Comment on But how would they be able to live on that?

• Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  So you are explaining why the rich get less than what I calculated

  No. Not even close. I’m explaining that GDP is a terrible metric to look at this problem. You need to look at wealth holdings. And the rich own basically all wealth.

  The whole point is people are obsessed by the rich having ridiculous wealth on paper because of owning companies, but them owning companies does not take anything away from society.

  So this is wrong in two ways. The first bit with “wealth on paper” is wrong, because the rich own the wealth. Loads of it are tied up in stocks, sure, but it is still wealth. And they use it like we use other fiat currencies, so to them stocks are just as “real” as USD is “real”.

  The second is that the economy is an finitely expandable pool that is itself finite. So it is ultimately a zero sum game.

  There is a limited number of hot dogs that can be sold in a year. Every hot dog sold by vendor A is a hotdog that cannot be sold by vendor B. Every stock that is owned by rich asshat A is a stock that cannot be owned by worker B.

  So yes, the rich owning all the wealth directly takes away from the rest of us.

  The factories produce goods for people and who receive the goods is determined by who buys the goods which is determined mainly by income, not wealth.

  “Who is able to buy X” isn’t a relevant question to the problem of wealth inequality/hoarding.

  Or let me put it in different words: Let’s say you and I have the same wage across our lives.

  This analogy immediately falls apart, because I make about $40/hr.

  Bezos makes about $8,000,000/hr

  …yahoo.com/…/jeff-bezos-made-over-7-172628289.htm…

  That is grotesque. The stock market, the economy, and all the wealth is owned by the rich.

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  We need to fix this.

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  • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    If sustainable survival is your only goal, go live in a forest. People can survive without factories.

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    • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      If sustainable survival is your only goal, go live in a forest.

      I’m saying it should be the goal of the economy instead of the current situation in which the only goal is everlasting, ever growing profit.

      And I would go live in the woods if I could, but I can’t afford to do that.

      As for your ridiculous hot dog analogy, are you saying as it is now, everyone in the world has as many hotdogs as they want? If not, there is obviously value in making more.

      I am saying that there is a finite amount of hotdogs that can be sold per unit of time. Therefore it is a zero sum game. Therefore acquisition of wealth means taking away wealth from others.

      Also, I don’t care how many times you say GDP is not a good metric because it is not fitting your narrative. It is a good upper bound on how much value is produced. You can’t wish it away just because it proves you wrong.

      It doesn’t prove me wrong. You’ve seen the above graph. You know the wealth is allocated in the hands of the rich. How it gets there isn’t the point.

      I’ve explained it to you twice now, and if it is beyond your graph then that’s on you.

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      • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        There is a finite amount of hotdogs that can be sold and we are selling FEWER than that. So no, it is not a zero sum game.

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