Where Do Billionaires Come From?

[georgephillip]

Do the richest among us owe their wealth to hard work and high IQs or government monopolies like patents and copyrights, minimum wage laws, or campaign finance contributions?

Should We Have Billionaires?

"The basic story is that if we have a market economy, some people can get very rich.

"If we buy the right-wing story, the super-rich got their money from their great contribution to society.

"If we look at it with clearer eyes, the super-rich got their money because we structured the economy in a way that allowed them to get super-rich..."

"This is a point which seems very obvious, but for some reason is largely ignored in policy debates.

"Most typically these debates take the market distribution of income as a given, and then ask the extent to which we might want to redistribute to have less inequality...."

"But it is completely absurd to treat the market distribution of income as given.

"The market is incredibly flexible and it can literally be structured in an infinite number of different ways."

Instead of arguing over a redistribution of income, restructure markets in such a way that vast private fortunes never come into existence in the first place.

 

[Toro]

The problem with billionaires is that we don't have enough of them.

Hooray for billionaires!

 

[Andylusion]

Do the richest among us owe their wealth to hard work and high IQs or government monopolies like patents and copyrights, minimum wage laws, or campaign finance contributions?

Should We Have Billionaires?

"The basic story is that if we have a market economy, some people can get very rich.

"If we buy the right-wing story, the super-rich got their money from their great contribution to society.

"If we look at it with clearer eyes, the super-rich got their money because we structured the economy in a way that allowed them to get super-rich..."

"This is a point which seems very obvious, but for some reason is largely ignored in policy debates.

"Most typically these debates take the market distribution of income as a given, and then ask the extent to which we might want to redistribute to have less inequality...."

"But it is completely absurd to treat the market distribution of income as given.

"The market is incredibly flexible and it can literally be structured in an infinite number of different ways."

Instead of arguing over a redistribution of income, restructure markets in such a way that vast private fortunes never come into existence in the first place.

This is idiotic.

"But it is completely absurd to treat the market distribution of income as given.
"The market is incredibly flexible and it can literally be structured in an infinite number of different ways."

That is absolutely retarded.

Market distribution of income, is in fact a given, because it's part of the market.

I don't give my money to the beggar at the street corner, because that beggar doesn't provide anything of value. Exxon does. Microsoft does. Walmart does.

This idea that you can just change the system, so that billionaires are no longer billionaires, because "the market is flexible", is retarded.

Of course it's a given. The whole reason the wealthy are wealthy, is because they provide something of value to the most people. The whole reason the poor are generally poor, is because they don't create much or anything of value.

This is exactly why, you can effectively redistribute wealth to poor people, and the vast vast majority end up poor again.

You take lottery winners, that end up with millions, and in 10 years, they are poor again.

There is no way to restructure the market, so that people can make bad choices, and produce little of value, and end up being wealthy.
Equally, there is only one way to restructure the market so that rich people don't end up rich... and that is to drive them out of the market, so they go and end up rich elsewhere.

As I said to last time, there were rich people in Cuba, before Castro. Restructuring the market, didn't make the poor people rich. It just made the rich people leave, and go be rich elsewhere in the world, while the people of Cuba ended up in object poverty for life.

 

[gulfman]

Most billionaires were millionaires to start

 

[JWBooth]

Where Do Billionaires Come From?

Manipulating government contracting to their advantage.

 

[Bruce_T_Laney]

Do the richest among us owe their wealth to hard work and high IQs or government monopolies like patents and copyrights, minimum wage laws, or campaign finance contributions?

Should We Have Billionaires?

"The basic story is that if we have a market economy, some people can get very rich.

"If we buy the right-wing story, the super-rich got their money from their great contribution to society.

"If we look at it with clearer eyes, the super-rich got their money because we structured the economy in a way that allowed them to get super-rich..."

"This is a point which seems very obvious, but for some reason is largely ignored in policy debates.

"Most typically these debates take the market distribution of income as a given, and then ask the extent to which we might want to redistribute to have less inequality...."

"But it is completely absurd to treat the market distribution of income as given.

"The market is incredibly flexible and it can literally be structured in an infinite number of different ways."

Instead of arguing over a redistribution of income, restructure markets in such a way that vast private fortunes never come into existence in the first place.

