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Just Be Rich

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Re: Just Be Rich

#851

Post by joshuamorton »

baron816 wrote: post #58

Inequality by itself is not a bad thing. Let's start from there. If 90% of the population had a (sustainable) lifestyle of current dollar millionaires, and the remaining 10% had a (sustainable) lifestyle of dollar billionaires, there would be lots of inequality, but it wouldn't be problematic. Inequality is only bad if you're in a zero-sum game. The rich do have the power to extract rents and "rig the system" to ceme…

> Inequality by itself is not a bad thing. Let's start from there. If 90% of the population had a (sustainable) lifestyle of current dollar millionaires, and the remaining 10% had a (sustainable) lifestyle of dollar billionaires, there would be lots of inequality, but it wouldn't be problematic.

You're correct, but inequality would be far, far lower than it is today.

Re: Just Be Rich

#852

Post by leinadho »

dougmwne wrote: post #839
leinadho wrote: post #827

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could it not be people's own responsibility to practice managing their perception of what they do have? This might be a more pragmatic solution for reducing social suffering, and I've found that you can learn to let material things have less importance in your life. Caveat: this is coming from someone in a relatively well-off country with decent welfare

A person can be mindful and minimalist, people will be Moloch. Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone.

Interesting word, Moloch, thanks for introducing me to it!

Re: Just Be Rich

#853

Post by MikeUt »

SamBam wrote: post #833
MikeUt wrote: post #618

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's buying a new house every 50 years. That's re-building all of the wealth your family spent generations accumulating, every 50 years. That's a direct disincentive to saving money and frugality - the more you save, the bigger your tax gets, while your income stays the same .

> the more you save, the bigger your tax gets And the more you save, the more the returns on your money are. Wealth grows much faster than the tax. If you have over $50 million (which is the target of this tax), or even if you have $5 million, you're not putting this in a savings account. Even just sticking it in an index fund and forgetting about it generates 8%, and has done so for decades.

But as I pointed out in my other comment, those returns are already taxed. If you think those returns are excessive, the solution is to raise the tax on them, not introduce an entirely different type of tax, with plenty of collateral damage.

Re: Just Be Rich

#854

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

baron816 wrote: post #58

Inequality by itself is not a bad thing. Let's start from there. If 90% of the population had a (sustainable) lifestyle of current dollar millionaires, and the remaining 10% had a (sustainable) lifestyle of dollar billionaires, there would be lots of inequality, but it wouldn't be problematic. Inequality is only bad if you're in a zero-sum game. The rich do have the power to extract rents and "rig the system" to ceme…

> I personally don't believe that an unskilled worker in the US deserves to be paid 10X...

A full-time worker deserves to be paid enough to live, period. Unskilled or not. They deserve a roof over their head, food on the table, and basic healthcare. Cost of living varies greatly based on locale, and comparing that number to the poverty wage in Bangladesh is what the invisible hand does, yes, but it's absolutely not what's fair or what's deserved.

Re: Just Be Rich

#855

Post by dougmwne »

leinadho wrote: post #852
dougmwne wrote: post #839

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A person can be mindful and minimalist, people will be Moloch. Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone.

Interesting word, Moloch, thanks for introducing me to it!

Then all credit goes to Ginsberg: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl

Re: Just Be Rich

#856

Post by Bootvis »

stephanheijl wrote: post #786
Bootvis wrote: post #660

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any explanation for the jump from 2018 to 2019?

Based on the Global Wealth Book 2018 and 2019 from Credit Suisse, comparing Table 3-1 in both books, it appears that the number of adults in "under 10.000" range increased significantly in 2019. This is likely not a real change, but rather a change of methodology or data sources. As far as I can tell however, this is not detailed in the text. I have directed an email to Credit Suisse on this, as it's a rather interes…

Quite interesting, curious what they have to say. I'd be glad if you can put me in cc (e-mail in profile).

