General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe reality now is that we are living in an oligarchic society.
Link to tweet
Twenty million Americans lost their job in the pandemic, Joe Biden remarked in his Wednesday night address to Congress. At the same time, roughly 650 billionaires in America saw their net worth increase by more than $1 trillion . . . and theyre now worth more than $4 trillion.
Thats true, according to Forbes databut the numbers are actually a bit richer. Total American billionaire wealth stands at $4.6 trillion as of the stock market close on April 28, by our count. Thats up 35% from $3.4 trillion when markets opened on January 1, 2020, just as Covid-19 was beginning to take the world by storm.
In other words, U.S. billionaires have gotten about $1.2 trillion richer during the pandemic.
Markets are surging, despite more than a year of lockdowns and a spike in unemployment, leading to a boost in the value of 401(k)s, IRAs and other investment accounts for Americans everywhere. The S&P 500 is up 29% since January 1, 2020, even with the March 2020 Covid crash; the Dow Jones Industrial Average is likewise up 19%. But many billionaireswho often have much of their wealth tied up in individual companies, or portfolios of investments in things like private equity and hedge funds that are not available to average Americansare faring much better. Three quarters of Americas 722 billionaires are as rich, or richer, than they were before the pandemicsome by billions, tens of billions, or even more than one hundred billion dollars.
(snip)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2021/04/30/american-billionaires-have-gotten-12-trillion-richer-during-the-pandemic/?sh=8ca6ddff557e
Journeyman
(15,001 posts)Graham Nash expressed the opinion. Or maybe it was David Crosby. All I know for certain is I've never thought differently about this land in all the decades since.
ansible
(1,718 posts)Now it's much much worse today.
brooklynite
(93,851 posts)Economic distribution does not automatically equal politicsl control.
lostnfound
(16,138 posts)The impact of any of those billionaires on US politics - and indeed, on geopolitics when IS power has shrunk - is several orders of magnitude higher than the average citizen.
jalan48
(13,797 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)There are super rich people popping up that are almost apolitical. They simply care about building their businesses and dont even get involved with politics outside of attending zoning meetings when their business have business with those boards.
Mr.Bill
(24,103 posts)that chaos is not good for business. Instability is their enemy.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)I have been clear to make the point that super rich people, even comfortably rich people have a vested interest in making sure that society stays out of instability, the only way to effectively do that is share a good part of their gains with employees and society at large.
jalan48
(13,797 posts)JoeOtterbein
(7,697 posts)Thanks for posting!
ChubbyStar
(3,191 posts)luckone
(21,646 posts)in that direction the next 30 years either unless more people change and wake up and lose fear of change
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)That is a fact, whether a person like it or not. The question is how should public policy be adapted to take that trend into account.
I personally believe that it is in the best interests of anyone who becomes super rich or is already super rich to share as much of their money with society as possible, in the long run that will save their ass or their childrens asses.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)very rich fast. That is a dynamic that has not existed before. So we will continue to see people pop up out of nowhere and become supper rich (in terms of assets).
The Wall Street Journal profiled a couple of fairly young women in Alabama (of all places) that set up a QVC style marketing site online. Their company now has third party sales of around $1 billion, so, they are likely both book billionaires now. They likely came from families that had at least some money or connections, but if you look at most of todays billionaires (except for Bezos and Bloomberg, who came from middleclass backgrounds), all came from families that could afford to send to places like Harvard and Stanford. Even the two stuffy towers that were lampooned in the movie The Social Network are both billionaires now, they built a start up that they started into a $3 billion dollar company that does Bitcoin ratings and advising clients like big banks and financial services companies, of course their well connected daddy likely helped, but both are now far richer than he ever was (the surprising thing is that both seem down to earth and are looking ahead to growing their company and dont seem to be interested in the fact that doing so successfully will likely make them Zuckerberg level rich on paper).
FakeNoose
(32,346 posts)... to a lot of stupid under-educated voters who love getting angry over nothing.
Are the evil libertarians going to use that access to educate those voters?
I don't think so. Keep 'em stupid and keep 'em sending in their hard-earned money.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)having it grow, all due to the Internet. Before a person had to go through the loop of convincing distributors and other middle-people, today a person can bypass such people and market direct to targeted consumers.
Unfortunately, every new media, from radio to the Internet has historically been used by shady operators to fleece the naive, so there is nothing new going on in that regard.
flying_wahini
(6,527 posts)obnoxiousdrunk
(2,906 posts)Intertubes.
Response to Uncle Joe (Original post)
monkeyman1 This message was self-deleted by its author.
malaise
(267,808 posts)Rec