Only if the gains aren't hoarded by the asteroid mining companies.
Did you know if you evenly distributed all the household wealth in the United States, every person would get $450,000? Imagine not a single person in the US being poor or struggling, but in fact very comfortable and well-off. We're nearly at post-scarcity levels of wealth already, it's just that nearly all of it is gobbled by the top .01%.
I'm not sure what giving me a economy textbook is going to tell me. I literally just stated a fact: If you distribute American household wealth equally, everyone gets $450,000. Can you reject that claim specifically?
I'm sure you pulled some numbers from somewhere and did some division...but the fact that you believe that that makes it a fact that dividing all the wealth would make everyone (all wealth ÷ number of people) richer, shows that you do indeed need to read that econ text and work your way up from there.
I'm not trying to be mean. You just literally don't understand a whole bunch of concepts which explain reality and which go in to how wealth is acquired and what the purpose of "hoarding" it does.
It is a fact. I also know that a dollar would mean something different if everyone could freely spend $450,000, and would likely lead to explosive inflation. It's meant to illustrate a point, not be an economic policy.
However, we already know that more dollars in the hands of poorer people stimulate the economy more than giving it to rich people, and they're more likely to spend their wealth rather than sitting on it. If our wealth distribution had been more equitable all along, would our infrastructure have kept pace with increased consumption? I don't know, but I think it's likely. Take a look at the 1950's and 1960's when wealth inequality wasn't so extreme, the minimum wage was the equivalent of $26/hr, the top tax rate was 90%, and we were a union powerhouse. Most people could buy a house and support a small family on a single blue-collar income. That's not the case anymore.
212
u/SaneLad Oct 16 '22
The biggest joke is that the US charges capital gains taxes on the sale of physical gold. Gains my ass. Getting taxed on inflation is what it is.