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20 year study of global wealth demolishes the myth of ‘trickle-down’

businessinsider.com

161–170 of 444 posts

Re: 20 year study of global wealth demolishes the myth of ‘trickle-down’

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, no? In this specific example, the doctor is buying instruments which derive their interest from exploiting the labor and capital of those in the offering company, and after 20 years, the doctor is just living off others work because he 'earned it'. Plus, of course, in this perfect market scenario, no crashes or corrections can ever occur.

So many issues with this. If the doctor et al - the investing public - don’t own the dividend-paying companies, who will? If you say “a broader base of people” I agree. If you say “the state”, I’d urge you to read some history books. Ownership is an economic concept that is fundamentally misunderstood. It’s a skill you can be good at, and a good owner has a massive positive impact on society. It’s not a golden ticket…

>It's not a golden ticket to sit on your ass and switch off your brain

Buy $5 mil in S&P and that's exactly what you can do. Comfortably.

The fact that you can mix work with wealth and earn a higher return is proof of little more than you can mix work with wealth.

If you have wealth that is.

Re: 20 year study of global wealth demolishes the myth of ‘trickle-down’

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In any case, the "wealth disparity" discussion is almost always badly anchored. The first thing to understand about wealth disparity is that it maps pretty much to wealth. More wealth, more wealth disparity... almost universally. Many or most people have no wealth, depending on your semantics of "wealth." Therefore, if the value/quantity of wealth rises, wealth disparity rises. I agree with you but it remains a pro…

A major difference now is the majority of those with vast wealth earned it themselves through creating new enterprises. The aristocrats of old received it through birth or politicking. The rich today are far more effective and organizationally superior considering it was those exact skills that made them their wealth.

Are you arguing that the wealth class today isn’t politicking to maintain power and wealth either to a corporation or themselves?

Re: 20 year study of global wealth demolishes the myth of ‘trickle-down’

#163
post #149
post #10

Ahh, the good old trickle-down, aka "piss in my eyes and tell me it's raining" (which is the only way trickle-down actually works). It was pure mythology from the start; there's never been any basis for it to begin with. It's a pity we even have to debunk it like that. Go figure, give a million hungry people $20 each, and see $20M return to the economy the next day as they spend it on food. Give a billionaire $20M, s…

> as the billionaire holds on to whatever financial product they bought forever as long as it appreciates faster than inflation. Another word for that is investment. Where do you think that money goes? You don’t earn returns on money that isn’t doing anything.

I assume it goes overseas.

Re: 20 year study of global wealth demolishes the myth of ‘trickle-down’

#164
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I want to agree with you, you’re comment is just hyperbole/rhetoric and no substance.

> you’re comment is just hyperbole/rhetoric and no substance. So what is unsubstantiated in your view? The fact that super rich use offshore accounts? That super rich make more money with moving assets than they could make with labor? That poor people will likely spend given money quickly?

Moving assets is labor.

Just like making computers copy data over the Internet is labor.

Re: 20 year study of global wealth demolishes the myth of ‘trickle-down’

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The first thing to understand about wealth disparity is that it maps pretty much to wealth. More wealth, more wealth disparity... almost universally. This is obviously wrong. Take India vs Switzerland as an example. Also, in the post-war era, the Western European countries saw a diminution of wealth disparity at the same time as a great wealth increase. Actually the history of the western world in the 20th century…

Absolutely. Piketty showed that wealth inequality peaked right before WWI and was very low in the 60/70s. The amount of wealth between these two periods does not even compare.

Could the low inequality be a cause for rapid wealth expansion?

Re: 20 year study of global wealth demolishes the myth of ‘trickle-down’

#166
post #10

Ahh, the good old trickle-down, aka "piss in my eyes and tell me it's raining" (which is the only way trickle-down actually works). It was pure mythology from the start; there's never been any basis for it to begin with. It's a pity we even have to debunk it like that. Go figure, give a million hungry people $20 each, and see $20M return to the economy the next day as they spend it on food. Give a billionaire $20M, s…

> give a million hungry people $20 each, and see $20M return to the economy the next day as they spend it on food.

That’s not a return, the economy doesn’t work that way.

Re: 20 year study of global wealth demolishes the myth of ‘trickle-down’

#167
Trickle down was never about monetary wealth .

It’s about quality of life .

It does trickle down considering that nurses are taking overseas trips to Europe every 2 months and 800$ purses can be bought for 5$ and the only thing which makes it noticeable is a small hologram which nobody will check .

Of course people only look at yachts and mansions because when everything becomes equal the stuff which separates the rich from the rest of us tends to shine brighter and get all the attention.

Of course if you want everybody to be a millionaire then trickle down failed , but in the past experiments which tried to make monetary wealth equal for everybody caused a situation where quality of life collapsed for everybody….and being all equally as miserable is not such a great result and the number in the bank account being all equal won’t provide any consolation

Re: 20 year study of global wealth demolishes the myth of ‘trickle-down’

#168
post #149
post #10

Ahh, the good old trickle-down, aka "piss in my eyes and tell me it's raining" (which is the only way trickle-down actually works). It was pure mythology from the start; there's never been any basis for it to begin with. It's a pity we even have to debunk it like that. Go figure, give a million hungry people $20 each, and see $20M return to the economy the next day as they spend it on food. Give a billionaire $20M, s…

> as the billionaire holds on to whatever financial product they bought forever as long as it appreciates faster than inflation. Another word for that is investment. Where do you think that money goes? You don’t earn returns on money that isn’t doing anything.

> Where do you think that money goes? You don’t earn returns on money that isn’t doing anything.

Yes you do? That’s what assets are.

Re: 20 year study of global wealth demolishes the myth of ‘trickle-down’

#169
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this example very ironic, given that the reason an " ambitious motherfucker " can take a cheap commodity like insulin and make it a monopolized product is directly a result of government regulations. The very same government you want to take everyone money and believe will spend it wisely

I mean, you act like businesses are gonna spend the money better and not just pump up shareholder earnings... You know, like they do every time? This line of argument seems suspiciously pro-capital, like, are you personally benefiting from government disfunction?

You can argue the point but when you say

> This line of argument seems suspiciously pro-capital

it seems like you think only one side has any moral contribution to make. This isn’t Russia in the 1920’s

Re: 20 year study of global wealth demolishes the myth of ‘trickle-down’

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn't really matter where the money starts, the market will deal with allocation efficiently. Interesting take. I haven't ever heard trickle down proponents suggest we give the money to the working class. It's like they don't really believe that.

> I haven't ever heard trickle down proponents suggest we give the money to the working class. Because that would require taking from some people and giving to others through government, which is a very inefficient way to do it.

Also the trickle down proponents, however middle-class, think of themselves as wealthy and have the misconception that it’d be their money being reallocated.
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