cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/57305272
Total billionaire wealth in the EU reached €2.4 trillion by late November, exceeding Italy’s entire GDP of €2.2 trillion and approaching France’s €2.9 trillion economy, a new Oxfam report found.
Archived version: https://archive.is/20260118190308/https://euobserver.com/health-and-society/ara3abf5ee
So tired of this tbh - I just don’t understand how anyone thinks wealth consolidation to few could be a good thing.
Even if you ignore ethics and assume the billionaires are benevolent - it’s just a bad investment to invest majority of resources to a small number of investments. Does any successful large project hold 99% of their investments in few projects? It’s absurd.
It makes absolutely zero sense no matter how you look at it unless you’re truly full in on delusion that benevolent dictators exist and are impossible to corrupt or overtake.
“But what if it is me someday!!!???” - some guy with 5 kids making $30k/year.
“Ferengi labourers don’t want to stop the exploitation; they want to find a way to become the exploiters.”
I have seen comments like this thousands of times, but I’ve never seen a single example of anyone genuinely expressing this sentiment.
I don’t think they verbalize it in the same way. But you will hear them saying they don’t want to raise taxes, thinking it will affect them with their low income. Taxes can be targeted at the ultra-wealthy, but low-information people have been made to believe they will be taxed.
The ultra-wealthy have made a significant investment into making the sentiment that taxes are bad be overinflated. They also have successfully invested to make a lot of taxes specifically target the middle and lower classes.
You presume to know what they’re thinking, you mean. Have you never considered the possibility that they’re simply adhering to the point of view that you shouldn’t have to pay over and over for the ‘privilege’ of continuing to own what you own?
You assume they believe that because they’re ignorant. But what if they just know their history? The income tax started with the exact same promise, a tax targeting only the wealthy, but somehow, we all have to pay it now, too.
The populace has every reason to be skeptical of taxes ‘targeting’ only the wealthiest among us.
I addressed that as well. The wealthy have invested a lot in pushing taxes down to the lower and middle classes. They also have invested a lot to push their agenda.
Small number of investments? Billionaires have shitloads of investments, what are you talking about?
I think they are referring to the fact that, ignoring the personalities who hold this kind of wealth, it’s just not a viable investment strategy for a project/organization as large as society to have all that wealth tied up with only a few assets (the billionaires).
Economics tells us that diversifying the investments (equality, if you will) is a safer bet for society in the long run.
I probably misread GP but hey, at least I tried!
I think they are saying that we, as a society, are investing into a small number of investments: billionaires. This is a bad tactic.
Exactly what I meant - each billionaire is our collective investment. We invest 99% of our wealth into a few billionaire projects which might trickle down to other smaller projects but trickle down is mostly a myth we can’t accurately represent and control with our current tooling.
Consolidation of wealth could be a good thing, but the people consolidating it are never good.
Same way a single benevolent godlike dictator could be incredibly efficient and good thing but completely unrealistic and would never happen and whenever we attempt this we get millions of people killed and set humanity back by decades. It would be such an easy fix though - we all low key want it.
Some strategies simply don’t work due to lack of self correcting and self correcting a few keys that control the world is very hard. This is exactly what’s happening today - social media gave us the power to express the need for self correcting some aspects of our society and people holding the keys have decided to not allow this. Yet again leading to conflicts that have millions of people killed and set us back by decades.
Yes. But it’s the same logic in different spheres. Just as you wouldn’t concentrate resources in one industry, because it amplifies your exposure to market fluctuations and creates greater uncertainty. So too, you wouldn’t concrentrate resources in one person, because it amplifies fluctuations in their decision-making policy and… Creates greater uncertainty.
I love putting the eggs in one basket.