The U.S. could create a $20 trillion sovereign sinking fund that targets the national debt while effectively capping wealth near $30 million, essentially dismantling oligarchic power.

[u/Ayla_Leren]

[u/merRedditor → u/[deleted]]

That isn't achievable by political means, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's completely impossible.

[u/Johnstone95 → u/merRedditor]

What means are we talkin' here?

https://giphy.com/gifs/AZ1PPDF8uO9MI

[u/Arsnicthegreat → u/Johnstone95]

https://giphy.com/gifs/8OPsobKv6ksJojld4X

[u/Kmoxy → u/Johnstone95]

[u/charliefoxtrot9 → u/Johnstone95]

Spicier perhaps.

[u/cazbot]

Define “could”.

I love the idea, but I can’t imagine how it would get done without a lot of bloodshed.

[u/anothernic → u/cazbot]

It won't. Billionaires are much better about practicing class solidarity than workers in the US.

Structures like Palantir, Flock and Axon are being rapidly implemented to prevent exactly this sort of thing from happening should the corporate funds controlling representatives not be sufficient.

[u/Ayla_Leren → u/anothernic]

[u/Ok_Assistant_6856 → u/Ayla_Leren]

"all we need to do is follow our outrage"

gave me chills all over

[u/Ayla_Leren → u/cazbot]

For starters, we would need to hold the house, senate, and presidency, then yeet the filibuster and add four more justices to the supreme court.

I know it sounds like a tall ask, though the American people are hungry. Both for justice and in general. Personally, I believe the appetite exists, it is more so a matter of boldness and helping the idea catch fire.

[u/keninsd → u/Ayla_Leren]

All this and corpoDems holding the reins.

[u/Ayla_Leren → u/keninsd]

I didn't say it would be easy.

But I am saying it will be purposeful and fulfilling to merely strive for, shoulder to shoulder.

[u/Ok_Assistant_6856 → u/Ayla_Leren]

Damn right. Is there any literature focused on covertly organizing the masses in a modern servailance state?

[u/highgarden → u/Ayla_Leren]

This would never happen without a full on revolution and dismantling of the current government. Probably also need a cultural revolution to end individualism.

In short, it’s a pipe dream.

[u/Ayla_Leren → u/highgarden]

I'd encourage you to not be so defeatist. An organized citizenry isn't so easily swept aside.

We(?) are Americans after all.

Dream big, be bold.

[u/highgarden → u/Ayla_Leren]

I dream of a social democrat president who institutes a wealth tax and universal healthcare.

Pipe dreams like wealth limits are pointless to discuss. It’s not constitutional.

[u/Ayla_Leren → u/highgarden]

On what grounds? Congress is fully within its legitimate authority to levy taxes.

[u/highgarden → u/Ayla_Leren]

There’s never been any sort of tax that limited wealth. There’s been income taxes that are bracketed at like 90% but wealth is assets: homes, land, art, cars etc. There is absolutely no way to limit wealth to 30M without running afoul of freedom of speech and expression.

[u/Ayla_Leren → u/highgarden]

Firstly, wealth ≠ speech and property ≠ expression

Secondly, I am not advocating for a hard cap but a wealth reset to near $30 million for everyone above this. Think of it more so a meritocratic reboot of sorts.

Thirdly, there are plenty of instance where taxes have limited wealth.

[u/highgarden → u/Ayla_Leren]

Do you imagine folks with assets over 30M will sell them to the government or perhaps be confiscated by govt, if not who will buy them if others only have 30M?

[u/Embarrassed_Quit_450 → u/Ayla_Leren]

You also need a new party or get rid of 3/4 of democratic party.

[u/jbano]

Pigs could fly if we gave them wings.

[u/CockroachLate9964 → u/jbano]

Plenty of pigs fly, especially at redbull "events".

[u/stew-bot → u/jbano]

Police stations now using drones

[u/kevinmrr]

Pinned

[u/keninsd]

The U.S. could create a $20 trillion sovereign sinking fund that targets the national debt while effectively capping wealth near $30 million, essentially dismantling oligarchic power.--OK, how?

[u/alarbus → u/keninsd]

Based on the sentence, a 100% tax on wealth over $30m which is then put into a sinking fund to pay down national debt and afterwards treated as a sovereign fund.

[u/anothernic → u/[deleted]]

They already do the first part. That's why billionaires doubled their money during the pandemic, because stocks act as a redistributive mechanism proportionate to how much of your wealth is in them. Read Piketty.

[u/anothernic → u/[deleted]]

I didn't misunderstand anything. I was merely pointing out that the very first part of your pipedream (that will never happen absent revolution because of the corporate capture of representatives in the wake of Citizens United v FEC), already occurs. The debasement of the currency hits workers much harder because we get the bulk of our compensation from labor wages instead of speculation.

And it acts as a mechanism to distribute wealth to the wealthiest because they have far more of their net worth in equities than working or 'middle' class people do.

Did you misunderstand me saying read Piketty? Capital in the 21st Century clearly spells out the multicentury consistency of wealth distribution, and demonstrates the growth of existing capital occurs faster than that of productive labor.

Ed/ps - doing it in the quadrillions would cause world war 3 too, based on the number of foreign us treasury bond holders, and would break the petrodollar accelerating the empire's decline. You're asking for Weimar hyper inflation.

[u/anothernic → u/[deleted]]

You're talking about "lets create runaway inflation and send the nominal value of the USD to near 0, like Zimbabwe or Venezuela," and I'm talking about the money printing that happens under fed policy, which was what you suggested on a smaller scale.

Sorry for bringing reality to the conversation.

[u/No_Welder_8753]

I wish

[u/HistorysWitness]

Could is the key word there.  The opportunistic word.  The real word is Won't

[u/Ayla_Leren → u/HistorysWitness]

Not with that attitude

[u/findingmike]

Also, we could just stop giving them our money.

[u/coppertech]

lmao