this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
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Well yes, but unless you dismantle things it'll probably backfire. A ton of that wealth is in owning companies, and if that ownership transfered to the state, it would need to be liquidated by selling it to... someone. Which would tank stocks, which would then tank 401ks and IRAs and a lot of other retirement funds, etc.. It would get messy and a ton of non-billionares would be impacted.
Now you can argue that you then use your newfound government cash to pay a new universal social security, and that's possible but you'd need to design all that ahead of time. Plus if your goal is to not impact people with less than a billion... well, no dice. It's hard to target just the billionaires, basically.
Still, if we could at least start the process that'd be lovely. Dismantling the whole system is more effective and way better, but my money would be on gradual socialist improvements paid via higher taxes and not a system overhaul. As it is, we're going backwards, though, so meh.
If you're in this community, it's because you believe the system should be dismantled and replaced. I understand this post may be confusing because of that, but it's more of a thought experiment.
Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Thanks for listening.
The worst part is most of that money would end up right where it started.
Yeah true. El problema es el capitalismo.
You can always redo it. Family wealth counting together next time.
I agree, but don't let the subtext to this be why even try (not saying your sentiment is cynical, but people will read it this way).
A lot of good can be done by the right kind of disruption. Won't solve the system, but would allow for some economic mobility
But what if I do want to reduce the number of billionaires?
You'll have to unclog the pipes of society. I'd recommend a good plumber.
This would solve world hunger forever. Money wouldn't be syphoned anymore.
The Economics Explainers have arrived, so I'm locking this post