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re: True or False: In a world with no billionaires
Posted on 6/7/26 at 11:41 am to AUveritas
Posted on 6/7/26 at 11:41 am to AUveritas
They create jobs but also create inequality because when they reach billionaire status they lobby for laws and regulations that their companies can absorb that smaller businesses cannot.
If the billionaires reach that status due to providing goods and services at max quality and/or efficiency then it benefits all. If they pull the ladder up to eliminate competition from smaller companies they destroy the middle/upper middle class business owners
How many retail stores that provided 6 figure income to the owners have been put out of business by Walmart and Amazon?
Take a Walmart in a town of 10,000 people. Walmart has 2-3 management positions that pay well. The rest are a couple dozen low wage earners. Earnings from this Walmart go to Walmart corporation out of state and the Walton family. Walmart puts local stores out of business. Town becomes rundown because local tax base is diminishing and empty building after empty building drives down real estate values and makes people move to nicer places.
Now take same town without Walmart. You have two or three locally owned clothings stores. You have a couple furniture stores. You have a couple hardware stores, you have a sporting goods store, a general store, a couple grocery stores. All employ 2-10 low wage earners, maybe one manager at a larger place. Proceeds of each go to the owners who live in the town and bank at local banks. Money stays in the local economy. Owners give back to the community improving public services, schools, etc because they care and want their town to grow to attract more people which means more customers.
Which is better?
If the billionaires reach that status due to providing goods and services at max quality and/or efficiency then it benefits all. If they pull the ladder up to eliminate competition from smaller companies they destroy the middle/upper middle class business owners
How many retail stores that provided 6 figure income to the owners have been put out of business by Walmart and Amazon?
Take a Walmart in a town of 10,000 people. Walmart has 2-3 management positions that pay well. The rest are a couple dozen low wage earners. Earnings from this Walmart go to Walmart corporation out of state and the Walton family. Walmart puts local stores out of business. Town becomes rundown because local tax base is diminishing and empty building after empty building drives down real estate values and makes people move to nicer places.
Now take same town without Walmart. You have two or three locally owned clothings stores. You have a couple furniture stores. You have a couple hardware stores, you have a sporting goods store, a general store, a couple grocery stores. All employ 2-10 low wage earners, maybe one manager at a larger place. Proceeds of each go to the owners who live in the town and bank at local banks. Money stays in the local economy. Owners give back to the community improving public services, schools, etc because they care and want their town to grow to attract more people which means more customers.
Which is better?
This post was edited on 6/7/26 at 11:43 am
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Posted on 6/7/26 at 12:03 pm to rltiger
quote:
How do you define wealth disparity? It is an extremely slippery slope.
From Jan 2026. Seems unhealthy to me and I’m someone in the higher income bracket.
The top 1% of households owned 31.7% of all U.S. wealth in the third quarter of 2025, the highest share on record since the Federal Reserve began tracking household wealth in 1989. That share has increased even as wealth growth for the rest of the population has stalled or slowed, the data shows.
Also the mean to median wealth factor is 5.5x in the US.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 12:03 pm to rltiger
Wealthy to me is being able to retire tomorrow with no worries. Not there yet. My wife wants to travel extensively so no, cannot retire until I have more than $5M in investments. In ten years I should be able to retire wealthy.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 12:10 pm to FATBOY TIGER
quote:
I would say false. Small/main street bidness is the undisputed king of suppling jobs at least in the US.
I think this is true, but leaves out jobs that are created indirectly by the billionaire spending his or her money. We can decry a billionaire having a private jet, but forget that jet has to be built, maintained, and flown by somebody else trying to make a living.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 12:37 pm to SnacknGold06
quote:
The top 1% of households owned 31.7% of all U.S. wealth in the third quarter of 2025, the highest share on record since the Federal Reserve began tracking household wealth in 1989. That share has increased even as wealth growth for the rest of the population has stalled or slowed, the data shows.
Also the mean to median wealth factor is 5.5x in the US.
You want to fix it quick?
Change the predatory credit card laws that Delaware enacted in 1981.
BTW, Biden’s home state.
This is the problem, accumulated debit. These companies are killing the middles class who, apparently, have no self control. Anyone can get a credit card now and they are being raped with interest and fees.
Here are a few of the companies taking advantage of Delaware’s system.
