Rutger Bregman on BBC

1. So I was on the Jeremy Vine (BBC) show today. They had me debate this think tank guy, Mark Littlewood from the 'Institute of Economic Affairs'. Sounds very prestigious, eh?

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 19, 2019

2. He was convinced that inequality is not an issue, the rich should pay less in tax, and threw some misleading statistics at me.

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 19, 2019

3. The weird thing was that he was introduced as some kind of neutral expert. I had to point out that heā€™s in fact a corporate lobbyist who takes money from Big Tobacco, climate deniers, etc., and sees Brexit as an opportunity to make Britain a paradise for billionaires.

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 19, 2019

4. Actually, this ā€˜Institute of Economic Affairsā€™ just received an official warning from the Charity Commission, because they use taxfree donations to spread their libertarian propaganda. Which is illegal in the UK.

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 19, 2019

5. Makes you wonder: why do these people even get airtime? Good news is that they seem like a relic of the past. The things he was saying may have been radical in the seventies. Now itā€™s just BO-RING.

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 19, 2019


 

The #GiniCoefficient refered to is not ā€˜misleadingā€˜ invention by @MarkJLittlewood, but a widespread measure of inequality. I expected more from you than these ad-hominem attacks.

— Clara von Bismarck-Osten (@claravobi) March 19, 2019

By oversimplifying things you lower yourself to the level of the lobbyist you so fiercly blame. Inequality is an intricate phenomenon. It deserves close attention.

— Clara von Bismarck-Osten (@claravobi) March 19, 2019

Do your homework next time youā€˜re invited on a show and check the data ā€“ ā€šmany people think like meā€˜ is not enough to convince

— Clara von Bismarck-Osten (@claravobi) March 19, 2019

On @OurWorldinData you can find a fantastic summary of the available data on the subject. @MaxCRoser is managing the page.

— Clara von Bismarck-Osten (@claravobi) March 19, 2019

I actually did my homework, but didn't get the time to make all my points. Here's what World In Data (fantastic website indeed) writes, and this is what I mean when I say it's misleading to look at the gini-index in this case. pic.twitter.com/amsgTblf1V

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 19, 2019

Itā€˜s good you clarify!

— Clara von Bismarck-Osten (@claravobi) March 19, 2019

Extremely good and helpful work on this is done by Stephen Jenkinshttps://t.co/QS6uLo6mh4
and alsohttps://t.co/hgeoGMOXgd

— Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) March 19, 2019

Tucker Carlson Call One of His Guests A “Tiny Brain…moron”

1/ Hereā€™s the interview that @TuckerCarlson and Fox News didnā€™t want you to see. I chose to release it, because I think we should keep talking about the corrupting influence of money in politics. It also shows how angry elites can get if you do that. https://t.co/hs1474MJNM

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) February 20, 2019

2/ I stand behind what I said, but thereā€™s one thing I should have done better. When Carlson asked me how heā€™s being influenced by Big Business and tax-avoiding billionaires, I should have quoted Noam Chomsky.

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) February 20, 2019

3/ Years ago, when he was asked a similar question, Chomsky replied: ā€˜Iā€™m sure you believe everything youā€™re saying. But what Iā€™m saying is that if you believe something different, you wouldnā€™t be sitting where youā€™re sitting.ā€™

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) February 20, 2019

 

"Have you guys ever seen the show???"

Tucker always does that at the beginning. He sits there and agrees with them on a few points, and just eggs them on until they say something ridiculous. Bregman wasn't going to wait for the trap.

Smart guy.

— James E Jones (@jamesedjones) February 21, 2019

Philanthropy Doesn’t Compensate for Tax Evasion

šŸŒ

I did not tweet much about Davos, but this one is interesting:

ā€˜It feels like Iā€™m at a firefighters conference and no oneā€™s allowed to speak about water.ā€™

This historian wasnā€™t afraid to confront the billionaires at Davos about their greed #SDGspic.twitter.com/972D1Dhzei

— Alexander Verbeek šŸŒ (@Alex_Verbeek) January 29, 2019

Billionaire @MichaelDell thinks a 70% top rate of income tax would never work.@erikbryn and @RCBregman NAIL exactly why heā€™s wrong.
Share if you agree. pic.twitter.com/TjvcWwpBKu

— Novara Media (@novaramedia) January 26, 2019

When the top U.S. tax rate was 70%ā€”or Higher: through the entire administrations of presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter, the top-tax-bracket rate was at least 70% https://t.co/FR1c9n7vrj

— Robert Went (@went1955) January 26, 2019

Rutger Bregman caused a stir for criticising tax avoidance at the World Economic Forum in Davos. On "The Economist asks" @RCBregman and @Henry_Curr debate howā€”and how muchā€”to tax the rich https://t.co/bSb7d1cxN5

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) February 7, 2019

 more
 

Tax evasion can be stopped.

Keywords: Erik Brynjolfsson; Rutger Bregman; Michael Dell; taxes; tax heavens

2010-01-17, updated: 2019-02-08

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