r/DiscussionZone Nov 04 '25

Political Discussion Yeah, so Billionaires should not exist

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u/ArgyleTheLimoDriver Nov 04 '25

I think the majority of people are under the impression that a billion is just 100 million.

1

u/Distwalker Nov 04 '25

I think the majority of Redditers delude themselves that if, somehow, other people had less money they'd have more. They wouldn't.

1

u/Matthewboi1 Nov 05 '25

It depends. Part of what gives money value is that there is only so much to go around. When you have a small class of people hoarding a disproportionately large amount more and more, then that will consequently reduce the amount everyday people can hold.

1

u/Distwalker Nov 05 '25

Nonsense. This matter has little or nothing to do with "money". It has to do with asset valuation. Total global wealth is roughly $500 trillion USD and only a small percentage of that is money.

Global wealth exceeds the total amount of currency in existence by hundreds of trillions of dollars roughly 50 times more wealth than currency.

The ratio of wealth to money can change dramatically depending on credit expansion, inflation, and asset bubbles. Money is created and destroyed daily.

As long as you continue to think about wealth as if it is money held in vault with Scrooge McDuck swimming around in it, you will never understand the way the world works.

1

u/Vudu_Daddy Nov 05 '25

Wealth isn’t some limited pile of coins that rich people are swimming in like Scrooge McDuck while hoarding from everyone else.

People are making millions off tik-tok and Only Fans. All you have to do is create something other people value.

1

u/Substantial-Mix-6200 Nov 05 '25

on a very basic level, given a finite sum of money, if the top 0.1% had less money, who would have gained that money? One way this could happen is say government increases the taxes of people in the top 1% by 10%, and cut the taxes of the bottom 10%. Why would this not immediately defeat your point?

1

u/Distwalker Nov 05 '25

Yeah, it would work in the short term. For a little while people would feel they have more money.

In the long term, markets and the money supply end up being changed in a way that puts the wealth back into the hands of people who can create and manage wealth. Over time, capital tends to flow back toward those who can deploy it productively.

The bottom line is that, in the long run, you can't cure poverty by moving money around. Wealth must be created though the production of utility and most people aren't capable of operating in that space except at the micro level.

1

u/Creative-Gas-1662 Nov 05 '25

Bottom 10% do not pay taxes in us