• Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Can billionaires liquidate their assets? Yes, it is theoretically possible

      The real question is, who is going to buy the assets?

      Let’s say we have a billionaire that owns a billion dollar company.

      Could that billionaire sell all their shares, get a billion dollars in cash, and then give it away. Yes, it is possible.

      But that billion dollars in cash has to come from somewhere. Either the citizens have to come with a billion dollars in cash or the government.

      If the citizens spend a billion to buy the shares, then the government takes the billion in cash from the billionaire, then the government gives a billion back to the citizens. You just basically printed an extra billion dollars for the economy, which causes inflation. Because the citizens now have two billion in stocks and cash, compared to just one billion in cash.

      Our fiat money system has flaws, one day it is going to crash.

      But Besos’ 100+ billion in Amazon stock is money tied up outside of the economy until he sells.

      Forcing him to sell and introduce that money into the economy has repercussions.

      • Programmer Belch@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        You don’t need to make him dump all of his money all at once. Make an investment plan so that sum of money doesn’t disturb the market, extend the dump for two-three years and you can put 100 million without destroying the system

        • Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I didn’t say you needed to make them dump it all at once, but no matter how you do it, you’re introducing more money into the economy.

          Make an investment plan so that sum of money doesn’t disturb the market

          Again, great the market isn’t disturbed and stocks are still worth a billion total. You’re still going to introduce another billion into the economy in “two-three” years by giving it to the poor.

          The whole point of taking money from billionaires is to affect the economy. There’s no point in doing it if it’s not going to affect anything.

          • Programmer Belch@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            The money is already in the economy, it is just not moving hands. When talking about disturbing the economy I was alluding to inflation, lots of poor families will gladly welcome that money. Also if we allowed us to take a little bit more, the social services will be allowed to improve substantially

            • Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Say I invented the cure for cancer today and started the business Cancer Cure Inc. tomorrow.

              I own 100% of the shares of the company. Say there are 100 shares.

              Each share of Cancer Cure Inc. would be valued at X/100 amount of money because Cancer Cure Inc. would be valued at X.

              If Cancer Cure Inc. company was valued at a billion dollars. Each share would be worth 10 million dollars.

              I would be seen as a billionaire because I own the 100 shares. Yet I haven’t sold a single share. No money has exchanged hands for the shares.

              A billion dollars doesn’t just magically enter the economy because Cancer Cure Inc. exists. It would take an existing billion dollars to buy my shares.

              Now, if people wanted to give me a billion dollars in cash for my 100 shares, and I sold them. I’d have a billion dollars in cash, and the people would have a billion dollars in Cancer Cure Inc. stock.

              Now, if the government takes my billion dollars in cash and hand that to the people, they now have a billion dollars in stock and a billion dollars in cash.

              It doesn’t matter if I own 100 stocks of Cancer Cure Inc. or if 100 different wealthy people own 1 stock each. What changed is that there is now 1 billion more cash floating in the economy.

              That’s what causes inflation

              I’m not saying it’s right. Capitalism has winners and losers, rich and poor. It’s just how the capitalism system has to work.

              • xenspidey@lemmy.zip
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                1 year ago

                The people on here want you to work hard and take all the risk, create Cancer Cure Inc. Then take all your company and give it to the workers so you have nothing.