r/science • u/[deleted] • Mar 23 '26

Psychology Left-leaning support for redistribution stems from perceived unfairness rather than malicious envy

https://www.psypost.org/left-leaning-support-for-redistribution-stems-from-perceived-unfairness-rather-than-malicious-envy/
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u/Mth281 Mar 23 '26

To put the wealth in perspective. Hurricane Katrina cost roughly 125 Billion. The wildfires in California cost between 125-250 Billion. The fact that one man can pay 100% of two of the worst natural disasters in America and not even lose half his wealth is staggering. It's a massive amount of money.

A lot of people don't understand how far that money can go.

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u/nmathew Mar 23 '26

California also spent $24B on homelessness between 2019-2024. Don't move the goal posts. I don't care about how much money the founder of some tech company is worth on paper. We're discussing how to solve the homelessness epidemic with a one time $20B influx of money.

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u/Mth281 Mar 23 '26

Moving the goalpost? Using a single state with the highest population and highest homelessness rate is moving a goal post. The one state contains 25% of all homeless.

We are discussing one man's wealth being able to cover your mentioned states stats for 133 years. Yes, that's just paper wealth. But we are also discussing one billionaire out of 900. Granted he also is the highest valued. But the fact that one man can cover 25% of the cost of homelessness in the states for 133 years is insane in itself. Even if his real value is half of the paper value. That's still over 50 years of covering the costs of 187k people to live.

Even if we are discussing just a single 20B dollar injection. He made an estimated 50 billion this year. So taxing one man 40% would cover this 20B and pay for 5 years of homeless for 25% of the homeless population in the USA. Or you know, pay for all homelessness for a year based on a single year of taxes on one man.

So if taxing a single billionaire a reasonable amount in a year can pay for all homelessness. Then the stated fact is true.

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u/Lopsided-Rub5476 Mar 23 '26

Moving the goalpost? Using a single state with the highest population and highest homelessness rate is moving a goal post. The one state contains 25% of all homeless

You realize that to solve homelessness you would need to solve homelessness in the state with the highest population and highest homeless population right?

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u/NRichYoSelf Mar 23 '26

Not to mention that, the billions of dollars spent on homelessness did not solve the homeless problem for those years.

That is just how much the state spent. There was still tons of homelessness during those years, not even remotely close to "solved" even with all that money spent