intercst
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This is exactly what the historian Peter Turchin describes in the book, âSecular Cycles.â He coined the term âexcess elitesâ to describe frustrated people in entitled classes â whether lawyers or younger sons of aristocrats. The excess elites have fomented social unrest and revolutions over and over, hundreds of years of history.
Wendy
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So how does this change anything for the hoi-polloi? Semi-aristocrats and aristocrat wannabees kill/tax/legislate the current 1%âers into oblivion and take their place? Sounds like âmeet the new bossâŚâ Or will this be the beginning of a new social and economic order not based on âLetâs see how many can get screwed by the fewest number of people who donât do any workâ? and have the Government work for everybody instead of just 2000 or 3000 property owners?
Affordability was the rallying cry in NYC. And methinks that very well may spread as a political issue in other elections. Affordability is related to the increasing wealth disparity within the USA and frankly more prevalent worldwide.
progressive Democrats are reverting to the standard reflex in their policy toolbox: Tax the rich and redistribute income to the less well-off through government programs. As appealing, or even compelling, as that may be as an interim fix, it does not address the long-term structural dynamic thatâs behind the accelerating economic disparity heading into the AI era.
In the end, the affordability challenge canât be remedied in any enduring way by policies that just depend on hitting up the richest. It can only be met by spreading the wealth of ownership more broadly in the first place in an economy where the top 10% own 93% of all equities in financial markets.
That means, instead of relying solely on redistributing other peopleâs income, forward-looking policies should foster the âpre-distributionâ of wealth through forms of âuniversal basic capitalâ (UBC) wherein everyone gets richer by owning a slice of an ever-enlarging pie driven by AI-generated productivity growth.
Where To Start
OpenAIâs Sam Altman has proposed a redistributive universal basic income (UBI) scheme as a safety net for displaced workers to be funded through the establishment of an âAmerican Equity Fund.â It would be capitalized by taxing companies above a certain valuation at 2.5% of their market value each year, payable in shares. Proceeds from those earnings would be doled out as regular minimum payments to those whose income falls below a certain level.
Aware that this is only a stopgap income transfer that doesnât change the pattern of wealth distribution, he has more recently shifted away from UBI and toward the idea of UBC, or what he calls âuniversal basic wealth.â
âWhat I would want is, like an ownership share in whatever the AI creates â that I feel like Iâm participating in this thing thatâs going to compound and get more valuable over time,â he has said.
In ancient times debt cancellation was utilized to calm the waters of class struggles.
Debt cancellations were sometimes the result of bitter social struggles, wars and crises.
Rather than let society unravel, kings stepped in to prevent a full-blown crisis. Debt forgiveness wasnât idealism â it was policy. Only commercial debts between merchants were typically left untouched.
Could targeted debt cancellation be part of the solution to address the wealth divide? Say education debt or medical debt?
The nation should have this discussion. If not the wealthy will relocate into secure estates with private security running their businesses wealth via computer.
The wealthy donât have computers to run business in their secure estates now?
There may be fewer of them there college elites in the future. An NBC poll last month found that 63% thought that college was not worth the cost.
âWhat is really surprising about it is that everybody has moved. Itâs not just people who donât have a college degree,â Horwitt addedâŚ
Democrats have seen a significant shift too, but not to the same extent â a decline from 61% who said a degree was worth it in 2013 to 47% this yearâŚ
Remarkably, less than half of voters with college degrees see those degrees as worth the cost: 46% now, down from 63% in 2013.
DB2
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The author never heard of bankruptcy?
Why cancel debt when there is no case for bankruptcy?
I know, itâs another one of those newly invented Human Rights.
The Captain
Education has gone the way of healthcare in America. Not a social good worth supporting with our tax dollars.
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Sort of. The federal government spends about $250 billion a year on education. The states spend another $650 billion. Local government spending on education (that shows up on your property tax bill) amounts to over 40% of K-12 spending, so the total is over $1 trillion a year.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-how-much-each-u-s-state-spends-on-education/
DB2
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MSN weighs in with an article that seeks to define who is the âmiddle classâ.
{ The Pew Research Center defines the middle class as a household with an income that is at least two-thirds of the U.S. median income to double the median income. This would imply a range of incomes from $56,600 to $169,800, based on government data for 2022 (2). As of 2023, 51% of American households fit into this category. }
Upper middle class might therefore be defined as those earning 100k-170k?
Note that this overlaps the post from a couple days ago that âpoverty levelâ should be 140k.
Tucker says Drs/Lawyers. Is 150K a reasonable estimate of income for a Dr or Lawyer?
In general, IMO, people making more than 100k/year have enough income to pay their bills and have some time left over to sit around and be âunhappyâ.
They might well be the group whose discontent is manifested on the streets with pitchforks.
ralph
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Formal debt cancellation policies has been around for over 4000 years in efforts to maintain social order and peace.
"Book V of Aristotleâs Politics describes the eternal transition of oligarchies making themselves into hereditary aristocracies â which end up being overthrown by tyrants or develop internal rivalries as some families decide to âtake the multitude into their campâ and usher in democracy, within which an oligarchy emerges once again, followed by aristocracy, democracy, and so on throughout history.
Debt has been the main dynamic driving these shifts â always with new twists and turns. It polarizes wealth to create a creditor class, whose oligarchic rule is ended as new leaders (âtyrantsâ to Aristotle) win popular support by cancelling the debts and redistributing property or taking its usufruct for the state."
Itâs been awhile since Iâve read Politics, time for a reread!
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I read that in old Vienna middle class was being able to hire a maid.
The Captain
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A couple months ago, I started hiring a cleaning lady about 1x/ month.
I been contemplating 2x/ month, n maybe weekly.
As it is, I spend a total of ~5-6k/month.
Am I middle class?
Iâve been too LBYM for too long.
I donât think I know how to truly use my resources.
Iâm trying to learn to value little luxuries.
ralph
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The difference in the elite class is giving voice to the unrest and problems. Plus making up some solutions and goals for change.
None of it gets done without breaking the current rule of politics: we will never raise taxes.
After taxes are raised there is no going back for the next three decades.
The rich remember 90% and 70% tax rates. They remember 50% corporate taxes. Look at that: taxes are lower if you have your money invested in the means of production.
I am heading to the EU. Have a good time while I am gone.
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Thatâs OK. Only about 30% of the population is capable of doing college-level work.
intercst
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