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by ffgjgf1 1101 days ago
> There's not enough rich people

I’m not sure that’s true. There are more rich people than ever and taxes are at their lowest point since ~1940

2 comments

> There are more rich people than ever

There are also more people than ever, in case you haven't noticed

>> There's not enough rich people

>I’m not sure that’s true. There are more rich people than ever and taxes are at their lowest point since ~1940

There are 2,640 billionaires in the world, 28 fewer than in 2022 (according to Forbes). Their total wealth is $12.2 trillion. Some portion (how much?) could certainly help a sizable number of people, but it is difficult to know how many and for how long.

There are several magnitudes more millionaires than that.

> but it is difficult to know how many and for how long.

Permanently? Finding out how many is the job of the IRS after the top marginal tax rates are increased by an extra 10-20%. The top capital gains tax rate is also much too low.

Globalization and the removal of capital control resulted in a race to the bottom between countries offering ever lower tax rates. That’s a huge problem, it’s something only rich people can utilize and leads to continually increasing inequality.

> There are several magnitudes more millionaires than that.

According to the Distribution of Wealth page on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_wealth), millionaires (> US $1M, i.e. incl. billionaires) own 46% of property, while the middle class (US $100 - $1M) own 39%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_wealth#/media/...

Yes? Seems about right.

Excluding primary residences would likely significantly shift this figure, but the figures seem reasonable..

> There are several magnitudes more millionaires than that.

A lot of people can become a millionaire throughout their lifetime just by having a normal job or small business. That's nowhere the level where I would describe as "rich".

It’s great that marginal tax rate brackets don’t have to be fixed at even numbers then..