RE: The Illness of Our Time

You are viewing a single comment's thread from:

View the full context

aussieninja in Finance and Economy • last year (edited)

It is funny that a lot of the wealth we're talking about is not actual real wealth. These billionaires don't necessarily own physical assets that are valuable (although Gates buying up a ton of US farmland is worrying) it's all on paper and it would be wiped out in an instant with a stock crash.

I think, from memory, the US stock market has twice the 'value' as the real economy - which is bananas.

The problem is that even though their wealth is mainly on paper, the political equity they buy is real... and it's all in the name to increase the wealth gap because even though they have more than everyone else, it's never enough - and they're happy to burn the world down through authoritarian governments to get more.

Edit: I'm not sure we can count Covid as a proper plague in this instance... plague would normally redistribute wealth, when, like, a third of the population dies. Not to say your points aren't valid... but a proper plague would wipe out poor and rich alike in a significant way, whereas Covid deaths were a low percentage of total population and affected poorer people way more than the middle class and wealthy people.

last year in Finance and Economy by aussieninja

0.00 ALIVE

1 vote

Sort:

Trending

[-]

tarazkp last year

It is funny that a lot of the wealth we're talking about is not actual real wealth.

The beauty of monetary inflation, without any tether to something like gold. We still believe it is valuable, even though it isn't.

I think, from memory, the US stock market has twice the 'value' as the real economy - which is bananas.

The derivitive market is estimated (a lot of it is OTC and invisible) to be worth about 4 times the entire value of every other thing in the world - including all the land, corporations, gold, diamonds...

The problem is that even though their wealth is mainly on paper, the political equity they buy is real...

Exactly. And this impacts on us in reality too. Most of what they do is also useless for our health as a society, and often a detriment.

but a proper plague would wipe out poor and rich alike in a significant way

Yeah, I get this. But it is also a bit different now than in biblical times too. Most of the wealth isn't held by the individual, it is held by companies that have more rights than individuals, like paying less tax. And they don't die.

0.00 ALIVE

2 votes

[-]

aussieninja last year

Oh... that's a really good point, I hadn't thought of companies and trusts and other financial vehicles holding onto wealth even as the owners die - but you're right, that would obviously hamper the redistribution of wealth.

I did not know the derivative market is 4 times the value of all things. You'd have to think that a crash has to be on its way...

0.00 ALIVE