This is idiotic.

"But it is completely absurd to treat the market distribution of income as given.
"The market is incredibly flexible and it can literally be structured in an infinite number of different ways."

That is absolutely retarded.

Market distribution of income, is in fact a given, because it's part of the market.

I don't give my money to the beggar at the street corner, because that beggar doesn't provide anything of value. Exxon does. Microsoft does. Walmart does.

This idea that you can just change the system, so that billionaires are no longer billionaires, because "the market is flexible", is retarded.

Of course it's a given. The whole reason the wealthy are wealthy, is because they provide something of value to the most people. The whole reason the poor are generally poor, is because they don't create much or anything of value.

This is exactly why, you can effectively redistribute wealth to poor people, and the vast vast majority end up poor again.

You take lottery winners, that end up with millions, and in 10 years, they are poor again.

There is no way to restructure the market, so that people can make bad choices, and produce little of value, and end up being wealthy.
Equally, there is only one way to restructure the market so that rich people don't end up rich... and that is to drive them out of the market, so they go and end up rich elsewhere.

As I said to last time, there were rich people in Cuba, before Castro. Restructuring the market, didn't make the poor people rich. It just made the rich people leave, and go be rich elsewhere in the world, while the people of Cuba ended up in object poverty for life.

With every Marxist in the world what they tend to forget while they get rid of personal wealth of the private citizen the Politician ends up replacing that rich billionaire as being the one on top.

 

[harmonica]

"If we look at it with clearer eyes, the super-rich got their money because we structured the economy in a way that allowed them to get super-rich..."

= you people post so much CRAP on USMB it's hard to keep up with it
..how about we do it like the USSR communist crap--you see where that got them

 

[anynameyouwish]

Do the richest among us owe their wealth to hard work and high IQs or government monopolies like patents and copyrights, minimum wage laws, or campaign finance contributions?

Should We Have Billionaires?

"The basic story is that if we have a market economy, some people can get very rich.

"If we buy the right-wing story, the super-rich got their money from their great contribution to society.

"If we look at it with clearer eyes, the super-rich got their money because we structured the economy in a way that allowed them to get super-rich..."

"This is a point which seems very obvious, but for some reason is largely ignored in policy debates.

"Most typically these debates take the market distribution of income as a given, and then ask the extent to which we might want to redistribute to have less inequality...."

"But it is completely absurd to treat the market distribution of income as given.

"The market is incredibly flexible and it can literally be structured in an infinite number of different ways."

Instead of arguing over a redistribution of income, restructure markets in such a way that vast private fortunes never come into existence in the first place.

Business Insider › more-rich-people-in-china-than-america...
Oct 22, 2019 - In 2018, China was home to more members of the global top 10% than ... For the first time ever, there are more ultra-wealthy people in China than the US ... Three factors affect how many millionaires live in any given country: ...


another example of the failures of socialism compared to the successes of capitalism!

 

[harmonica]

Do the richest among us owe their wealth to hard work and high IQs or government monopolies like patents and copyrights, minimum wage laws, or campaign finance contributions?

Should We Have Billionaires?

"The basic story is that if we have a market economy, some people can get very rich.

"If we buy the right-wing story, the super-rich got their money from their great contribution to society.

"If we look at it with clearer eyes, the super-rich got their money because we structured the economy in a way that allowed them to get super-rich..."

"This is a point which seems very obvious, but for some reason is largely ignored in policy debates.

"Most typically these debates take the market distribution of income as a given, and then ask the extent to which we might want to redistribute to have less inequality...."

"But it is completely absurd to treat the market distribution of income as given.

"The market is incredibly flexible and it can literally be structured in an infinite number of different ways."

Instead of arguing over a redistribution of income, restructure markets in such a way that vast private fortunes never come into existence in the first place.

=TDS

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Instead of arguing over a redistribution of income, restructure markets in such a way that vast private fortunes never come into existence in the first place.

You cannot restructure markets in such a way that vast private fortunes never come into existence in the first place without removing the ability of a family like mine to go from just above poverty level to the top 10% in 5 years.

 

[hjmick]

Billionaires come from eating poor people.

 

[Gdjjr]

Where Do Billionaires Come From?

Their parents.

