Mike Mc
Robert ReichRichest 1% took home nearly twice as much wealth as the rest of the world put together over the past two years.
Folks, this is what oligarchy looks like.
kirkiscool@rbreich I guess that's the price we pay so absolute imbeciles can own a gun without any questions asked.
Meryem Fuat@kirkiscool @rbreich Perfect framing of the only issue they vote on.
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺@rbreich Enlighten me, for I am but a simple man. 'Oligarchy' is a synonym for 'theft', right?
std::polar@Eetschrijver @rbreich It is not. It involves many indirect forms of theft though.
Atom596@Eetschrijver @rbreich they aren’t synonyms per Se, but there’s so much overlap that I can’t blame you for thinking they are
Nodrak@Eetschrijver @rbreich Perhaps the word you are looking for it Kleptocracy.
Dig of the StumpHere is an easy to understand explanation of why the wealthy accumulate more wealth.
Flows of Wealth and How People Get Rich
Understanding how wealth flows throughout the Economy SUBSCRIBE, SHARE & START A CONVERSATION SOCIAL MEDIA: WEBSITE - https://www.wealtheconomics.org TWITTER - @garyseconomics - https://twitter.com/garyseconomics FACEBOOK - @garyseconomics - https://www.facebook.com/garyseconomics/ INSTAGRAM - @garyseconomics - https://www.instagram.com/garyseconomics/ TIKTOK - @garyseconomics - https://www.tiktok.com/@garyseconomics?lang=en YOUTUBE - @garyseconomics - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Ghe5TBQGYIOANuiNW4hDQ Performed by Gary Stevenson GARYSECONOMICS Produced by Simran Mohan MOHAN MEDIA TIMESTAMPS
Grassroots Joe@goodthingbetter @rbreich
... along with the clear path to reverse it, tax extreme wealth, increase top marginal tax rates on millionaires & billionaires, especially investment income & inheritances and of course increase top marginal rates on mega-corporation income.
... along with the clear path to reverse it, tax extreme wealth, increase top marginal tax rates on millionaires & billionaires, especially investment income & inheritances and of course increase top marginal rates on mega-corporation income.
Pog Elemental@goodthingbetter @rbreich It was not so bad the way he explained the flow of wealth and, due to a slowdown of creation of value, wealth disparity expands between wealth owners (the rich) and money savers (the poor).
He completely lost me on the solution: The most effective tax rate to maximize tax returns is 18%, and the reason is you take away too much from the rich and they'll just leave your country and take all their wealth with them. Even then, the most the Government does with this stolen money is either redistribute money (so not wealth) or create services that just make you more dependent on them (pensions, welfare).
The other thing he should have addressed is the mechanism of Recession. There is a reason we don't build as much housing as we used to, and more often than not, Government is directly responsible for this.
We also don't teach people how to build wealth and kill the old dogma of "working hard=getting richer". It's even more important now since saving is just not enough to hold on to your purchasing power given the awful inflation we're seeing.
And yes, the Government is directly responsible for the inflation.
He completely lost me on the solution: The most effective tax rate to maximize tax returns is 18%, and the reason is you take away too much from the rich and they'll just leave your country and take all their wealth with them. Even then, the most the Government does with this stolen money is either redistribute money (so not wealth) or create services that just make you more dependent on them (pensions, welfare).
The other thing he should have addressed is the mechanism of Recession. There is a reason we don't build as much housing as we used to, and more often than not, Government is directly responsible for this.
We also don't teach people how to build wealth and kill the old dogma of "working hard=getting richer". It's even more important now since saving is just not enough to hold on to your purchasing power given the awful inflation we're seeing.
And yes, the Government is directly responsible for the inflation.
"you take away too much from the rich and they'll just leave your country"
Not correct, IMO - it's a trope used by the rich.
Similar to the notion that you need to pay managers/bankers etc top dollar in order to get and keep the best, but that argument is never used for workers
The rich hide their wealth in off-shore Trusts, which facilitates dark money transfers.
Suggest watch "The Spider's Web - Britain's Second Empire"
The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire | Finance Documentary | History
Tiffany Lee Brown (she/they)@rbreich So let's stop gabbing online and find some guillotines.
@rbreich I suppose I should clarify. When I glibly post, "So let's stop gabbing online and find some guillotines" I'm being GenX & not at all literal. No, I'm not going to chop anyone's head off, nor do I recommend that you do so. But the resonance of our situation with the French Revolution ought to be clear. Why are we making ppl like Bezos richer, spending all day online & buying Amazon products between tweets/toots? What should we be doing instead of complaining about income inequality?
Mike Bravo
GaryRLundberg
mccrory@rbreich what are the statistics of the top 1-10% of the 1%? I’m willing to be it makes the 1% look like the 99%
Blair Bidmead@rbreich Yeah, but that's only because they work really, really hard, and everyone else is just lazy.
