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7 votes
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Norway's fossil fuel bonanza stokes impassioned debate about how best to spend its 'war profits'
4 votes -
Battle for the nation's soul – Norway faces debate about gas and oil wealth
8 votes -
A theme park crisis is wrecking South Korea’s bond market
3 votes -
Norway-style windfall tax on energy companies could raise £33.3bn extra by 2027, plugging a hole in UK government finances, analysis has found
4 votes -
Are billionaires a market failure? And if not market, are they social failure?
I was reading this text from the Washington Post (sorry for the maybe paywall): https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/06/xi-jinping-crackdown-china-economy-change/ The opinion asserts...
I was reading this text from the Washington Post (sorry for the maybe paywall):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/06/xi-jinping-crackdown-china-economy-change/
The opinion asserts that in response to liberalization of Chinese life, driven by capitalistic economic growth, is the reason that Xi Pinjing "cracked down in every sphere imaginable — attacking the private sector, humiliating billionaires, reviving Communist ideology, purging the party of corrupt officials and ramping up nationalism (mostly anti-Western) in both word and deed."
My conspiratorial brain latched on to the humiliating billionaires line, and started thinking about a between the lines message along the lines that billionaires are good and should not be humiliated, a subtle warning-response to the progressive grumblings here in the U.S. that a failure to support capitalism will result in totalitarianism.
Then I started thinking about the questions, are billionaires good for society? I had always held the position that a billionaire is a market failure (in my econ 101 understanding of the term), much like pollution. It is improper hoarding and unfair leveraging of capital into disproportionate and un-earned degree of pesonal privilege.
It is certainly a by-product of euro-american capitalism, whereby the desires and welfare of the many are trodden on by those with the ability to fight and to shape the regulatory machine meant to protect the interests of the common-wealth.
I see a few possibilities. One, is that my understanding of economics is wrong, and producing as many billionaires as possible is the ultimate goal of capitalism and in fact good for everyone, even in theory.
Two, it is indeed as I suspect, a market failure. And the failure here is one of degree, it is not, in fact problematic to have some individuals with significantly greater wealth among us, and is, in fact, beneficial overall, but to have some with so much more than the rest of us (wealth inequaility) is a result of getting in the way of a clean functioning marketplace.
Three, economic theory is working as described, and economic theory/activity is an insufficient foundation for the maintenance and success of a whole society, and we need to find a way to constrain it to its own sphere, so that it provides us with what we need to be healthy and happy, but no more.
I turn to the bright minds of tildes: am I looking at this right?
16 votes -
UK scraps tax cut for wealthy that sparked market turmoil
11 votes -
Buy a rural hospital for $100? Investors pick up struggling institutions for pennies
7 votes -
Why Galesburg has no money
8 votes -
Sweden has earmarked $661 million for a temporary scheme to help the most affected households cope with high electricity bills this winter
6 votes -
Solving the operator ‘shortage’ by not running transit like a business
8 votes -
The White House will freeze Federal student loan repayments until May 1
22 votes -
Ontario passes the Working for Workers Act
10 votes -
Restrictive zoning laws worsened the supply chain crisis
8 votes -
Lawyers from top accounting firms do brief stints in the US Treasury Department, with the expectation of big raises when they return
5 votes -
US to erase student debt for those with severe disabilities
15 votes -
Less than a week after US IPO, Didi Chuxing shares plunge in response to the Chinese government removing the ride-hailing app from stores to perform a security review
4 votes -
Amsterdam’s ‘doughnut economy’ puts climate ahead of GDP
16 votes -
Norway prevents sale of Rolls-Royce subsidiary Bergen Engines to Russia – government has blocked the sale on the grounds of national security
8 votes -
Defrauded students to receive loan forgiveness
9 votes -
Washington State launches investigation into 200,000 missing cows
11 votes -
2020 US Congress insider trading scandal
7 votes -
Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine joins a private equity firm that invests in the aerospace and defense industries less than a week after leaving government service
9 votes -
No one knows how much the government can borrow
14 votes -
One in eight California households is past due on their water bill, and the total debt is over $1 billion
11 votes -
China CCP to nationalize Jack Ma's Alibaba and Ant Group
26 votes -
How a $17 billion bailout fund intended for Boeing ended up in very different hands
4 votes -
Norwegian Air said it is facing a “very uncertain future” after the government of Norway refused to grant further financial assistance to the airline
6 votes -
Florida votes to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour
21 votes -
What Prop. 22’s defeat would mean for Uber and Lyft — and drivers
9 votes -
New Hampshire announces it will challenge a legal decision by Massachusetts to continue taxing NH residents who normally work in Massachusetts but have worked remotely during the pandemic
6 votes -
Wisconsin denies Foxconn tax subsidies after contract negotiations fail
12 votes -
Seattle approves minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers
9 votes -
The FinCen Files: Thousands of secret suspicious activity reports offer a picture of corruption and complicity - and how the government lets it flourish
11 votes -
How to think about the deficit by James Tobin
6 votes -
Doesn’t feel like a recession? You should be paying more in taxes
12 votes -
Inside China’s race to beat poverty
6 votes -
Norway should add a number of restrictions to the kinds of weapons its $1 trillion wealth fund is allowed to invest in, a government-appointed commission said
6 votes -
US Secret Service: “Massive fraud” against state unemployment insurance programs
8 votes -
Japan to subsidize 100% of salaries at small companies
6 votes -
Amsterdam to embrace 'doughnut' model to mend post-coronavirus economy
11 votes -
How come Australia suddenly has billions of dollars to pay for welfare?
12 votes -
Australian Federal Government offers $130bn in coronavirus wage subsidies for businesses to pay workers
7 votes -
Robodebt: Confidential documents reveal size and impact of years-long debacle and that Australian government is still pursuing Australians to try and validate debts
5 votes -
White House pushes for quick, direct payments to Americans in response to coronavirus
12 votes -
Finland to become EU's only uranium producer – Finnish government gave the green light on Thursday for state-owned Terrafame to extract and refine
6 votes -
Government lawyers warned the tax commissioner the controversial "robodebt" program could be illegal on the same day the Federal Government suspended the scheme
5 votes -
Sanna Marin needs to act quickly to tackle one of Europe's fastest-aging populations
4 votes -
New York City paid McKinsey millions to stem jail violence. Instead, violence soared.
9 votes -
Why Americans hate taxes, and why some people want them to
12 votes