[ExI] economic big rip

Thu Feb 28 20:32:05 UTC 2019

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of John Clark
Subject: Re: [ExI] Michael Cohen

On Thu, Feb 28, 2019 at 12:59 PM <spike at rainier66.com <mailto:spike at rainier66.com> > wrote:

>>… If this government or any government makes arrangements for a 70% progressive tax bracket that is enveloping more and more people, most capital investments no longer make sense. 

>…A theory must fit the facts and that one doesn't. During World War 2 the top tax bracket in the USA was 94%, and during all 8 years of the Eisenhower administration it was 91%; and both periods were times of very strong economic expansion. Today the top bracket is 37% (reduced by Trump from 39.6%) and the wealth gap between rich and poor is enormous, growing, and accelerating. And the gap between the rich and the super rich is accelerating at an even greater rate. And the gap between the super rich and the super ultra crazy rich is accelerating most of all. We seem to be headed toward a Economic Big Rip which will be just about as conducive to life as the cosmic Big Rip will be.

 John K Clark

John so I hear.  But it doesn’t seem to be like that.

In my area are many software skerjillionaires.  Palo Alto is a favorite hangout for them.  There is another adjacent town called East Palo Alto where poor people live.  

We have this guy over there, I think he owns FaceBook.  Zuckerberg is his name I think.  Owning many billions, he wants to buy up a street in Palo Alto and create a monster house and compound, but they won’t let him, regardless of how much money he has.  Palo Alto is populated by people who have a ton money.  Everyone who lives there starts out as millionehhhs.  There are billionehhhs there, but you need to be at least a millionehhh to even look at living there.  Nearly East Palo Alto on the other side of the freeway is filled with paupers and vagabonds.  

This same FaceBook billionehhh could buy up a street in East Palo Alto.  Those who hold that rental property would be most happy to let that go, no problem.  Hell it’s only a coupla miles away.  They love Zuckerberg there.  The poor love the guy.  They don’t resent him a bit.  But the Palo Alto mere millionehhhs hate him.  They wish he would go somewhere else.  They don’t like being super rich and living the greatest place on the planet, only to have a crazy rich guy with 100 times as much money come park next to them.  The poor don’t mind bit.  They would roll out the welcome mat, and his presence would make their town waaaay safer, bring in actual city services, all based on the local taxes that one guy would pay.  They love him!  But Palo Alto already has everything it wants.  They hate him.

How does that observation figure into the economic big rip theory?

spike

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