4 ms·
GDP in the US is about $17 trillion per year. That's the total amount of income we create each year. The top 1% have $25 trillion in wealth. So if we took all
by joshe 6y ago
GDP in the US is about $17 trillion per year. That's the total amount of income we create each year. The top 1% have $25 trillion in wealth.
So if we took all the wealth of the 1% (income > $421,926/year), we would be out of their money in less than 2 years.
Btw, the total wealth of the US is about $123.8 trillion. We would consume that in about 7 years.
On board with redistribution, monthly $1500 checks, higher wages, unemployment checks, paid sick leave, PPP, and all that. But people gotta work. A main goal of policy makers right should be quickly figuring out how to get people back to work safely.
The idea that work is a pointless volcano feeding plot is way off, work is creating all the goods and services around you. There's no vault of gold somewhere we can raid to live off of.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_position_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_position_of_the_Unit...
- jonahbenton 6y agoWith respect, this is a mistaken understanding of the nature of money. You don't ever use money up. It is always being created anew. That is by design, it is encoded in the rules of accounting. While it is true that having stuff requires work, there is a "vault of gold"- both literal and figurative- in the Federal Reserve system. The literal gold is not what is interesting here- the value of physical assets is largely a shared fiction- but the conceptual gold- the balance sheet- is a tool of essentially unlimited power, capable of providing necessary liquidity to keep most people safely home and fund essential work in a non-sacrificial manner. When the Kuhnian revolution comes it will be with wonder and horror at the barbarity of a society that forced people to sacrifice for something as banal as liquidity. Cory's story captures- correctly, in my view- the essence of the dynamic.