I agree but this will never happen. Americans fetishize the ultra rich. We all fancy ourselves as billionaires in the making.
Why, with enough hard work and a little luck any of us could be the next Jeff Bezos, right?
It's a chronic consensual delusion baked into the DNA of American culture. And it's fucking insane.
Imagine what you can buy with a million dollars in one day. Buy a nice house, a few nice cars, almost anything you want. For most people, a million dollars would be life-changing.
Charles Schwab, can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 25 years.
He’s just number 50 on the top billionaires list. Going to the even wealthier:
Mark Zuckerberg can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 195 years.
Warren Buffet can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 230 years.
The Koch brothers can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 242 years.
Bill Gates can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 247 years.
Jeff Bezos can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 306 years.
The Walton heirs can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 370 years.
Trump gave the rich over a trillion dollars in tax cuts. If you took that money and went back to 700 BC, before Ancient Rome, and spent a million dollars every single day, you’d finally run out of money now, 2019.
These are very conservative estimates because it assumes that whatever is bought will have zero resale value.
All while we lead the industrialized nations for children in poverty (only Turkey, Greece, Israel, and Bolivia are worse), families are terrified of going to the doctor for fear of financial ruin, we have a massive homeless problem, young people are burdened with huge student loans, families are strained and broken because both parents have to work full time. How many murders, divorces, suicides, and poor upbringings have been caused by financial strain?
It’s TIME to adjust the rules.