The .001% is the new 1%.
Actually 0.01% was the new 1% after Bernie Sanders made a couple million and hit the top 0.1%
Just 0.001% hold 3 times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds
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Re: Just 0.001% hold 3 times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds
#42Rich people having too much wealth is not necessarily that bad a thing because most of the investment is in productive companies. It’s not like they are using their wealth on frivolous consumption. Which means redistribution would only change who controls the investment and not the actual consumption patterns of people. Implication is that poor people will consume the same as before after redistribution with perhaps…
I see this argument often but for me it misses something.
The difference is about power. The wealth being this concentrated means the power is concentrated.
If people are okay with the idea of an ETF, or a wealth manager (or any type do fund manager/investment bank) then they should be okay with sovereign wealth funds/national ETFs that provide dividends with a guaranteed single share single vote setup.
If you want competition, then the US government used to be good at creating and sustaining artificial compétition in military procurement - similar to how Amazon let's teams compete on the same projects internally.
Because the competition would be artificially and enforced by laws, there's just as much as potential for massive efficiency gains as there is potential for corruption (the Norwegian national wealth fund has gone swimmingly for them)
Re: Just 0.001% hold 3 times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds
#43I did some quick math: the top .001% consumes as much as bottom 3% of Americans cumulatively. It’s high but it gives an accurate picture of how bad the real problem is.
When you say "Americans" do you mean people in the USA? Or the continents?
Beyond the wealth inequality within countries, there is the wealth inequalities between countries which drives migration of people or jobs etc. Even the most closed off and isolationist country in the world - probably North Korea? - is not immune to relative wealth on the global stage.
Re: Just 0.001% hold 3 times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not misleading, in fact it's how accounting/balance sheets work. A new born baby with zero asset and zero liability has thus a net financial worth of 0, which is obviously more than someone indebted.
A headline like “new born baby has more wealth than bottom 1 million people cumulatively” is not a misleading tittle?
Not if you understand what "wealth" means, as per previous comment.
Your headline could be rephrased as "Someone who has a balance of 0 is wealthier than someone $100 overdraft" and you wouldn't blink.
Re: Just 0.001% hold 3 times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds
#45Taxing them will be difficult. There will always be places welcoming them with low taxes if they just spend money. Most of their wealth is probably in companies operating globally. It seems more easy to tax profits in local markets. And increase competition…
Is there a global movement to tax business where the customer conducts it rather than where the company chooses to base itself?
Re: Just 0.001% hold 3 times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds
#46Rich people having too much wealth is not necessarily that bad a thing because most of the investment is in productive companies. It’s not like they are using their wealth on frivolous consumption. Which means redistribution would only change who controls the investment and not the actual consumption patterns of people. Implication is that poor people will consume the same as before after redistribution with perhaps…
I sometimes think it's better to have (say) 1 very very rich person than 1000 rich people, just in terms of resource usage. 1000 centimilliomaires all want their own yachts and so on, whereas a centibillionaire might have one or two large yachts, not 1000 small yachts. Economies of scale!
Re: Just 0.001% hold 3 times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds
#47I did some quick math: the top .001% consumes as much as bottom 3% of Americans cumulatively. It’s high but it gives an accurate picture of how bad the real problem is.
When you say "Americans" do you mean people in the USA? Or the continents? Beyond the wealth inequality within countries, there is the wealth inequalities between countries which drives migration of people or jobs etc. Even the most closed off and isolationist country in the world - probably North Korea? - is not immune to relative wealth on the global stage.
My calculations were all within USA only.
Wealth inequality within countries again is solved elegantly within capitalism. Ignoring North Korea for now - India being poor has the advantage of labour that asks for very less wages so outsourcing is a natural strategy for companies in USA.
Beyond that imf loans and other means exist.
North Korea choosing to be isolationalist is doing it at its own peril.
Re: Just 0.001% hold 3 times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds
#48So are citizens of rich countries willing to send their wealth to poor countries? We need global wealth redistribution to fix this right?
Re: Just 0.001% hold 3 times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
A headline like “new born baby has more wealth than bottom 1 million people cumulatively” is not a misleading tittle?
Not if you understand what "wealth" means, as per previous comment. Your headline could be rephrased as " Someone who has a balance of 0 is wealthier than someone $100 overdraft " and you wouldn't blink.
Check the current headline
Re: Just 0.001% hold 3 times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds
#50Focusing on reducing economic inequality is silly.
Some people being wealth doesn't mean other people must be poor.
Society has never been as rich as now, and people are getting out of misery faster and faster.
Drawing attention to the fact that some outliers have an insane amount of wealth has been shadowing the real problem: politics is in getting in the way of eradicating poverty.
Many people, mostly fueled by envy, misses that and instead focus on asking for taxing the wealthiest rather than noticing that poor people lives could be vastly improved by reducing taxation on them (rather than increasing the taxation of richer people, which is a silly take on the matter), removing economic barriers created by political forces, etc.