Earlier quoted context omitted.
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> Your theory is that .. That'd be _ your _ strawman that _you_ typed. In the factual world, how many non NZ born billionaires already have residences in New Zealand?
What exactly are you arguing?
American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn
241–250 of 360 posts
Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
That depends how they got wealthy. Did they steal everything outright? Someone is worse off in that transaction. (Or everyone a little bit worse off if it’s government grift). Did they create all that value themselves? Might be fine - positive sum games do exist. Did they create some system where a bunch of money flows just to them based on the labour of others? Maybe it depends on the details, like how much the labo…
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> WW2 was not caused by rich people, nor by inequality.
Read the Three Comarades by Erich Maria Remarque. Inequality was rampant in-between wars as Germany suffered from industrial collapse and reparations.
Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, so that link is the same one I gave you, and confirms you have your average and your median the wrong way around. > Most people retire on far less than 500k even and are doing just fine Soooo .... walking back all those claims about everyday folks being able to become millionaires just by showing up to work?
Didn't know walking back on basic math was a thing but here we are. Please stop wasting eveyones time if you're gonna ignore a primary source after you asked for it.
The primary source which
- I introduced to the thread first
- You quoted incorrectly
- Doesn’t contradict the other sources given
- Doesn’t support your arguments
Please do explain further, preferably with reference to the comments above that show the figures you quoted aren’t a good match to illuminating the claims you made.
How does that source support the notion that median-and-lower earning people can realistically save $25k per annum, per person, or trivially become millionaires with a bit of discipline?
Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
...You are using "wealth" in a way completely foreign to how I have ever seen it used linguistically. The abundance of resources available to an individual that we call "wealth" colloquially being transferable or tradable is basically the hallmark of a market economy. It can absolutely concentrate within one, because if it can be traded, it can absolutely be not traded decreasing the velocity of that value transfer t…
Again, wealth is created, not "concentrated". The term "wealth" means the dollars you would get if you sold everything. > wealth does, in fact, concentrate Nope, because the people trading with you thought the exchange was of equal value, or they wouldn't have engaged in it.
> because the people trading with you thought the exchange was of equal value, or they wouldn't have engaged in it
If this was true I would have emphatically agreed with you on all counts. But it simply isn't true.
Many find themselves in a position where they have their arms twisted to accept a deal they don't like. Yet they accept for some existential reason or another.
I called out the other kind of transactions the 'no regret transactions' here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48395058 (erm you were personally named ;)
If a billionaires become billionaire through them, cheers, I wish them well.
BTW, thank you for your service.
Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Which would matter if you were even arguing markets correctly and the others were arguing marxist points.
Well, we've seen the Labor Theory of Value here, and the idea that people get wealthy by stealing from others, and it is bad that some people have more money than others, and so on.
Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
Again, wealth is created, not "concentrated". The term "wealth" means the dollars you would get if you sold everything. > wealth does, in fact, concentrate Nope, because the people trading with you thought the exchange was of equal value, or they wouldn't have engaged in it.
The term you're looking for is "surplus". The consumer sees a surplus of value because the price they paid is below the maximum they're willing to pay, and the producer sees a surplus because the price they charged was more than the cost to produce the good. In this economic system both parties benefit. Economic surplus is the thing that is "created" with every transaction. "Surplus accumulation" as a concept doesn't…
What's your definition of wealth?
Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
1 man, 1 vote.
Rich man, PAC advertising
Political advertising has no effect on my vote. Does it affect yours?
Consider that Hillary outspent Trump 2:1 in the 2016 election, and lost. Same story in 2024, Trump was way outspent by Harris. Harris lost.
Advertising doesn't work if the message is bad.
Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you are creating 10x the value you are paid, then plenty of other employers will offer you a raise. If you believe you are seriously underpaid, explain to your employer what value you are creating, and negotiate. If you start your own business, you'll find out exactly what you're worth.
Come on, no way you can claim that. Let's take a Principal Engineer. A bad choice to make my case with, because among others, they do pay rather well. For a Principal Engineer, it is sort of a job requirement at that level to save or generate of the order of ~100 million dollars per year. An outsourced engineer sees nowhere near 1/10th that amount in his/her salary. For non software engineers it's much worse.
If engineers produce 10x what they cost, there'd be a huge gold rush hiring them.
Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
your first question was better. "how does creating wealth hurt others?" most of this "wealth" is not "created" out of thin air. nor created at all. more like, transferred.
looks like a lot of wealth was created out of thin air about 6 years ago https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL
A lot of money was printed, but that is not wealth creation.
Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Citation Needed (that they actually made everyone equal and it wasn't just a talking point). You may want to read a history book that talks about how Stalin denounced uravnilovka and about the existence of the nomenklatura.
Well, the Party members were more equal.