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Over 65? Congratulations, You Own the Economy
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- blacksmith_tb 8mo agoHmm, Musk, Bezos, Huang, and Zuckerberg are all younger than 65...[1] 1: https://www.newsweek.com/americas-12-richest-men-worth-combined-2-trillion-1995950 https://www.newsweek.com/americas-12-richest-men-worth-combi...
- big_youth 8mo agoThey are both true? Between the ultra rich and the elderly there are scraps for everyone else.
- blacksmith_tb 8mo agoTrue - though I would say that the elderly have had a chance to earn and invest longer than the young, so it's not exactly like that's a nefarious plot. But a better tax structure would make that less glaring (same for the multibillionaires, only more so).
- cucumber3732842 8mo agoThose guys own squat compared to the assets the boomers own personally and fractionally. That said, they do get to exercise infinitely more control and power than a bunch of old people who own non-voting shares and real property that's only valuable at the whim and pleasure of the local regulators.
- exabrial 8mo agoAlso Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Rihanna and may others the generation adores.
- accrual 8mo agoBeyonce is currently in the news for firing a stage manager of 20 years with no severance.
- Barrin92 8mo agoTotal household wealth in the US is about ~170 trillion dollars. Those 12 own about 1% of all US wealth. Not shabby for a dozen people but the main issue of American society isn't the handful of people who hit the news but mostly the top 19% below them. Richard Reeves wrote a good book on the topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Hoarders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Hoarders It's the upper middle class that fills educational institutions, prevents the construction of new property, hogs most of the old property and in general has impacted the upward mobility of the lower classes. Musk has a lot of issues, but he's not really getting in the way of people getting richer themselves.
- erelong 8mo agoUpper middle absolutely causes a lot of problems; surprised more people aren't focused on them
- fuzzfactor 8mo agoIOW alot of the parents of the young people who are complaining quite a bit themselves.
- fuzzfactor 8mo agoSorry, on HN I wasn't expecting any attention from somebody who is fully convinced that no young people have parents, or something like that.
- lunar-whitey 8mo agoIt’s easier for the top 10% to blame the top 0.1% and absolve themselves, in spite of the knowledge that this changes nothing. Americans especially are averse to the idea that the middle class owes anything to anyone.
- thegreatpeter 8mo agoAll US billionaires make up like 8 trillion
- SilverElfin 8mo agoThe ultra rich are also a problem. Wealth makes it easy to get wealthier. You can take unlimited risks. Copy the ideas of startups. Act in anti competitive ways. Live off loans. Etc
- chocoboaus3 8mo ago[flagged]
- Aeglaecia 8mo agowell there's nothing special about any batch of humans in particular. what changes is the environment in which they function. so what exactly about the post ww2 environment led to this scenario?
- amanaplanacanal 8mo agoAs a person in that cohort, I suspect it was the booming economy that led us to think that growth would go on forever, so we could vote ourselves infinite riches on the back of our children and grandchildren, secure in the knowledge that infinite growth would bail them out. We are the worst generation.
- Aeglaecia 8mo agoif i breathed in leaded petrol id behave irrationally too , personally i believe that sustainable growth could have continued for a few hundred years (and possibly have lead to a better system) had we not instead capitulated to those suggesting parabolic growth was anything but borrowing from the future
- fuzzfactor 8mo agoWhat a coincidence ;) I'm looking forward to even more exposure to today's somewhat leaded aviation gas as I contribute to the transition being made to alternative fuels. I'll use that as an excuse any time I need to behave more erratically ;) >sustainable growth could have continued for a few hundred years (and possibly have lead to a better system) Yes, I did the math when I was a teenager. But both of these impending eventualities did not look like they would ever be recoverable after Nixon was there for not that long a time. I guess I was right, and here we are :\ This is not what my father fought in World War II for, and the whole country went through, just to end up in deeper debt [0], with more irrational leadership than so-called shitholes, and failing to remain orders of magnitude richer than China :( As we go along, a lot of 21st century financial things that might have been recoverable just a few years ago are slipping out of reach faster each day now. Sooner or later the bottom rung of this modern ladder will be out-of-reach and not coming back either. [0] When the only reason for any debt at all is a temporary situation like the need to vanquish authoritarian dictators who need it so bad that freedom-loving Americans just can't stand it any more.
- yfw 8mo agoPlenty of poor older folks. Way to miss the mark. The battle is against class
- zimza 8mo agoExactly. "No war but class war" applies also to generational war. I love the way Some More News tackled the subject : https://youtu.be/Pit-WT0pU34 https://youtu.be/Pit-WT0pU34
- throw0101a 8mo agohttps://archive.is/akHpQ https://archive.is/akHpQ https://archive.is/https://www.wsj.com/economy/over-65-congratulations-you-own-the-economy-5acea4c4 https://archive.is/https://www.wsj.com/economy/over-65-congr...