Re: Just Be Rich

#857

Post by plank_time »

dls2016 wrote: post #796
plank_time wrote: post #719

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make a good point that I never thought about. People who donate their money get tax breaks because it’s sorting offsetting government spending. But if they donate to a charity that spends the money outside of the US, should they get the full benefit of that tax break? It’s an interesting question that I never thought about.

Or maybe one person/immediate family shouldn't be allowed to hoard such vast resources? Perhaps he should've been taxed more so that it can be disbursed by the usual means.

No, that’s called socialism which most of the US is firmly against.

Re: Just Be Rich

#858

Post by neonological »

ivanche wrote: post #625
neonological wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wealth inequality is known to exist because you can scientifically derive it from data. Income independent of debt shows a huge wealth gap that was not prevalent in the past. Be wary of data and whether or not your speculations contradict the data.

I don't contradict that wealth inequality exists, or even that it increases. But if middle class relies only on income from salaries and spend it like there's no tomorrow (because catching up with the Joneses, or simply they don't know better) instead of staying out of debt + saving + investing it, the gap will only increase.

Investments do not compound fast enough for middle class people for it to really matter. Most people must work for an economy to function. If everyone can stop working and rely on income from investment growth then there would be no more human capital to grow those investments because everyone is waiting for investments to grow rather then producing work and labor which is the true driver of growth.

Therefore, Anyone who relies on investments for income not only by the above economic logic must represent a very small minority... but people who get income off investments are gaining income off the backs of people who labor to grow those investments.

Second, realize that the spending habits of the rich and the poor are roughly equivalent when scaled. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/08/01/157664524/how-...

It is completely erroneous to think poor people are stupider than rich people so much so that middle class spending habits are responsible for most of their suffering.

Re: Just Be Rich

#859

Post by Valakas_ »

camhart wrote: post #247

Income inequality is growing, yes. But are the wealthy somehow responsible for it? Is their "getting richer" directly responsible for it? There seems to be a growing consensus on the left that they are. I have yet to see a convincing argument to show this though. Someone who builds a company worth 100m didn't have to steal money from me (or anyone else) to do it. If they did steal, then that's what needs fixed. Preve…

First. What do you say about prevention of the formation of unions? Who benefits from that? The owners of the companies certainly do. Are they stealing though? No. Is it still a problem and making inequality bigger? Yes, because then workers have no negotiating power and have to accept whatever salary they are offered. In the limit, that salary could be food, water and shelter, and we'd be back at slavery.

Second. If you have 1B to invest, and I have 1k to invest and we both invest... there is no stealing, and you're getting richer much faster than me. Now you're not to blame for having that money, or investing it, but it is undeniable that the wealth inequality between the two of us is only ever going to grow, all things equal.

Third. Ever heard of lobbying? Who do you think lobbies and for what purpose? Hey, Let's use the free market and have people pay as much as they can for insulin. Let's make it legal to do that. Let's say that's 500€/month. Welp. A poor person just lost half their monthly savings. A rich guy? Barely a blip. You know who's also a rich guy? The owner and co. of the company of makes insulin. Where is the stealing?

Cmon. Saying that unless there is stealing then it's ok is so uninformed I have no words for.

Re: Just Be Rich

#860

Post by ozim »

Red_Leaves_Flyy wrote: post #513
ozim wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why people are doing this? How can you compare Elon or Steve Jobs wealth level to well anyone? There are CEO's of successful companies that worked their whole lives and never got to that level. Aiming for that is well crippling. People should aim to have a good life...

What's a good life? I know what I want from life, and what it costs, and I don't want extravagance. I don't have the capital to spend the 4-12 years training to increase my earning potential. My lack of capital is no fault of my own, I lost the womb lottery, why must I be relegated to live a meager life toiling for decades and have nothing to show for it while these billionaires you mentioned steal more money in a mo…

Why do you focus on these billionaires? There are literally scum people who sell drugs, are working on human trafficking and chop people heads off to be billionaires, maybe you want to focus your anger more on people like Pablo Escobar than Bill Gates?
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