Tax policy fuels extreme wealth inequality: two examples

Policy for the People

Over the past four-and-a-half decades, we have seen economic inequality return with a vengeance. We're living through a new Gilded Age, comparable to the one at the turn of the 19th Century. The first Gilded Age was the age of Rockefeller and Carnegie; ours is the age of Bezos and Knight. The return of extreme wealth inequality is the result of public policy choices, not least decisions in how we tax the superrich.
In this episode of Policy for the People, we look at two different policies on how we tax – or don’t tax – the wealthy. In the first segment, we examine the tax break known as Opportunity Zones. Bennett Minton of Tax Fairness Oregon explains why this is a tax break where only the rich can play.
In the second segment, the Oregon Center for Public Policy’s Daniel Hauser discusses a recent attempt by some Oregon lawmakers to fast-track a repeal of the estate tax – the only real mechanism we have in Oregon for taxing extreme wealth.