Comment by r14c
7 months ago
Wealth inequality. We could all take massive raises and work way less if we didn't structure the economy specifically to benefit the richest 2k people in the country.
7 months ago
Wealth inequality. We could all take massive raises and work way less if we didn't structure the economy specifically to benefit the richest 2k people in the country.
Has anyone done the calculation, adding up the wealth of the richest and determining the difference it would make in the lives of everyone else? Is it $100/year? $1000/year? $10,000/year? $100,000/year? $1,000,000/year? $10,000,000/year? (or whatever currency you'd like to see the results in.) I would guess it's in the tens of thousands per year. It's an imperfect calculation since investments have benefits to society (sometimes) and you can't convert all wealth to cash without destroying some value. But it would be interesting to know the ballpark effect on non-rich individuals.
No, it’s in the realm of the tens to hundreds of thousands one-time, depending on how many wealthy people one robs (see the sibling comment by 'edanm).
One of Æsop’s fables is about a goose who laid golden eggs: https://read.gov/aesop/091.html
Confiscating all the wealth of the richest folks and dividing it up evenly amongst everyone would be similar. Sure, there would be a one-time benefit, everyone not among the richest would get a bit extra — but soon enough it would all be gone. And what would be the follow-on consequences? Who would invest in new technologies, knowing that profits would be socialised and losses privatised?
you would have to make many changes to society to change the process that causes wealth to accumulate. there's no way these people would agree to a one time event (or structural changes for that matter as it goes completely against their interests), so you'd clearly have to make it a structural change for it to happen at all. these changes would have to account for R&D and other roles that the ultra-wealthy take upon themselves to select arbitrarily. theoretically such a system has the potential to be far more egalitarian than our stratified modern society.
Elon Musks's entire net worth right now is $334 billion. If you take all his wealth somehow and divide it among all US citizens, each would get $1000 total.