4 ms·
> first two, while mutually distant, still have more in common with each other than with any other bands Not really. People in the oligarch sphere have unimagi
by jjav 2y ago
> first two, while mutually distant, still have more in common with each other than with any other bands
Not really. People in the oligarch sphere have unimaginable power. If they need a law they buy it through politicians and lobbyists. If they need a law ignored just for them, same deal.
Working class people who've toiled 25+ years and accumulated a few million are still just working class people, with nicer cars and slightly bigger house. But zero political influence and no ability to shape laws or enforcement in their favor.
- marcus_holmes 2y agoI draw the line at around $20m. Why $20m? Some back-of-the-envelope maths: if you got a decent salary, say $250K, for 40 years and made some smart investments with it, offsetting your tax and living expenses, you'd have $10m. Double that for elbow room and that gives the extreme upper limit of what someone could reasonably get to by just working for a living. You could earn more, sure, but you'd be in the top 0.1% of earners if you did and we can safely exclude you as an extreme outlier. It's also enough money to do pretty much anything you want to do: sail a yacht around the world? sure. Never work again and live in luxury? Obviously. Make a difference to other people's lives in a good way? Achievable. But it's not enough money to upset entire political economies or buy power at the scale we've seen recently. If I had to implement a wealth tax, and I think we should, then that's the cutoff I'd put it at.