Quote:
Originally Posted by AstralTraveller
But it isn't just the one 'Malay Bogan', there is a whole class of people who accumulate that sort of beyond-usable wealth; wealth which comes from a huge and damaging redistribution of wealth away from the poor. They are a drain on society. [I'll leave solving Africa's problem to another night - I'm off to the land of nod.]
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It's something of a false analogy these days that being wealthy "takes money away" from the poor.
Reaganomics essentially initiated an unlimited supply of M0 (the stuff in your pocket) through financial de-regulation and shifting inflation control from fiscal (money supply) to monetary control (interest rates).
it was deemed essential that enough liquidity be instantly available to meet the US's obligations on global markets.
The idea caught-on pretty quick!
To cut a long story short, even to day, post GFC, there's
"loads 'a money", out there but it demands a market to trade in.
Countries like Somalia, have really, nothing to sell and no-one to buy.
Simply giving massive amounts of cash via re-distribution, is at best a temporary solution with no goal.
At worst its a recipe for local hyper-inflation and an even bigger income-disparity. In a country with no 'rule of law', the effects would be catastrophic.
I've seen first hand countries with a policy of (forced) re-distribution of wealth and countries with the opposite. Hard to say which is worse.
Personally, I view
income-tax as a fine on talent. I'm good with consumption taxes (as long as they are well-used), but taxing me 40% for being hard-working and clever is beyond the pale!
Even more galling is the fact that I could actually put the cash to uses that would benefit my local economy.
Instead, I'm financing Penny Wong's petrol-guzzling limousine!
I've never seen a country were a government that espoused high taxes for the 'rich' wasn't the prime beneficiary of those receipts.
I'd like to have a
tad more in the bank, but what the hell I'd do with Gate's or Soros's money is beyond me.
In one sense you are quite correct. That sort of mass accumulation of wealth is essentially pointless unless you are going to spread it around.
I mean, OK, a Billion in hand will pretty much buy you any politician and shield you from most of life's nasties.
But really.
Who
NEEDS 50-odd-billion?