this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2024
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Work Reform

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 months ago (10 children)

I've often said we don't need billionaires. That when one reaches that milestone anything above $999,999,999 should be taken as taxes from that person.

When I say this people often become defensive saying that the government shouldn't be able to dictate how much wealth one person can accumulate. (It also happens that many of these people are prolife but that's neither here nor there.) Often times comparing this action to communism which of course it isn't.

The issue of course is that many people don't understand what a billion of anything is. The human brain can't comprehend such massive numbers. But nevertheless, there are people that are approaching the trillion dollar mark a number even further removed from a billion by several magnitudes.

Should there be billionaires. Probably not... What do you think?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (12 children)

The problem is that they have enough independence to just cross borders and easily pay for new citizenship if it suits them. It would have to be a world wide movement. It's impossible, or at least would only be possible within some mythical completely self-sufficient country that could withstand their meddling.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I was thinking about this the other day, one of my favorite analogies is seconds.

A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 31 years. A trillion seconds is ............ 31,688 years.

The analogy already breaks down, because while most people could understand 12 days and a lot of adults can understand 31 years for having lived it (some even twice or more!), 31,688 years is completely incomprehensible again. How many human generations is that? All of recorded human history is only like 5,000 years. It's utterly, mind-numbingly insane. No trillionaires, ever! No billionaires!!!

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/17/business/elon-musk-richest-person-trillionaire/index.html

This was published on September 17th of this year, after most of the nonsense of Twitter and utter things. He's still on track, by 2027 no less. There's no telling how directly and flagrantly he'll benefit from a Trump win, either.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

My favorite is "do you know the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire? About a billion dollars"

Like, being a millionaire is a pretty sweet spot to be in if you're lucky enough. Not quite like a millionaire of decades ago but still good. But if you're a billionaire, a million dollars is basically a rounding error.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago

Oddly enough, the same people that wouldn’t want a maximum wage also don’t want a minimum wage. Go figure!

[–] [email protected] 71 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Because making 400k/yr by sitting on a pile of assets and living a low-cost life in a paid-off small-town cottage is not the same as making 400k/yr as a debt-saddled surgeon renting in a high-cost city center, so targeting income instead of wealth gets us farther from a fairer economy.

Next question.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Lets put that maximum at $10M/month (or year). Now your counter argument doesn't work any more.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

but then businesses couldn't run properly right? idk for sure but I feel like smaller businesses would be paid to a person and distrubuted to the company

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The people who make that kind of money don't make it through wages but other compensation.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Which is why we need to not allow borrowing against assets to get over the maximum.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yes, so block that at a maximum rate (too)?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I am not an accountant but from what I know, taxing stuff like compensation in the form of stocks is pretty hard to do.

I'm not disagreeing with you, the system is just rigged in favor of very wealthy people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

You just make it illegal to compensate in this form. Problem solved.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

the system is just rigged in favor of very wealthy people

I think that's the whole point we're trying to change in this discussion. 👍

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh for sure, it's just going to be a really long uphill battle as long as the current liberal system is in place.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

I don't have any faith in any reform happening with wealth in any country. Money is too powerful to change anything at the top. 😔 So in that sense, a very long battle indeed. 😞

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not with that attitude ;-)

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago

Next question, why did you immediately go to 400k? Why not 1 million? If you make a million dollars then you've made half the average lifetime earnings of a worker. Double question, if we capped earnings at 400k, would school lenders not take that into account?

I think a maximum yearly income, including any money you could conceivably spend for personal use, would be a wonderful idea. It would certainly put a damper on being a billionaire if you know you could never actually get more than about a hundred million dollars in your life. Just literally running the score up at that point.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ok sure, but if you frame the conversation to mean the limit would be set at $400k/year then you're missing the point. We're talking billionaires not single digit millionaires. Despite how those numbers sound to the average person there's several orders of magnitude between them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

i couldnt read the article (paywall) but is that applicable when billionaires often get paid significantly less than $400k/yr?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I don't mean to argue against your point but they became billionaires somehow. There are people who are becoming billionaires today and their wealth accumulation could be limited. It seems like more than one solution is needed. I don't think billionaires are good for society... They have too much power, political power

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If the minimum wage was a comfortable living wage


like it should be, in my and many other folks' opinion


then it wouldn't matter. One person's excess isn't a problem, unless it's at the expense of someone else (which, you know, is kinda the case...).

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

A handful of people’s excess is exactly the problem.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

Even if it’s not at the expense of someone else, too much wealth in the hands of one person is still harmful. It gives one person too much power over others, allows for people to buy their way out of legal trouble, buy politicians, etc.

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