Hacker News Reader

Comment by anon291 | Hacker News Reader

why do we care though? If everyone has a high base standard, what does it matter

Because of inflation. If there are people with astronomically more wealth than the rest of the population, they will push up prices. There is no such thing as a "high floor" in a system where there is extreme wealth inequality.

I don't see why that would happen. The money is being spent whether it's distributed to the masses and spent on food, or spent on a yacht. If anything it should be deflationary because the rich mostly don't spend their money, else they wouldn't be rich.

> The money is being spent whether it's distributed to the masses and spent on food, or spent on a yacht.

I don't follow what point you're trying to make here.

> If anything it should be deflationary because the rich mostly don't spend their money, else they wouldn't be rich.

The exact opposite is the case. "The rich", like all people who are able to put money aside for retirement/savings, seek to secure their wealth by diversifying their portfolio. In other words, they buy assets.

The other part is that ultra wealthy people will pay far above market value for basically everything, which creates inflationary pressure.

Because money buys power, and a few people with too much power usually ends baldy. Especially when they're unelected.

That's a surmountable political problem

Because the 0.1% have an also-outsized influence on politics, and in making our world a better place in general (and they repeatedly fail all of us in both cases).

outsized? That vastly understates the direct and indirect influence they have

it makes people jealous

Reply on news.ycombinator.com