4 ms·

Good for them? I've about doubled my wealth since 2020 too and I'm just an average joe... Most of my wealth is in stocks and real-estate.

ryandrake 3y ago
We all seem to love to deliberately ignore the meaningful difference between someone whose wealth goes from $10B to $20B and someone whose wealth goes from $10K to $20K. One person can now buy/exert even more monstrous political power and influence over government and the media than before, while the other might have enough for a down payment on a car. But, yea, I guess they're totally the same thing.
- gottorf 3y ago
  > One person can now buy/exert even more monstrous political power and influence over the media than before People say that, but if that were true, we would have a President Bloomberg sitting in the White House now, with perhaps a Koch brother as the junior senator from Kansas. Tabloids wouldn't be printing Bill Gates's association with Jeffrey Epstein. Ocasio-Cortez would still be a bartender. In reality, it turns out that being rich is neither necessary nor sufficient for being powerful, influential, or noteworthy of any kind. > I guess they're totally the same thing. Sure, mathematically it's literally the same thing; both people have doubled their wealth. If your argument is that rich people have it easier than poor people, that's absolutely true. If your argument is that the same market forces that made someone's $10k worth of stocks become $20k should not have the same effect on someone else's $10B worth of stocks, well, I guess you could start by blaming the Fed.
  - ryandrake 3y ago
    You don't have to be an elected official to wield political power, at least in the USA. Wealth is pretty much frictionlessly convertible to and from political power through donations, lobbying and other means. I am sure that Bezos, Musk, Ellison, the Kochs, and so on can have the ear of any State governor or US representative within 30 minutes if they wanted. And no legislator will support legislation that their major donors oppose. Everyone is aware of the huge problem outsized-money plays in politics.
  - jgwil2 3y ago
    > with perhaps a Koch brother as the junior senator from Kansas. The Koch brothers' years-long efforts to use their wealth to influence government has led to a Supreme Court that is about to massively curtail the regulatory authority of federal agencies, so that's a pretty bad example to use if you want to argue that there isn't a strong connection between wealth and political power.

ryandrake 3y ago

We all seem to love to deliberately ignore the meaningful difference between someone whose wealth goes from $10B to $20B and someone whose wealth goes from $10K to $20K. One person can now buy/exert even more monstrous political power and influence over government and the media than before, while the other might have enough for a down payment on a car. But, yea, I guess they're totally the same thing.

gottorf 3y ago
> One person can now buy/exert even more monstrous political power and influence over the media than before People say that, but if that were true, we would have a President Bloomberg sitting in the White House now, with perhaps a Koch brother as the junior senator from Kansas. Tabloids wouldn't be printing Bill Gates's association with Jeffrey Epstein. Ocasio-Cortez would still be a bartender. In reality, it turns out that being rich is neither necessary nor sufficient for being powerful, influential, or noteworthy of any kind. > I guess they're totally the same thing. Sure, mathematically it's literally the same thing; both people have doubled their wealth. If your argument is that rich people have it easier than poor people, that's absolutely true. If your argument is that the same market forces that made someone's $10k worth of stocks become $20k should not have the same effect on someone else's $10B worth of stocks, well, I guess you could start by blaming the Fed.
- ryandrake 3y ago
  You don't have to be an elected official to wield political power, at least in the USA. Wealth is pretty much frictionlessly convertible to and from political power through donations, lobbying and other means. I am sure that Bezos, Musk, Ellison, the Kochs, and so on can have the ear of any State governor or US representative within 30 minutes if they wanted. And no legislator will support legislation that their major donors oppose. Everyone is aware of the huge problem outsized-money plays in politics.
- jgwil2 3y ago
  > with perhaps a Koch brother as the junior senator from Kansas. The Koch brothers' years-long efforts to use their wealth to influence government has led to a Supreme Court that is about to massively curtail the regulatory authority of federal agencies, so that's a pretty bad example to use if you want to argue that there isn't a strong connection between wealth and political power.