JPMorgan Chase
Bank of America
Barclays
Capital One
Applied Bank
WSFS Bank
TD Bank
Instead of people owning their situation, they want someone to fix it for them. One of the ways to fix it is take money from the wealthy to give to them.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 12:47 pm to AUveritas
True. Although the post after yours is correct, that there are a lot of non-billionaires creating value, the absence of billionaires would make us poorer.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 12:51 pm to SnacknGold06
quote:
That said, I do worry about growing wealth inequality so higher taxes on gains and dividends for extremely high incomes and/or liquidity events would benefit society.
I also worry about that. I think capital gains taxes have to be rethought. In some cases they should go up, but in some they should go down. Ultimately, if we taxed the rich much harder they would split, and we would fall off like Europe has. We already tax the rich as much as most far left democracies do.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 12:54 pm to AUveritas
We made them billionaires & I made more money when there were less of them.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 12:57 pm to AUveritas
There was once a world with a lot less billionaires and a lot more poverty. Poverty has always been here. Wealth has not.
200 years ago, there were very few wealthy or even upper middle class. 200 years ago most people had a shitty standard of living.
There is at minimum strong correllation if not outright causation between the increasing number of comfortable to filthy rich and proportion of those not in poverty.
200 years ago, there were very few wealthy or even upper middle class. 200 years ago most people had a shitty standard of living.
There is at minimum strong correllation if not outright causation between the increasing number of comfortable to filthy rich and proportion of those not in poverty.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 1:44 pm to rltiger
quote:
How do you define wealth disparity? It is an extremely slippery slope.
The asinine examples you cited made it a slippery slope… no one is talking about a 30yo who doesn’t work living off government assistance… that’s a bad faith example… the disparity issue isn’t hard to grasp… people in this thread making up hypotheticals on the side of billionaires hoarding money
Posted on 6/7/26 at 1:48 pm to AUveritas
In a world without billionaires influencing government, we would all be richer.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 1:49 pm to tadman
quote:
Poverty has always been here. Wealth has not.
Wait what… wealth is relative to the societal situation… it has always been haves and have-not
Posted on 6/7/26 at 1:56 pm to AUveritas
Wealth is not a zero sum game. Wealth is created and is mobile. A system that can create many billionaires from all parts of society is the one that is most likely to be the wealthiest for all classes.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 2:01 pm to AUveritas
OP question is a red herring. Doesn’t matter whether we have billionaires. However, the system that enables people to become billionaires is critical to our well-being. Otherwise, we’d be a backwards pseudo-modern shithole like socialist Russia was. Even their authoritarian oligarchy has provided them with a better standard of living than the union of soviet SOCIALIST republics ever could.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 2:04 pm to AUveritas
quote:
We would all be poorer, not richer.
I mean, they are the ones supplying the jobs.
I'd be interested to know if taxing the hyper wealthy actually ends up creating more millionaires because it prevents some of the scale possible when you let individuals and corporations accumulate so much surplus that they can just choke out entire industries.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 2:14 pm to AUveritas
quote:
In a world with no billionaires
Bernie Sanders is useless.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 2:20 pm to AUveritas
Mostly false, IMO.
Partly neutral.
Partly neutral.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 2:21 pm to AUveritas
Billionaires in the abstract sense aren’t the issue. The issue is when they become intertwined with the government and form an oligarchy and begin gutting the middle class without representing the constituents.
With policies like money printing, needless government spending, corruption, importing cheap labor and useless wars, this is where we are. They want to stifle upwards mobility and prevent any future competition.
Hand in glove.
With policies like money printing, needless government spending, corruption, importing cheap labor and useless wars, this is where we are. They want to stifle upwards mobility and prevent any future competition.
Hand in glove.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 2:31 pm to AUveritas
The Middle Class has always been the key to advancing civil society and humanity since the beginning of time.
The very wealthy, in free market systems, are often the visionaries who undertake the dream initiatives and push for innovations that government bureaucracies are incapable of realizing.
The very wealthy, in free market systems, are often the visionaries who undertake the dream initiatives and push for innovations that government bureaucracies are incapable of realizing.
Posted on 6/7/26 at 2:32 pm to lepdagod
quote:
billionaires hoarding money
This shows you have no clue what is going on. You think people with brokerage accounts are hoarding money? It’s all digital and monopoly money. I recall a few times Elon’s stocks dropped and his net worth went down Billions. What happened to that money? Did it just disappear?
Here’s my advice. Work hard, come up with an idea or business that makes money. Save your money and do with it what you please. Also, don’t worry about other people and try not to be a communist/socialist.
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