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If the top 10% of people suddenly had their wealth double overnight, it would have absolutely disastrous effects for the lower 90% of people. Prices for scarce
by stopping 4mo ago
If the top 10% of people suddenly had their wealth double overnight, it would have absolutely disastrous effects for the lower 90% of people. Prices for scarce goods (e.g. housing) would increase dramatically. The price increase dampens the overall demand for housing since a large fraction of the 90% are now priced out. The wealthy homeowners have an incentive to maintain that scarcity, and freely use their resources to preserve the status quo by preventing desperately-needed housing from being built.
Those with wealth will tend to steer the economic system more towards their own interests in a runaway feedback loop, often in ways which create no overall net welfare for society.
- WalterBright 4mo ago[flagged]
- stopping 4mo agoIs anyone else having trouble parsing this comment or is it just me?
- illiac786 4mo agoWealth inequality leads to lots and lots of power concentrated in a few people. That’s the problem. It’s a money aristocratic system, and that’s really bad for anyone not belonging to the aristocracy. And if they continue on this path, we might see heads roll.
- WalterBright 4mo ago1 man, 1 vote.
- fragmede 4mo agoRich man, PAC advertising
- WalterBright 4mo agoPolitical advertising has no effect on my vote. Does it affect yours? Consider that Hillary outspent Trump 2:1 in the 2016 election, and lost. Same story in 2024, Trump was way outspent by Harris. Harris lost. Advertising doesn't work if the message is bad.
- disgruntledphd2 4mo ago> Political advertising has no effect on my vote. Does it affect yours? Oddly, basically everyone says this about advertising in general, and yet it consumes approx 3% of world GDP.
- illiac786 4mo agoDepends on your definition of a bad message. A lie can be very palatable.
- srean 4mo agoBut then according to the tenets of efficiency of a free market system no candidate would be spending so much on advertisement. You can't have it both ways, (i) free market is ideal and efficient. Prices are correct and fair etc etc (ii) But doesn't apply to campaign spending.
- saulapremium 4mo agoDirect advertising is not the only factor you need to consider. Many powers had been doing political radicalization for years through many channels, including foreign sponsored ones.
- illiac786 4mo agoSo your are saying money has no influence on politics? Really?
- pixelatedindex 4mo agoYou’re missing the forest for the trees. Yeah the item cost doesn’t double, but it goes up significantly because now your addressable market has 2x money.
- pragmatic 4mo agoIt happened over Covid. All those checks to business owners and farmers. Huge slush funds. Californians used it to buy houses in smaller cities across the country. Not doubled but a windfall of cash into accounts for the wealthy none the less.