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You Are Jeff Bezos

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Re: You Are Jeff Bezos

#81

Post by takinola »

coldpie wrote: post #75
takinola wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is "wealth hoarding" and why is it a problem? I keep hearing this term and realize I just tune it out because it sounds like a political slogan. I am open to understanding though just in case this is a blindspot for me.

Numbers are all super ballparky, but the top 10% of US citizens hold about $60 trillion in wealth[1]. If you redistributed that to every American equally, that would put about $200,000 into each person's bank account[2]. I think that would do a lot to alleviate things like college debt, credit card debt, and all the myriad woes that come with poverty, all without printing a single dollar. (Yes it's a complicated prob…

I guess the question is whether the wealth of the top 10% is related to the issues of the rest. There are a number of possible places to get the same money (budget reallocations, corporate wealth, etc). It is not obvious to me that these 2 things are connected.

Also, one way to address the issues is to get everyone to be wealthier. "Why can't you just be richer?" seems like a weird thing to say but this is exactly what has happened over the last 100 years or so (at least for most of the world's population). This has solved many things that used to be problems but created new problems of its own.

Would a solution that makes the bottom 90% better able to afford healthcare but makes the top 10% even richer be a good thing? If not, why not?

Re: You Are Jeff Bezos

#82

Post by stephen999 »

coldpie wrote: post #75
takinola wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is "wealth hoarding" and why is it a problem? I keep hearing this term and realize I just tune it out because it sounds like a political slogan. I am open to understanding though just in case this is a blindspot for me.

Numbers are all super ballparky, but the top 10% of US citizens hold about $60 trillion in wealth[1]. If you redistributed that to every American equally, that would put about $200,000 into each person's bank account[2]. I think that would do a lot to alleviate things like college debt, credit card debt, and all the myriad woes that come with poverty, all without printing a single dollar. (Yes it's a complicated prob…

Just distributing more money to people doesn’t create more resources in the real world. It just makes those resources cost more in dollar terms because more people have more money to spend on it. But the dollar value is somewhat arbitrary, doesn’t matter if it’s higher or lower just the ratio to incomes.

Re: You Are Jeff Bezos

#84

Post by jkestner »

belval wrote: post #23
marcellus23 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't that much more complicated than that — politics-wise, sure, but all you really need is housing and money to solve homelessness.

Of course it is! The market doesn't have 20B$ worth of contractors to build homes so just by injecting that much money your house prices will increase, making it hard for everyone else to build their own home. To get 20B$ in actual money to pay the above-mentioned contractors, you need to sell an additional 7.4B$ in shares (to pay the taxes). Selling 27B$ of your portfolio would inevitably mess with Amazon's stock pr…

Building is a solved problem. The hard part is the political will to do it. The point of this game is not to show a detailed budget, but the magnitude of money needed to make it happen, if only the will was there.

Re: You Are Jeff Bezos

#85

Post by lostmsu »

throwoutway wrote: post #79
missedthecue wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has a budget of almost $70 billion per year. Someone should fill them in that the internet figured out how to solve homelessness for a one-time payment only fraction of what they spend year-in year-out.

What are we paying them $70B for?!

For trying to convince people to enter one of the homeless support programs, and not drop out of it in the middle?

Re: You Are Jeff Bezos

#86

Post by FredPret »

unethical_ban wrote: post #74
iamricks wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't the 300M he spent on the yacht get distributed into the economy? I don't understand why people want higher taxes on high income, i don't want the government to distribute that money. I rather it get distributed to the company and its employees building that yacht than adding it to the national budget.

The principle is simple: There are baseline needs in our society currently not met for a large number of people, and it is the responsibility of government to provide that baseline (food, water, shelter, basic healthcare). Beyond that, we should incentivize people to work in some fashion to be a contributing member of society. Second and somewhat unrelated: The inequality gap is growing, shows no signs of shrinking m…

> “and it is the responsibility of government to provide that baseline”

>“ The inequality gap is growing, shows no signs of shrinking meaningfully. ”

You’re applying your moral model of the world universally. In reality, not everyone sees it this way.

Re: You Are Jeff Bezos

#87

Post by FredPret »

booleandilemma wrote: post #51

I stopped reading at: “What would you do if you had more money than any single human being should ever have?” Who’s to say who should have what? What kind of dystopia are you imagining? The only reason Bezos has money is because people give it to him, and for good reason.

I personally don’t like most of what I’ve learnt about the guy, or Amazon, but I have voluntarily handed them thousands upon thousands of dollars and intend to continue.

There’s good and bad in everything.

Re: You Are Jeff Bezos

#88

Post by unethical_ban »

FredPret wrote: post #86
unethical_ban wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The principle is simple: There are baseline needs in our society currently not met for a large number of people, and it is the responsibility of government to provide that baseline (food, water, shelter, basic healthcare). Beyond that, we should incentivize people to work in some fashion to be a contributing member of society. Second and somewhat unrelated: The inequality gap is growing, shows no signs of shrinking m…

> “and it is the responsibility of government to provide that baseline” >“ The inequality gap is growing, shows no signs of shrinking meaningfully. ” You’re applying your moral model of the world universally. In reality, not everyone sees it this way.

The first quote is philosophy. The second quote is fact.

Welcome to the world. Everyone applies their moral model to the world. If you claim you don't, then you are applying your moral model of "members of society have no obligation to help those who are inherently damaged by society" to the world.

Re: You Are Jeff Bezos

#89

Post by FredPret »

unethical_ban wrote: post #88
FredPret wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “and it is the responsibility of government to provide that baseline” >“ The inequality gap is growing, shows no signs of shrinking meaningfully. ” You’re applying your moral model of the world universally. In reality, not everyone sees it this way.

The first quote is philosophy. The second quote is fact. Welcome to the world. Everyone applies their moral model to the world. If you claim you don't, then you are applying your moral model of "members of society have no obligation to help those who are inherently damaged by society" to the world.

The second fact implies a moral judgement.

And of course we all have our moral models. But not all of us want to forcefully impose our model onto others. To do that is narrow-minded fundamentalism.

Re: You Are Jeff Bezos

#90

Post by ldbooth »

hackflip wrote: post #64
ldbooth wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buffet has argued for a Consumption tax, he is closest to the mark.

Is that not what sales tax is?

Good question. I suppose the consumption tax would be higher for luxury items, and non existent for groceries, rather than a flat tax across the board. Also sales tax is at the state level and suppose this would be federal. I think of yachts and 3rd homes being taxed a lot higher.
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