Shoq 🌿Another Mastodon thing that needs fixing: If you "X" out a reply in progress (because you thought better of it and decided to post instead), the entire text is deleted with no undo possible. Not a good user experience.
Mrinappropriate@rbreich Fo you have the same stats for tax paid? Could be interesting
Shachihoko
KozmykOligarchy is a direct result of Conservatism, the general social idea that some people are superior, some are inferior and the superior should exploit the inferior. Conservatism is a metal disease throughout human history.
KimJungDoh@rbreich
At what point in history will the meek inherit the world? How long before the poor start hunting the rich?
At what point in history will the meek inherit the world? How long before the poor start hunting the rich?
Geof Hughes đź–¤@rbreich This is the sort of corruption that Russia is always being accused of.
Author J. R. Damon@rbreich I'm okay with a modern laser version of a guillotine, I don't know about any of you folks 
@rbreich Yes, it is. I recently made a video addressing this topic, incidentally, that are great introductory video for anyone struggling to realize this - https://youtu.be/nZh8j2wjVl4
Why America Will Never Be a Democracy
McKennaLake@rbreich
I keep trying to tell poor white folks, that immigrants and Black people ain’t the problem. It’s the rich people telling you who to hate, is.
I keep trying to tell poor white folks, that immigrants and Black people ain’t the problem. It’s the rich people telling you who to hate, is.
Nicky🦨✌️@rbreich and the people closest to them support anything the 1% wants because they believe that one day they too will have that kind of wealth. And if/when they do wake up from that dream, they still won’t admit they were wrong because like idiots they’ve been shouldering the tax burden of the 1%.
Royden@rbreich the excesses of capitalism HaVe to be reigned in! This has continued for too long now and is getting worse. The money paid to sports stars is but just one off the wall example
Amanda Hugankiss@rbreich Which is ok, as long as everybody else has what they need. Which is where it falls down.
sbi
John BaileyYou keep chanting this.
And, true as it is, it just keeps getting worse.
What is anyone going to do about it?
ALL of the politicians - and potential electees - are owned by the oligarchs.
Please propose a path for change.
@isucceed @rbreich Ad hoc attempt: If you have up to 1k/month, you pay zero income taxes. For everything above that 1k you pay 1%. For everything above 5k, you pay 10%, above 10k 20%, above 100k 50%, above 500k 90%. Above 1m 99%, above 10m 99.9% etc.
Do something similar to wealth.
We can haggle over the exact numbers, whether these slots are discrete or if there's extrapolation between them, how we are (gradually?) switching over to this, and a few other things.
Solved.
Do something similar to wealth.
We can haggle over the exact numbers, whether these slots are discrete or if there's extrapolation between them, how we are (gradually?) switching over to this, and a few other things.
Solved.
SpaceFox@rbreich The USA is turning into corporate fuedalism. I think the people could use UBI. Enough corporate welfare and handouts. We the people have been ignored long enough.
Very Human Robot@rbreich
I'm doing the math.
There's 3.5 million people in the US who are part of the top 1%.
Are they all oligarchs?
I mean, they are all doing ok, but many of them probably need a paycheck to live, and I doubt a majority of them fly private jets.
Compare to the top 1% of the top 1%. That's 35,000 people, who likely have the lions share of the wealth and the power.
(Now if only we could make the majority of them care deeply about global warming...)
@StompyRobot @rbreich If you are in the top 1% of the income percentile, you don't "need a paycheck to live". That's the bottom 30% you're taking about. The top 1% can give away 90% of their income and still get *much* more than the bottom 30% every month.
stoicmike@rbreich There is no sane or moral reason that anyone should be allowed to have billions of dollars.
Duneland@rbreich that's interesting but A. Why is it a problem, and B. Assuming it is a problem, what do we do about it?
If the rest of the world were comfortable (I'm aware that they're not!) then would this really be an issue?
My answer to B (because I do personally agree it's a problem) is a worldwide tax regime but sadly that's incredibly unlikely to happen whilst people keep voting in their own and their own country's interests.
DarryB@rbreich And people in the UK are starving and freezing in their homes. The time has come to stop talking and start doing. But what?
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴@rbreich
Correct.
Let's do something about it:
beSpacific (@[email protected])
A 5% tax on the world's multimillionaires could lift 2 billion people out of poverty The richest 1% have captured twice as much wealth as the rest of the world combined since 2020, according to a new Oxfam report. The world’s richest people have gained $1.5 trillion in the past three years. In fact, Oxfam’s findings show that the ultra rich have captured half of all new wealth created in the past decade. https://qz.com/oxfam-richest-people-pay-tax-poverty-hunger-wef-davos-1849986155 #Oxfam #Wealth #economy #billionaires #UltraRich #poverty