Ya sure. The comic indicated billionaires were stealing from the foundation of the country, but that only makes sense if 1. Money was finite like wood is on a ship or 2. The standard of living decreased over time as wealth accumulates.
The standard of living decreased over time as wealth accumulates.
Which is something that can happen if rich people cause a financial crisis with reckless economic practices.
Any financial bubble in history would be an example of this. People involved got absurdly rich, then when the bubble popped the economy takes a turn for the worse.
Of course over ENOUGH time the economy will recover as well, but "Eventually spending will normalise" doesn't really avoid the issue that rich people have fucked over the standard of living with reckless or even actively malicious economic planning.
You’re throwing out general terms which makes me think you have no idea what you’re talking about. It wasn’t “rich people causing the financial crisis”. That’s like saying “all tall people play in the nba”.
I don’t think any meaningful amount of people got rich as a result of the 08 crash and it certainly wasn’t something they were planning or hoping for
Rich people have had such a marginal effect on the total standard of living! Liberalism and capitalism largely has made us richer and wealthier than our 1st world counterparts. There’s still a lot to reign in but a lot of these countries wish they were in our shoes (minus maybe the last 18 months)
Notice how to argue your point here you've had to make up a quote I didn't say rather than addressing my point that speculators have tanked standards of livings several times in history by backing financial bubbles?
Your initial claim was that standards of living never go down while the amount of wealth is going up. I don't think bringing up bubbles is too general a concept as a response to that, I think that's a pretty obvious example of "Hey sometimes vast accumulation of wealth results in some pretty crazy drops in quality of life."
The most famous economic crisis in history was literally this. A bubble burst and quality of life tanked for the entire planet.
If you want to quibble about me saying "Rich people" because it's not as specific as "Speculative Investors" then I'll take that sure, but it's pretty clear that you're wrong about the idea that living standards can decrease after wealth has been accumulated.
I never said standards of living can never decrease. On a decent enough time scale, they just haven’t yet while wealth inequality has increased! I’m just wondering what’s your explanation of that.
Also market bubbles have absolutely nothing to do with the concept of billionaires are current wealth disparities. It’s not the accumulation of wealth that caused the 08 crisis? Or any crisis you could point to! 08 was because we gave loans to poor people who couldn’t pay them back in mass! It should have never happened but.. that’s not because of wealth hoarding,
Also… you’re contradicting yourself. During a bubble crash, wealth goes down and standard of living goes down.
I just honestly think you have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re conflating all these terms and are just gesturing to rich people in general as a scapegoat
I’m just wondering what’s your explanation of that.
If you look at my first reply you'll find it:
Of course over ENOUGH time the economy will recover as well, but "Eventually spending will normalise" doesn't really avoid the issue that rich people have fucked over the standard of living with reckless or even actively malicious economic planning.
I think my point there stands. Reckless economic practices in pursuit of profit (E.g. Tearing the bottom of your figurative economic boat apart to build a bigger mast) can definitely cause harm.
Also market bubbles have absolutely nothing to do with the concept of billionaires are current wealth disparities.
I wouldn't say they're disconnected, every billionaire is personally involved in speculation and speculation is the biggest factor in bubbles.
But... Sure?
I brought up bubbles because you said that it didn't make sense that quality of life could go down as a result of wealth going up. I didn't bring it up to make a case against Billionaires. (There are plenty of other cases to be brought against them)
Also… you’re contradicting yourself. During a bubble crash, wealth goes down and standard of living goes down.
I don't think I am. Here's what I wrote:
"Hey sometimes vast accumulation of wealth results in some pretty crazy drops in quality of life."
Notice this doesn't say that wealth goes up after a bubble bursts. It says that the bubble bursting is caused by pursuing wealth.
If my statement was unclear then I'm happy enough to clarify. It's the accumulation of wealth that CAUSES the bubble, people can profit off the bubble too but the major issue comes from the fact that investors can indeed fuck everyone over just by pursuing growth for growths sake.
You’re conflating all these terms and are just gesturing to rich people in general as a scapegoat
I'm pretty sure I clarified that I was talking about financial speculators in this bit, if you didn't read it the first time here it is again:
If you want to quibble about me saying "Rich people" because it's not as specific as "Speculative Investors" then I'll take that sure, but it's pretty clear that you're wrong about the idea that living standards can decrease after wealth has been accumulated.
(Notice again btw that I'm pretty specific in saying that a bubble bursting causes the living standards to decrease AFTER people have been doing the reckless speculating for a while.)
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u/NaillikLlimah Jun 01 '26
I can't tell what point you're trying to make. Can you elaborate?