Meet a Billionaire with a Lower Tax Rate Than You [VIDEO]

Posted by Robert Greenwald, Brave New Films at 4:58 AM on December 6, 2007.

This post, written by Robert Greenwald, originally appeared on Brave New Films

Henry Kravis is a billionaire, the 57th richest person in America. He acquired this wealth by purchasing public companies with borrowed money. To pay off the debt, he cuts benefits at the company, sells its assets, and lays off employees.

This get-rich-quick scheme made him $450 million last year. Meanwhile, his tax rate is lower than teachers, firemen, nurses, even his own cleaning staff!

Yet everyday we hear another story, we live another experience, we see another example of the horrific economic pain our country is being devastated by.

It's time all of us started a WAR ON GREED.

Use this video as a funny, satirical, and poignant way of raising the issue with your friends, family and colleagues. Then start up your creative juices and figure out what *you* would do if you lived in one of Kravis' mansions for a day during the holidays. Would you feed the homeless? Throw a huge party? Sell everything on eBay?

Post a comment below with your your most creative use of Kravis' mansions, and you could be the star of our next video!

Yep, we'll pick the best idea and send a crew out to your home to film you challenging Henry Kravis to implement your idea. Then we'll make sure he sees it... and maybe a few reporters too. :)

Sara Gepp, who you can see in the video, wrote a letter to the Kravis Family. And for more on Henry Kravis and other borrow-and-buyout corporations, we've compiled some good background material here.

Robert Greenwald sits on the board of the Independent Media Institute, AlterNet's parent company

Tagged as: economy, taxes, economic disparities, wealth divide

Robert Greenwald is the director/producer of "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" and "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism."