This is a video from Wired. It makes the case that billionaires are bad for the economy because they don’t invest their money, don’t pay a proportionate amount of taxes, hire less people due to automation and give back to their own charities. The reason the myths exist about the virtue of billionaires is because they own the news sources and politicians.
The part I don’t agree with is the solution they give of a wealth tax. That hasn’t worked in other countries in the past.
I fully agree with the sentiment of this video. Billionaires earning more money just mean they have more money in their own shares or more money in their bank account. The money goes nowhere. And if very occasionally they do buy something crazily expensive with their additional money they do so through an offshore mechanism that let’s them avoid paying tax. They are an extreme example of reducing tax for the very rich - no additional money trickles down anywhere. Whereas if you give a poorly paid person an extra couple of thousand a year that will promptly get spent. This adds money back into the system through VAT and through the businesses selling them things earning a bit more.
And, as it happens, my view is that a wealth tax of some workable form is desperately needed.
