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You vs. a Billionaire: An Interactive Perspective on Wealth

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Re: You vs. a Billionaire: An Interactive Perspective on Wealth

#61

Post by legitster »

spencerflem wrote: post #4

I find this visualization of wealth where every dollar is a pixel a lot more compelling: https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/?v=3

> Every single person in America could be lifted above the poverty line with a one-time cash subsidy of around $10,000 per impoverished family (and about $7,000 for impoverished individuals). The total cost would be $170 billion, a little over 5% of the wealth currently controlled by 400 individuals.

The visualization is good, but the content is ... fraught.

I'm all for wealth redistribution and ending inequality, but analyzing wealth 1:1 with cash isn't a serious way to think about the issue. We should all realize that liquidizing Amazon shares and turning them into cash that floods the market wouldn't do anything other than gut pensions and create inflation.

It's better to think of ways of getting wealth (not cash) out from under billionaires. And it's something we should do because we believe this kind of wealth is bad for society, not because we think it will magically give us free stuff.

Re: You vs. a Billionaire: An Interactive Perspective on Wealth

#64

Post by [deleted] »

legitster wrote: post #61
spencerflem wrote: post #4

I find this visualization of wealth where every dollar is a pixel a lot more compelling: https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/?v=3

> Every single person in America could be lifted above the poverty line with a one-time cash subsidy of around $10,000 per impoverished family (and about $7,000 for impoverished individuals). The total cost would be $170 billion, a little over 5% of the wealth currently controlled by 400 individuals. The visualization is good, but the content is ... fraught. I'm all for wealth redistribution and ending inequality, bu…

[deleted]

Re: You vs. a Billionaire: An Interactive Perspective on Wealth

#65

Post by calgoo »

legitster wrote: post #61
spencerflem wrote: post #4

I find this visualization of wealth where every dollar is a pixel a lot more compelling: https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/?v=3

> Every single person in America could be lifted above the poverty line with a one-time cash subsidy of around $10,000 per impoverished family (and about $7,000 for impoverished individuals). The total cost would be $170 billion, a little over 5% of the wealth currently controlled by 400 individuals. The visualization is good, but the content is ... fraught. I'm all for wealth redistribution and ending inequality, bu…

Empower the family businesses again, move power away from the super corporations. Encourage and invest in small business owners, giving them all the tax breaks while raising the taxes on the giant corporations. Basically, start recreating the middle class wealth, and then strive to bring everyone to that level at the cost of the giant corporations and mega rich.

Re: You vs. a Billionaire: An Interactive Perspective on Wealth

#67

Post by spencerflem »

calgoo wrote: post #65
legitster wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every single person in America could be lifted above the poverty line with a one-time cash subsidy of around $10,000 per impoverished family (and about $7,000 for impoverished individuals). The total cost would be $170 billion, a little over 5% of the wealth currently controlled by 400 individuals. The visualization is good, but the content is ... fraught. I'm all for wealth redistribution and ending inequality, bu…

Empower the family businesses again, move power away from the super corporations. Encourage and invest in small business owners, giving them all the tax breaks while raising the taxes on the giant corporations. Basically, start recreating the middle class wealth, and then strive to bring everyone to that level at the cost of the giant corporations and mega rich.

More so than family businesses, co-ops, but otherwise I would agree this would be a huge help

Re: You vs. a Billionaire: An Interactive Perspective on Wealth

#69

Post by surgical_fire »

beanjuiceII wrote: post #62
grajaganDev wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your statement is true but misses (deliberately?) the greater point.

whats the greater point?

That wealth, even if it's not in hard cash, can distort reality in ways that should simply not be permitted.

Re: You vs. a Billionaire: An Interactive Perspective on Wealth

#70

Post by surgical_fire »

finolex1 wrote: post #11

Most billionaires cannot extract most of their wealth without crashing the price of their remaining assets. No doubt the gulf is still great, but it's a little smaller than the raw numbers imply.

That's not exactly true.

They can access credit by giving poetuons of their wealth as collateral. Do you think they sustain lavish lifestyles and have an outsized influence by crashing the stock value of their companies?

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