SugarMyChurro
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Joined: 4/26/2007
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I think wealth (not just income) should be capped, but at a very high level of wealth. $100,000 USD is too low and frankly ridiculous for that very reason. But if you start thinking of wealth above $50,000,000 USD you can start to see that such an amount is certainly more than any person has a fair right to. I mean, let's say you are twenty years old and have 50 million dollars in accumulated wealth. Unless you literally burn the money or otherwise behave irresponsibly with it, you would likely be hard pressed to actually spend it all in your lifetime. I realize that there are single purchase items valued at that price or higher, but there is a reasonableness factor I would appeal to here.
The movie is old, the numbers and percentages would have to be updated for the present time, but still I agree with the political trajectory of this dialogue from "Wall Street":
Bud: How much is enough, Gordon? When does it all end, huh? How many yatchs can you water-ski behind? How much is enough, huh?
Gekko: It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a Zero Sum game - somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply, transferred - from one perception to another. Like magic. This painting here? I bought it ten years ago for sixty thousand dollars, I could sell it today for six hundred. The illusion has become real, and the more real it becomes, the more desperately they want it. Capitalism at it's finest.
Bud: How much is enough, Gordon?
Gekko: The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons; And what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own.
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40% of world's wealth owned by 1% of population
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2006/12/05/globalwealth.html
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On a related question, here's some info on Kevin Cahill's "Who Owns the World," the successor book to "Who Owns Britian?"
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The largest landowner on earth is revealed in Mainstream's new book Who Owns the World, published this week.
Queen Elizabeth 11, head of state of the United Kingdom and of 31 other states and territories, is the legal owner of about 6,600 million acres of land, one sixth of the earth's non ocean surface.
She is the only person on earth who owns whole countries, and who owns countries that are not her own domestic territory. This land ownership is separate from her role as head of state and is different from other monarchies where no such claim is made - Norway, Belgium, Denmark etc.
Value of her land holding. £17,600,000,000,000 (approx)
This makes her the richest individual on earth. However, there is no way to easily value her real estate. There is no current market in the land of entire countries. At a rough estimate of $5,000 an acre, and based on the sale of Alaska to the USA by the Tsar, and of :Louisiana to the USA by France, the Queen's land holding is worth a notional $33,000,000,000,000 (Thirty three trillion dollars or about £17,600,000, 000,000 trillion pounds) Her holding is based on the laws of the countries she owns and her land title is valid in all the countries she owns.. Her main holdings are Canada, the 2nd largest country on earth, with 2,467 million acres, Australia, the 7th largest country on earth with 1,900 million acres, the Papua New Guinea with114 million acres, New Zealand with 66 million acres and the UK with 60 million acres.
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/10/367571.shtml
and the Wiki for this author:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Cahill_(author)
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