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by dgellow·9y ago·view on hn ↗
I think I will get downvotes for this but I have an honest question. Why does it matter if the rich become richer? I am by no mean a rich guy, I just don't see how it can impact my life or be bad for other people if a few of us have a lot of money (doesn't matter how they get it. I'm not talking about money from illegal activities). They still have to use it, thus contribute back to the economy.
3 comments
The problems start when the rich get richer faster than what it takes for the poor to get a little less poor. This is what is described as 'divergent behavior'. In the long term there is no equilibrium to this, and we revert to pre WWI Europe levels of inequality.

What happens then to reduce inequality is anyone's guess, but in the XX century the Russian Revolution, World Wars, and the Great Depression have been very effective.

Other than that one could make the point that for someone who is already very rich, getting marginally richer doesn't do much while lifting someone from abject poverty is something that has a great effect on that person's life (in other words utility is probably sub-logarithmic).

Because lending to them (as the Gov and Banks do) causes their wealth and US money supply to increase while your income remains relatively constant. That causes things they value (healthcare, education, real estate) to increase in price faster than the majority of people can afford to buy them.

So yes their wealth and buying power affects you and everyone else economically.

Strong incentives for them to rewrite the rules to have lenient taxation of their stuff (land, real estate, investments, cash accounts) and more aggressive taxation of your stuff (W-2 and 1099 income), thus creating barriers to entry to economic mobility.