Basically, it’s a holding company that just owns a bunch of other companies⏤Geico, Dairy Queen, a huge railroad⏤

基本上，它是一間控股公司，擁有一堆其它公司，包括 Geico、Dairy Queen、一大間鐵路公司，

as well as lots of stock in other companies like Apple and Coca-Cola.

同時也在蘋果和可口可樂等其它公司持有許多股權。

So, when those companies do well and their stock goes up, Berkshire Hathaway's stock goes up.

所以當這些公司表現良好、股價上漲，波克夏·海瑟威公司的股票也會上漲。

When Buffett took over the company in 1965, a single share was worth $19.

當巴菲特在 1965 年時接管公司時，一股價值為 19 美元。

Today, it’s worth nearly a half million dollars.

今日，它的價值接近 50 萬美元。

Buffett owns nearly 240,000 of these shares.

巴菲特在這些股票中，擁有近 24 萬股。

This is where his wealth is.

這就是他的財富所在。

But, as he has been known for pointing out, Warren Buffett still pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

但如同他一直指出的那樣，華倫·巴菲特支付的稅金仍比他的祕書少。

She pays twice the rate I pay⏤I think that’s outrageous.

她要付的稅金是我的兩倍，我覺得那很荒謬。

That’s because they pay different types of taxes.

那是因為他們繳納的稅種不同。

His secretary pays income taxes on her salary, but Buffett mainly pays capital gains taxes on his sold stock.

他的祕書是支付薪資所得稅，但巴菲特主要支付其出售股票的資本所得稅。

And that’s taxed at nearly half the rate.

而那稅率幾乎是一半。

The wealthy are definitely undertaxed.

富者被課的稅肯定是不足的。

In the US, the disparity between the richest Americans and everyone else has been growing.

在美國，最富有的美國人和其他所有人之間的差距一直在擴大。

And in the last 40 years, the after-tax income of the richest has risen more than 400%, while middle-class income has only risen 50.

而在過去的 40 年裡，最富者的稅後收入已經上升了 400% 以上，而中產階級的收入只增加了 50%。

The way these people make money is very different than the way these people make money.

這些人的賺錢方式與這些人的賺錢方式截然不同。

And they’re not taxed the same.

而且他們的稅率也不一樣。

I pay less in taxes than people that work for a living and make as much money as I do.

我支付的稅金，比那些為生計工作、收入和我一樣多的人少。

This is Morris.

這是 Morris。

He used to work on Wall Street, now he’s retired and lives off his many stock market investments.

他曾經在華爾街工作，現在他已經退休，靠著他許多的股票投資維生。

I own stock in companies, I mean, Berkshire Hathaway and Amazon and Apple.

我擁有波克夏·海瑟威、亞馬遜和蘋果等公司的股票。

He’s a pretty typical one-percenter, except that he spends his money advocating for rich people like him to be taxed more.

他是一個相當典型的百分之一人，不過他是把錢花在倡導向跟他一樣的富人徵收更多稅金。

I want to live in a country filled with a middle class of people who can all afford to shop in our businesses.

我想要生活在一個中產階級所有人都有能力在我們企業中購物的國家。

Most people have a normal job; they get a paycheck and pay income tax ranging from 10 to 37 percent.

多數人都有一份正常的工作，他們領薪水、繳納所得稅，稅率從 10% 到 37% 不等。

But people like Morris, they make a lot of their income from investments, generally stocks and real estate.

但是像 Morris 這樣的人，他們很多收入來源都是投資，一般是股票和房地產。

These investments are taxed as capital gains, and things like long-term stock have a maximum tax rate of just 20%.

這些投資以資本收益被徵稅，而像長期股票這樣的東西，最高稅率只有 20%。

I sold some stock recently for $400,000, and my taxes on that was around $50,000.

我最近賣了一些股票，價值40 萬美元，我的稅金大約是 5 萬美元。

But that $50,000 is far less tax than anyone who has a job making $400,000 a year would pay.

但這 5 萬美元的稅金遠低於任何工作年薪 40 萬美元者要繳納的稅金。

And most of his wealth, well, isn’t even taxable.

而他的大部分財富甚至不需要納稅。

People like Morris or Buffett are worth so much money because of the stock that they hold.

像 Morris 或巴菲特的人因為他們持有的股票而使其身價高漲。

But it’s not tangible, spendable, taxable money.

但這不是有形、可花、應稅的錢。

I can look at my stock portfolio and I can say, "Oh, you know, I made a million dollars this year."

