
U.S. Billionaire Wealth Surged During the Pandemic - blumomo
https://www.statista.com/chart/22068/change-in-wealth-of-billionaires-during-pandemic/
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Smaug123
This seems rather misleadingly stated to me. "Between March 18 and June 17,
the total net worth of 643 American billionaires increased…". They've picked
"the bottom of the FTSE 100" as their start point, and could well simply have
captured "the stock market has rebounded". They'd have a much more compelling
argument if they could say something similar starting from 1st Jan.

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igravious
"U.S. Billionaire Wealth Surged During the Pandemic" – Misleading? Let's
define Pandemic. From the onset of the first official death. That was Feb. 29
according to news sources. So taking a starting point on or around Feb. 29
seems reasonable. Unfortunately deaths start occurring, lockdowns start being
put into place, a lot of businesses grind to a halt, stock market begins
tanking.

Between the Fed and Congress they deliberately pumped money into the market
favoring top-down rather than bottom-up and large corporations over small to
medium. Result? Stock market surge while millions (> 40 million?) remain
unemployed and lines for free food grow all around the country. Why? Because
let's say even if a large amount of pension funds are tied to the stock market
that's of no benefit to someone suffering today through no fault of their own.
And given that the top 11% (isn't it?) of Americans own 80% of stocks and I
presume the tippy top of the 11% own a huge chunk of that in turn then _hey
presto_ it all looks a bit too much like a deliberate wealth transfer – crony
capitalism taking advantage of a crisis as exhaustively documented by Naomi
Klein in Shock Doctrine.

Far from being misleading, these statistics reveal what we all know. The US
has turned into a virtual oligarchic kleptocracy.

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syshum
So what was the $1200 to every American, and Unemployment base-lined to the
point that people were making MORE with unemployment compensation than what
they made at their normal job?

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Ghjklov
Shush money so we don't revolt and put their heads on pikes.

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deadalus
FED pumping trillions was bound to drive up asset prices.

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xwdv
I’m not a billionaire but I saw my wealth surge shortly after March, so I
could only imagine billionaires made even more.

It is a shame that so many people are not financially educated enough to take
advantage of moments like this in history. A financial crisis is a time when
fortunes are made, and if you properly navigate each one throughout your life
you can give yourself a major step up in networth.

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jusiool
A lot of people don't possess the capital to, well, capitalise on these
events. I tried day trading as early as march, but guess how far 100 dollars
of starting investment got me?

The shame is not that people don't have financial literacy.

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xwdv
100 dollars for day trading is shit. You should never risk more than 2% of
your account in a trade, that means on average you’d have to be satisfied with
making a couple bucks of profit per trade.

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Smaug123
I think that's the point the parent was making. If you simply don't _have_
enough money to trade profitably with, then… you can't trade profitably.

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adammunich
I've noticed a lot of young people giving up lately on supporting the economic
system. Anyone else seen this?

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echelon
According to Reddit and Twitter, we're going to tax over half of it back once
the Democrats take power. At least this was the rhetoric when Bernie was still
in the running.

I try explaining non-liquid assets and how selling all of that stock would
change control structures and sink the stock price, but it doesn't resonate.

A lot of them also hate the stock market outright and don't know (or care)
that stocks comprise retirement funds.

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mattacular
Really surprised to hear that you condescending on young people about the
stock market and retirement funds (which they tend to feel should never have
been tied to the stock market) isn't resonating with em.

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echelon
> condescending on young people

I try not to come across that way.

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ixvvqktiwl
This should surprise no one, the whole system is designed to move wealth away
from poor people working for wages, into the hands of rich people who earn
returns on capital. Surely this comment will get downvotes, but it's useful to
learn about how the entire financial Rube Goldberg machine works in order to
understand this in depth. Ray Dalio's talks (you can find many of them on
YouTube) are a good place to start if you want a light introduction.

IMO it's time to rethink the financial system (and I'm a strong proponent of
UBI as a way to redistribute wealth). Just because it's been done a certain
way for decades doesn't mean it should continue to operate that way.

The financial system as we know it today was designed in an era where
information did not flow freely, and we did not walk around with an internet
connected computer in our pockets.

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blfr
The financial system as we know it today wasn't really designed but rather
evolved in an era of genuine technical growth. Since we can't deliver the
inputs (real innovation), but desperately try to maintain the outputs
(economic growth), it has become more and more unstable (bubble prone).

There are people, like Warren Buffet, who do very well riding these waves.
What I find weird is that some of them are revered on HN.

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syshum
Because people like Buffet say all the right things in public, like his famous
line about this secretary paying more in taxes then he does

He loves to blast the system for which he profits from greatly. That seems to
be name of the game today...

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scarface74
You mean like people who post to HN? If you are a tech worker in the US, it’s
more than likely your income is in the top quarter of household income. If you
are on the west coast, you’re likely to be in top decile.

[https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-household-income-
percen...](https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-household-income-percentiles/)

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hckr_news
What’s your point? That should stop them for advocating for a better system?

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scarface74
They spend all of their time focusing on the billionaires but they don’t see
how the rest of the population sees them.

How many are advocating increasing taxes of people making above 200K (putting
them in the highest decile)? How many admits that they have benefited from
equality between their chase to “work for a FAANG” or get rich from exit?

