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Thomas Sowell once pointed out that billionaires are correlated with millionaires, and millionaires are correlated with a middle class. Most countries without b
by ipnon 3y ago
Thomas Sowell once pointed out that billionaires are correlated with millionaires, and millionaires are correlated with a middle class. Most countries without billionaires are not great places to live and work. Governments without rich people to tax do not accomplish much in the way of welfare.
Take a look at a map of countries with billionaires.[0] I would argue those with billionaires are much better at providing social welfare than those without.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_billionaires#/media/File:Global_billionaires.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of...
- maxilevi 3y agoUnrelated but why does Germany have much more billionaires than the rest of the EU?
- nervousvarun 3y agoGermany is the world's #4 economy...largest economy in Europe. They would be expected to have the largest # of billionaires no?
- maxilevi 3y agoNumber #3 economy is Japan but it has less than half the billionaires. Germany's economy is 20% bigger than UK's but has more than triple the amount of billionaires. It's not necessarily correlated with GDP.
- kwhitefoot 3y agoOr: those that are are good at providing social welfare provide the means for people to become billionaires?
- annoyingnoob 3y agoI'm not arguing against billionaires. I'm arguing that billionaires make most of their money through investments and those investments are taxed at a lower rate than labor, where most of the middle class makes money through labor. If the wealthy can keep a few percent more of their income year after year then you end up with the inequality I'm pointing out. We can have billionaires and fair tax policy. Trickle-down does not work.