A self-described member of the 1 percent shocked the Reddit community on Wednesday with an explanation of why he was voting for the presidential candidate who has made higher taxes for the wealthy a tenet of his campaign.
'Member Of The 1%' Explains On Reddit Why He's Voting For Bernie Sanders
Credit: 350VT
July 16, 2015

A self-described member of the 1 percent shocked the Reddit community on Wednesday with an explanation of why he was voting for the presidential candidate who has made higher taxes for the wealthy a tenet of his campaign.

In a wildly popular Reddit post, a user named thunderd11 announced: "I'm a member of the 1% and I'm voting for Bernie Sanders."

The user who described himself as a "white male in my 30s" said that he grew up "fairly poor," and then started a successful consulting firm after nearly a decade in the military, earning him "membership in the 1% by pretty much any definition of the phrase."

He argued that Sanders' plan to return to the 90 percent top income tax rates of the early 1950s was the right way to address income inequality.

"After all the write offs, business expenses, mortgage interest deductions etc... My Taxable Income is less than half of my Gross Income," the 1 percenter noted. "Add in my capital gains earnings at their super low tax rate even though my gross income is well over the top tax bracket my effective tax rate is usually around 17-18% every year and could actually be quite a bit lower if I put actual effort into (legal) tax avoidance strategies."

"This gives me a slightly lower effective tax rate than my housekeeper."

And according to the business owner, returning to the higher a 90 percent rate would take his effective tax rate to "33% instead of an effective 18%."

"So please don't let the '91% top tax bracket' fool you. The rich will still be PLENTY rich. My standard of living will change exactly 0%," he insisted. "I'll still drive an expensive car and go on nice vacations and pay my employees and buy the same things I always bought."

Agreeing with Sanders on the issue of income inequality, he predicted that doubling the minimum wage would be "wonderful for business."

"Feel free to look up all the studies of how very little product prices would have to increase to support doubling the minimum wage and still maintain profit margins. It's laughable," he wrote. "I pay every one of my employees above market rates cutting into my own profit margins and here's the result. I have a cult following."

The Reddit posting went on to back Sanders' positions on climate change, moving jobs back from overseas and investing in education.

The post had received over 4,000 upvotes as of Thursday morning, more than any recent item in the "Sanders For President" subreddit.

However, the post also attracted a number of negative responses.

"What horseshit, that lower than secretaries tax rate has been proven time and time again to be complete horseshit," one user wrote.

"Socialism is not compatible with freedom," another redditor complained.

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