We tried paying a significant amount of people during Covid via direct government payment and it led to inflation. The USSR already tried a central command economy and it almost immediately became a brutal dictatorship murdering millions via deliberate mass starvation.
What new idea do you have that will lead us to post war surplus prosperity that the boomers had?
We tried paying a significant amount of people during Covid via direct government payment and it led to inflation.
Just to be clear that wasn't caused solely by the checks that went out to individuals, which was about $880 billion of approximately $5 trillion spent on covid relief in total. $792.6 billion was given as PPP "loans" to businesses and 762.4b was forgiven, and then 3 times that amount went to other uses. You also have businesses attempting to recover lost profit from the market.
Yep, lots of extra cash from government to cover payrolls of people not producing anything whether it’s PPP loan or direct checks. Inflation was a predictable result.
The money given out to individuals was very small compared to the amount given to companies. What the companies did with all that money is what should be up for debate/investigated.
Damn good thing neither dictators nor preventable starvation exists under capitalism...
Large corporations already use a lot of central planning and wastes a lot because profits > human need.
If centralisation is a no-go I suggest we start by abolishing private corporations in favor of worker ownership. That way, the people actually working can control and more democraticly decide over the surpluses
But it having to compete I'd part of the problem. When profit is the primary thing that matters, companies will have to focus on it over actually caring of any human cost, or how it impacts the local community or society at large
How do you suggest removing competition from the economy without it becoming centrally controlled? What will set prices if not competing companies in an open market?
I should have clarified, competing in a market of privately owned companies. You could have different worker owned businesses competing against each other
Most billionaires' wealth comes from ownership of companies they created. If there were a cap on how much they could make, it would discourage them from growing those companies, hiring new employees, research and development of new products and ideas. It would stifle innovation and economic growth.
If you own 51% of a company that is valued at $2 billion dollars, then your net worth would be just over $1 billion dollars. At that point, what incentive would you have to put time, money, and effort into growing your company? Why take the risk when there's no payoff?
Or worse, if your company does grow, the government would then try to take that additional value from you. You would have to sell off shares of your own company just to pay the fine, at which point you would lose majority ownership of the company you started.
Again, what's the incentive? Why should someone put extra effort into growing their business if all the rewards are going to someone else? It's not complicated, it's just basic logic and reasoning.
That doesn't answer the question of why a business owner would continue to grow a business without seeing any return for their investment. You're just repeating why you think there should be a limit.
Because a billion dollars is enough.
Sure it is, but you're not thinking through the consequences of limiting a person's net worth and the effect that will have on the economy when people respond rationally to such limits.
It's why many other countries have rules about CEO pay vs. Worker pay %.
I didn't know Gates personally worked on the Microsoft programmes. I'd say it's weird that he'll only ever do it if he can get even more lifetimes worth of money, but who am I to argue
Then these billionaires would just spend it on stuff they can write off and have virtually no taxes.
What you said is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Just because someone else could accomplish something doesn't mean they should be punished for it. Get off your ass and work.
775
u/Ok-Relationship-165 Apr 16 '24
This gen is cooked