This is why the Patriotic Millionaires believe the tax system unfairly works in their favor — and why they want to change it.
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00:00I think we need a kind of taxes that directly address inequality and I think we need to have rich people paying more taxes than regular working Americans.
00:31What we need for our businesses to help us make money is a huge middle class of people that can afford to pay bills every month and buy expensive shoes and expensive ice cream and organic groceries and pay their mortgage and car payments every month.
00:48That's what we need to help us get rich, not lower tax rates on the few of us who make billions of dollars.
00:56One of the problems of the American tax system is that wealthy people who earn their money from investments pay much lower tax rates than everyday working people who actually have to work for a living.
01:09It's just not fair.
01:18I was at a due diligence meeting in the dining room of the headquarters of a bank in Athens, Greece.
01:24There was a kind of a demonstration moving down the street towards the square where parliament meets.
01:30And then as I turned around, I looked around and I was kind of wondering, am I doing any good for the rest of the people of Greece beyond these couple dozen bankers that I'm having lunch with?
01:40I just decided to do something different and to make the world a better place for my children and hopefully grandchildren.
01:55You know, I have proposed a two cent wealth tax.
02:00I have and will continue in this campaign to fight for progressive taxation.
02:05Back in the day when America had higher taxes, they did everything from building an interstate highway system to sending people to the moon.
02:13Most of the huge businesses that make America successful and have employed millions of workers were created by businessmen who paid much higher tax rates than any investors do now.
02:25Talk to Ken Langone, who's running around campaigning for lower taxes.
02:31He founded or helped found the huge business of Home Depot, and at that time he paid taxes of 70% on his income above $100,000 a year.
02:44That didn't prevent him from founding a big business.
02:47We believe that the problem is caused by the fact that the political leaders or legislators who represent us have to spend so much time with the rich people because they need to raise so much money to pay for their campaigns.
03:02So we are supporting campaign finance reform.
03:05We are supporting a system where small donors have the same kind of influence that the major donors do now.
03:14I think we have to re-explain to Americans that the government is not some outside force taking their money away.
03:22The government is us, collectively, with all of our neighbors here in the United States, deciding what we want to spend our money on.