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Back in the occupy wallstreet days I did some rough calculations, I wondered "If we appropriated the wealth of every billionaire, how much of a boost in the eco
by maerF0x0 4y ago
Back in the occupy wallstreet days I did some rough calculations, I wondered "If we appropriated the wealth of every billionaire, how much of a boost in the economy would we have?" It turned out surprising low. It was something like (iirc) 3 months of the economy and the money would be gone. And then who are we going to rob? They are massively relatively wealthy, but accumulated wealth is nearly nothing compared to the aggregated flows of the economy.
- dTal 4y agoWhat's missing in that analysis is that the billionaires not only accumulate wealth, they also redirect flows. It's not just a question of repossessing Jeff Bezos' private jets; it's also a matter of reclaiming the vast sums of money spent on a yearly basis keeping them flying (a nontrivial fraction of the cost of the jets themselves). Or to put it another way - if you stripped away all of Bezos' liquid assets, don't worry - he'll have more for you to take next month, courtesy of the massive rent-seeking apparatus he would still sit atop.