 

[initforme]

It's a bad choice for parents to tell their kids they could be a millionaire or billionaire some day. The odds are .000000001 percent unless the parents have alot of money. But with a college education kids can do fairly well. Eat right, practice your faith, live a spotless life. Happiness is not found in the pursuit of money. Happiness to me is the 20 inches of snow forecasted here. A mere dusting. Wish it would go down south once. 20 inches would send the south into a panic worth watching.

 

[Ame®icano]

Instead of arguing over a redistribution of income, restructure markets in such a way that vast private fortunes never come into existence in the first place.

You cannot restructure markets in such a way that vast private fortunes never come into existence in the first place without removing the ability of a family like mine to go from just above poverty level to the top 10% in 5 years.

You didn't build that.

 

[Gdjjr]

It's a bad choice for parents to tell their kids they could be a millionaire or billionaire some day. The odds are .000000001 percent unless the parents have alot of money. But with a college education kids can do fairly well. Eat right, practice your faith, live a spotless life. Happiness is not found in the pursuit of money. Happiness to me is the 20 inches of snow forecasted here. A mere dusting. Wish it would go down south once. 20 inches would send the south into a panic worth watching.

Happiness comes from within- it's a bad choice to say differently. I have a 34 year old son who making 200k/year, legally, he attended 1 semester of pre-college and one semester of regular college. He and his brother were brought up with knowing I supported whatever they chose to do as long as it's productive. Neither eats like I do and I'm not religious- living a "spotless life" is impossible- leading someone, especially a kid, to believe it's possible is irresponsible setting the kid up for failure w/o the tools to deal with it.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Instead of arguing over a redistribution of income, restructure markets in such a way that vast private fortunes never come into existence in the first place.

You cannot restructure markets in such a way that vast private fortunes never come into existence in the first place without removing the ability of a family like mine to go from just above poverty level to the top 10% in 5 years.

You didn't build that.

Well played!

 

[fncceo]

"Where do Billionaires come from?"

Well, when a daddy Billionaire and a mommy Billionaire love each other very much ...

"Should we have Billionaires?"

Hell, yea! We should have TRILLIONAIRES

 

[jasonnfree]

Three people now own more wealth than the bottom fifty percent of us in this country, link below. If this seems to be ok with us, then what's wrong with them eventually having sixty percent and on and on. What really great, wonderful things have these folks done to make them so deserving of this wealth. How many children were helped by Dr. Salk, who didn't patent his polio vaccine so he could be a billionaire? Other link below

The 3 Richest Americans Hold More Wealth Than Bottom 50% Of The Country, Study Finds

How Much Money Did Jonas Salk Potentially Forfeit By Not Patenting The Polio Vaccine?

 

[georgephillip]

The problem with billionaires is that we don't have enough of them.

Hooray for billionaires!

More families like Sackler and Walton works for you?
Why is that when they "earn" their money from government structured patents, monopolies, and minimum wage laws?
Do they toss a few table scraps your way?

Should We Have Billionaires?

"My favorite here is patent and copyright monopolies, both because it should be obvious that these features are structured by the government, and there is an enormous amount of money at stake.

"Patents and related protections raise the price of prescription drugs alone by close to $400 billion a year over the free market price, or 1.8 percent of GDP.

"If we add in the impact of patents and copyrights on medical equipment, software, movies, fertilizers and pesticides, and other areas, the cost could easily exceed $1 trillion annually or close to 5.0 percent of GDP."

Do you worship the ground parasites walk on?

 

[sparky]

Market distribution of income, is in fact a given, because it's part of the market.

Due to lobbyists legislation...

Manipulating government contracting to their advantage.

Because wealth controls governance here....

China was home to more members of the global top 10% than ... For the first time ever, there are more ultra-wealthy people in China than the US .

top 10% is a statistical facade , try the top 1%, or better yet, top point 1% , and get back to us on wealth inequity....

You cannot restructure markets in such a way that vast private fortunes never come into existence in the first place without removing the ability of a family like mine to go from just above poverty level to the top 10% in 5 years.

You're asking if a meritocracy can exist in a 'casino capitalist' society

Rather grand Q Gator....

How many children were helped by Dr. Salk, who didn't patent his polio vaccine so he could be a billionaire?

A lot, his story is iconic....

~S~