Bloomberg Warns Against Taxing the Rich

Mayor Bloomberg repeated a familiar refrain during his radio show on WOR yesterday: Why taxing the rich isn't a great idea. He said, "We can tax the rich, except that, if you haven't looked at the stock market lately, they aren't making any money."

The mayor, whose considerable wealth makes him the 8th richest American (according to Forbes), also explained, "They [the wealthy] are the ones that buy in the stores so that people that work in the stores have jobs in the stores, generate sales tax... The rich are the ones that go to the expensive restaurants where, as a matter of fact, I looked at a list the other day of restaurants where the staff is unionized. They're the expensive restaurants. They're not the cheap restaurants." The Post notes he also commented about those protesting to raise taxes for the rich at City Hall on Thursday, "I hear the protesters, you know. I think that deep down inside, I assume, they understand that we live in a different world," leading to the criticism that Bloomberg is "tone deaf."

According to his budget, the city is set to lose tens of billions in revenue from jobs, many of those being Wall Street jobs with big bonuses. And perhaps as a signal to out-of-towners, Mayor Bloomberg also said, "You know, the yelling and screaming about the rich - we want rich from around this country to move here. We love the rich people."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on March 7, 2009 2:49 PM

Comments [rss]

Clarice City

Of course, he does.

cncrocket

fuck you fuck you fuck you. you rich asshole fuckface. stop letting billionaires decide how they should be taxed.

glennQNYC

What the he'll does Bloomie know about money anyway....

glennQNYC

I can't get over how many people feel that a couple who's combined income is $250k, would classify as "rich," and deserve to be penalized for their gross excess! Crazy!

starrygordon

What would we do if we didn't have the rich to worship? Instead of taxing them, we should be giving them money.

Wait a minute....

jpeditor

" Imagine if developers had to actually build affordable housing instead of luxury condos!"

Affordable housing = "projects"...

thefacts

"NYC's true middle class, i.e. the families with two earners making between $250 and $500"

What drugs are you on? If you make $500k, why are you wasting your time on this blog? Stop kidding yourself.

Btw, most of us NYers miss 'dog day afternoon' and 'french connection' time. At least it was a real city, not your Republican Conservative city of Free Marketeers and Walt Disney and Suburban Values. Obviously, you envy that gritty time, that is why you reference it, not the pablum that Giuliani/Bloomberg Republicans produces.

Stewart

The 1970s were the dark ages of the 20th century. Why would anyone miss social decay and stagflation. Sounds like you miss your youth, but guess what, even when those things return you'll be OLD.

.

By the way, how much money do you think Jen Chung's made off this blog? Should she get off too? Do you think maybe Jen Chung's advertisers want only marxist hippie losers to post this blog? 'Cause there is no way that a person like you would pay to read this blog if there were no advertisers.

.

You are right about one thing, this blog is a waste of time.

thefacts

This blog is not a waste of time. The only waste of time is the five minutes your folks spent spawning you.

Spirit of 76

By the way, how much money do you think Jen Chung's made off this blog?

Last I heard, Jen was still working a full-time job in addition to doing Gothamist. I don't think she's in a penthouse yet.

You are right about one thing, this blog is a waste of time.

Great! Adios! Arriverderci! Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

NannyState

Eat the rich, don't just tax them. And start with Bloomberg whose pan-seared sweetbreads might go well with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

Snoopy

Nanny you are way way too hard on the rich. Do you realize that if it wasn't for the rich the poor would be poorer according to mayor Mike's observation?

In some ways I kind of like that old geezer Madoff. He worked those rich pricks really well. "So I was talking to Estelle and Ira about how much Bernie M has made for us so much in the last five years that we might be buying a nice retirement home in Miami. In fact so much we can afford the "better section."

NannyState

...how do you use this damn chafing dish anyway?

Snoopy

"I hear the protesters, you know. I think that deep down inside, I assume, they understand that we live in a different world," Oh Oh he's been hanging around Caroline Kennedy too much recently, you know.

Snoopy

How many expensive restaurants are there in Manhattan? Forty? Fifty? And say they have a staff of fifty. That means a total of 2,500 people. Say they had a staff of a hundred people that would bring it up to 5,000 people. Where does this guy get his figures from? With that kind of awareness how does Bloomberg's company survive. I doubt those 5,000 individuals are going to make or break the economic survival of NYC.

Let Bloomberg and his buddies eat cake.

ottoemezzo

Wish Napoleon Bloomberg would move to Connecticut. Or better yet....far, far away. Can't stand him!

KING

Hopefully the Crime goes up on the rich. That would be GREAT. I'd love to see their faces.

tmz is evil

Noooo! Don't tax the rich! That would be Communism!

Let's tax the middle class instead! Now that's capitalism!

Snoopy

" I looked at a list the other day of restaurants where the staff is unionized. They're the expensive restaurants. They're not the cheap restaurants."

But excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me, but does that make the food better? Perhaps we poor fucks can't write off two $500 bottles of wine at lunch as an expense account figure while you talk about if your ugly little slut daughters Buffy and Muffy should go to Dalton or Miss Wilton's boarding school for girls in Connecticut.

Moving a plate of food from point a in the kitchen to point b at the receiver's table really doesn't need a union supervisor.

And what is so bad about the "cheap" restaurants? At least there you wont find a bunch of financial assholes trying to steal your money anyway they can.

Get real Bloomberg. Take 10 billion of your Monopoly play money and do something with it before it all disappears.

thelexiphane

Sometimes I feel sorry for Stu Loeser, who'd probably like to stuff a ball gag in his boss's mouth. But he can't, b/c that would cost him his six-figure bonus.