我可以看看我的股票投資組合然後說：「哦，我今年賺了一百萬美元。」

But it doesn't mean I have to pay anything in taxes because our system is based on only paying taxes when you actually sell something.

但這並不意味著我必須支付任何稅金，因為我們稅法的基礎是，只有在你實際賣出時才需要繳稅。

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, the richest man in America thanks mostly to his Amazon stock, pays almost nothing in taxes.

因為持有雅馬遜股權而變成美國最富者的亞馬遜創始人傑夫·貝佐斯幾乎不繳稅。

We value his worth here, but it’s never taxed, unless it’s turned into real money when he sells the stock and is taxed as a capital gain.

我們估計他的身價在這裡，但在它變成真金白銀之前，不會被徵稅，而當他賣出股票時，只作為資本收益來徵稅。

This is one way billionaires are able to be, technically, worth so much money, but pay so little in taxes.

這是億萬富翁身價如此之高、但支付的稅款卻如此之少的一種方法。

Some billionaires like Elon Musk are able to get loans against their stocks and live off of that.

一些像是伊隆·馬斯克的億萬富翁能夠用他們的股票貸款並以此為生。

They don’t even need to sell the stock to turn it into spendable money.

他們甚至不需要賣掉股票就能把它變成可花的錢。

No sale, no taxes.

沒有銷售就沒有稅收。

A fact is, if you're a billionaire, you don't need any income.

事實是，如果你是一名億萬富翁，你就不需要任何收入。

There’s also a big loophole in capital gains taxes that the rich exploit called the "stepped-up basis".

在資本收益稅中，還有一個被富人利用的大漏洞，叫做「階梯式基礎」。

If, hypothetically, Warren Buffett were to sell his stock, he’d have to pay capital gains taxes based on his profit.

假設華倫·巴菲特出售他的股票，他必須根據他的利潤支付資本所得稅。

So, the cost of the stock minus the original investment.

也就是股票的成本減去原來的投資。

But if he holds off selling his entire life, when he dies,

但如果他一輩子都忍著不賣，當他死後，

whoever inherits the stock and then sells it would only have to pay taxes on what they earned after they inherited it, leaving all those original gains untaxed.

不管繼承股票然後賣出的人是誰，它都只需要繳交他們繼承後收益的稅金，所有原始收益都不被徵稅。

It’s part of what’s called "buy, borrow, die", and it’s one way the richest families avoid paying taxes.

這是所謂的「購買、借貸、死亡」的一部分，也是最富有的家庭逃稅的一種方式。

It’s this system, and the fact that most taxable capital gains are going to the top 1%, that lawmakers see changing the capital gains tax as an easy way to tax the rich.

正是這個系統以及多數應稅資本收益都流向頂尖 1% 的人，讓立法者認為改變資本所得稅是向富人徵稅的一個簡單方法。

President Biden has proposed closing that "stepped up" loophole and increasing the maximum tax rate from 20% to 39.6%,

拜登總統已經提議關閉「階梯式」漏洞，並且將最高稅率從 20% 提高到 39.6%，

but just for people making more than a million dollars a year.

但那僅限於年收入超過一百萬美元的人。

Critics argue that it may discourage people from investing in the stock market or that current millionaires would just sell less stock.

批評者認為，這可能會阻礙人們投資股市，或者目前的百萬富翁會少賣一些股票。

But it would bring in more tax revenue, from more conservative estimates of 200 billion over 10 years to double that.

但它會帶來更多的稅收，估計從較保守的 10 年 2 千億美元到其兩倍。

It would also mean Buffett would pay a closer tax rate to his secretary.

這也意味著巴菲特將支付與他祕書跟同等的稅金。

But this pile of unrealized money still goes untaxed.

但這堆未兌現的錢仍然沒被徵稅。

There's a lot of things we could do to make the system more fair.

要讓體系更公平，我們可以做的事情有很多。

We could have taxes on wealth.

我們可以對財富徵稅。

We could have taxes on gains in the stock market.

我們可以對股市收益徵稅。

Most Americans are bothered that wealthy people don’t pay their fair share.

多數美國人對富人不支付他們的公平份額感到困擾。

And changing capital gains taxes wouldn’t be the whole solution, but advocates argue it would be an easy place to start.

而改變資本所得稅並不是整體解決方案，但倡導者認為這將是一個容易開始的地方。

Our system is making the rich get richer and richer and richer, and everyone else just not.

我們的體系正使富者更富，而其他人只是不富。