borrow would likely pay higher interest rates than the government currently does, meaning this is their choice, not a forced liquidation.

✅ Ensure U.S. ownership—requiring that any asset sales to cover this tax be restricted to U.S. buyers.

• This prevents foreign investors or governments from buying up critical American assets while allowing domestic investors, workers, and businesses to regain economic control.

✅ Use the revenue to fully eliminate the national debt—ensuring that those who gained the most from public investment cover their fair share of the costs incurred to create that wealth.

How Simple Would This Be? Let’s Look at an Example

Say your wealth grew by $10 billion from 1980 to today. You own:

• A primary residence worth $20 million

• A retirement account worth $100 million

• Savings of $10 million

Let’s estimate that the total in essential exemptions is: $25 trillion

Under this tax, only wealth beyond the exemptions is taxed:

10,000,000,000−(20,000,000+2,000,000+100,000)=9,977,900,000

To ensure fairness, the government first estimates total exempted wealth across all households and subtracts it from the total wealth pool before applying the tax.

With $25 trillion in exempted wealth removed, the new taxable base is $155 trillion instead of $180 trillion.

Your share of the national wealth growth would be:

9,977,900,000/155,000,000,000,000=0.00006440 (or 0.00644%)

So, your fair share of the national debt would be:

30,274,000,000,000×0. 00006440 =
1,948,844,804

✅ Final Wealth Tax Bill: $1.949 billion

Options for Covering the Tax Bill

Those subject to the tax would have two primary options:

1. Sell assets to pay the tax bill (limited to U.S. buyers to prevent foreign takeovers).

2. Borrow against their assets instead of selling them—turning the public debt into private debt.

• If they sell assets, the public gains greater ownership of businesses, stocks, and property.

• If they borrow instead, they take on private debt at interest rates higher than what the government currently pays.

• In reality, it will likely be a mix of both, but either way, the entire national debt gets wiped out.

Alternatively, a simplified way to think about this tax is:

🔹 Households would pay a one-time tax of about 19.53% on their wealth growth since 1980, beyond the exempted amounts.

This means you contribute the same proportion of the national debt as the proportion of wealth you gained from national economic growth—ensuring fairness.

Now, apply this to every billionaire and ultra-wealthy individual, and we wipe out the national debt while maintaining a system that actually benefits the economy instead of keeping wealth locked in private stockpiles.

Three Key Benefits of Taxing Billionaire Wealth

1. It Eliminates National Debt Without Burdening the Working Class

• Instead of cutting programs that benefit everyday Americans, we should fund them properly by ensuring those who gained the most from national economic growth cover their fair share of the debt incurred to create that growth.

• Billionaires hold trillions in unproductive assets—whether they choose to sell a fraction, borrow against their holdings, or use a mix of both, the result is the same: the national debt is eliminated without harming the economy.

2. It Lifts the Burden Off the Middle Class and Future Generations

For decades, the U.S. has taken on debt to fund essential services and infrastructure—investments that made economic growth possible but left the burden of repayment on the working and middle class.

This tax ensures that those who gained the most from these public investments contribute their fair share to paying down the debt that funded:

✅ Roads, bridges, and transit systems that enabled commerce and expansion.
✅ Education that trained the workforce and drove innovation.
✅ Healthcare systems that absorbed costs while billionaires profited.
✅ Scientific research and development (R&D) that laid the foundation for entire industries.

These are just some of the investments that built today's economy. By eliminating the debt tied to them, we lift the burden unfairly placed on workers and future generations—restoring fairness and economic mobility.

3. It Reduces Monopoly Power and Political Corruption

Billionaires don’t just hoard wealth—they hoard power. They use their massive financial reserves to crush competition, buy politicians, and rewrite laws in their favor.

A wealth tax would:
✅ Ensure the ultra-rich contribute their fair share— whether through asset sales, borrowing, or a combination of both—reducing their outsized control over the economy and restoring competition.
✅ Reduce their stranglehold on politics—because extreme wealth is the root of extreme corruption.
✅ Level the playing field—so competition, not just money, determines success.

💡 Preventing Future Debt Crises
This isn’t just about fixing past debt—it’s about ensuring we don’t keep repeating the cycle.
🔹 Ending tax loopholes and offshore havens for the ultra-wealthy ensures they can’t escape responsibility in the future.
🔹 Reversing reckless tax cuts that benefit the top 1% keeps revenue streams sustainable.
🔹 Maintaining progressive taxation ensures public investments continue without burdening working families.

Addressing Common Counterarguments

❌ “A wealth tax is too complex to implement.”
✅ Every major tax system is complex, yet we enforce them. This one is simple: if you gained wealth from public investment, you help pay back the debt that enabled it.

❌ “This will hurt investment and innovation.”
✅ Even after the tax, billionaires keep ~80% of their gains. The real threat to innovation is an indebted, weakened middle class that can’t fully participate in the economy.

❌ “Wealth is about individual effort, not public investment.”
✅ No billionaire built their empire alone. Publicly funded roads, research, education, and legal protections all played a role—funded by debt they now refuse to help pay.

❌ “The rich will just move their money offshore.”
✅ This isn’t an annual tax—it’s a one-time correction based on wealth already accumulated. If billionaires want to abandon the U.S. market and legal protections, that’s their choice—but they won’t get to keep the benefits while dodging the bill.

❌ "This will hurt small businesses and entrepreneurs."
✅ No, this tax doesn’t touch small businesses or working entrepreneurs.

• It only applies to extreme wealth accumulation—billionaires and ultra-millionaires who have gained disproportionately from public investment.

• Small businesses already pay taxes, reinvest earnings, and contribute to the economy. The ultra-rich, on the other hand, hoard wealth in financial markets instead of circulating it.

• The people pushing this argument aren’t small business owners. They’re billionaires pretending to care about small businesses while dodging their own responsibility.

This Isn’t “Radical.” It’s Just Smart Economics.

We don’t have a debt problem. We have a billionaire hoarding problem.

The real “radical” idea is the one billionaires push:

• That working people should keep shouldering debt.

• That billionaires should keep reaping the rewards while paying nothing back.

• That America should just “tighten its belt” while they fly off in their private jets.

The choice is simple:
💰 Protect billionaire hoarding, keep national debt high, and let working people suffer
OR
💡 Make those who built wealth on national investment contribute proportionally to clearing the debt.

The ultra-rich got richer while debt soared. They benefited the most, and now, they should pay their share.

That’s not socialism. What we have now is socialism for the rich—where the public takes on the debt, but the benefits go to billionaires. Real capitalism is about accountability.

Right now, our system is like someone borrowing money from grandpa, getting rich off it, then letting grandpa get crushed by the debt.

No. If you got rich off Uncle Sam, you pay back Uncle Sam.

This isn’t radical. This isn’t socialism.

🚨 This. Is. Capitalism. 🚨