Hacker News with Generative AI: Wealth Inequality

It's Still Easier to Imagine the End of the World Than the End of Capitalism (astralcodexten.com)
No Set Gauge has a great essay on Capital, AGI, and Human Ambition, where he argues that if humankind survives the Singularity, the likely result is a future of eternal stagnant wealth inequality.

Capitalism, Artificial Intelligence, Future, Wealth Inequality

34 points by ralphsebastian 11 days ago | 11 comments

All the Loopholes Billionaires Use to Live Above the Law – Offshore [video] (youtube.com)

Wealth Inequality, Finance, Law

10 points by _____k 20 days ago | 0 comments

The Great Wealth Transfer (ft.com)

Economics, Finance, Wealth Inequality

6 points by bookofjoe 21 days ago | 1 comments

Billionaires Have Sidestepped a Tax Aimed at the Rich (propublica.org)
Fourteen years ago, Congress set out to remedy a basic unfairness in the tax code.

Taxes, Wealth Inequality, Billionaires, Politics, Finance

19 points by srameshc 30 days ago | 12 comments

The science behind winning a Nobel Prize? Being a man from a wealthy family (theguardian.com)
A lot of talent is wasted in a world where more than half of laureates come from households in the richest 5%

Science, Nobel Prize, Gender Bias, Wealth Inequality

8 points by n1b0m 41 days ago | 0 comments

How One of the Richest Men Is Avoiding $8B in Taxes (nytimes.com)
The chief executive of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has taken advantage of popular loopholes in the federal estate and gift taxes, which have quietly been eviscerated.

Tax Avoidance, Wealth Inequality, Business, Law, Finance

39 points by NN88 41 days ago | 50 comments

You Can Have Billionaires or You Can Have Democracy (2021) (jacobin.com)
The billionaire class isn’t just a group of people who happen to be superrich. It’s a dynastic oligarchy with a single overriding objective: controlling the government to protect its inherited wealth.

Politics, Wealth Inequality, Democracy

26 points by wahnfrieden 52 days ago | 16 comments

Does anyone know how much VC firms contributes to wealth inequality? (ycombinator.com)
Does anyone know how much VC firms contributes to wealth inequality?

Venture Capital, Wealth Inequality, Economics, Finance

8 points by user90131313 66 days ago | 16 comments

Oligarchs now in full control of America? What does Hacker News think of this? (ycombinator.com)
The multi-millionaire and billionaire class have long put their thumbs on the scale of democracy through donations to the political class with the hope of gaining influence and shaping policy. But Tuesday's election outcome brings about a big shift that is different it seems to me from the past. US policy and democracy it seems to me has been handed directly to a small cast of characters led by Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Jeff Bejos and perhaps the Murdoch family.

Politics, Democracy, Wealth Inequality, Technology, Media

24 points by Sol2Sol 71 days ago | 28 comments

Billionaires emit more CO₂ in 90 minutes than most people do in a lifetime (oxfam.org)
Fifty of the world’s richest billionaires on average produce more carbon through their investments, private jets and yachts in just over an hour and a half than the average person does in their entire lifetime, a new Oxfam report reveals today.

Climate Change, Wealth Inequality, Environmental Impact

48 points by sunkcostisalie 75 days ago | 26 comments

Billionaires vs. Democracy (inequality.org)
The richest man in the world is trying to buy the U.S. presidential election in order to bestow it, like a burnt offering, upon his preferred candidate.

Politics, Wealth Inequality, Elections

8 points by thunderbong 78 days ago | 0 comments

Musk, Bezos need just 90 minutes to match your lifetime carbon footprint: Oxfam (theregister.com)
Despite their self-professed environmental bona fides, tech billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the their ilk are responsible for so much carbon emissions that the average person would need a lifetime to match the amount one of them spews in 90 minutes.

Climate Change, Wealth Inequality, Technology

65 points by rntn 80 days ago | 105 comments

You May Be Paying a Higher Tax Rate Than a Billionaire (propublica.org)
The very richest Americans win at the tax game no matter which measure you use. ProPublica has published an article, based on a vast trove of never-before-seen IRS information, that reveals the pittance in taxes the ultrawealthy pay compared with their massive wealth accumulation.

Taxes, Wealth Inequality, Finance, Billionaires

16 points by rurp 84 days ago | 10 comments

How to Tax the Rich: Piketty (lemonde.fr)
The tax debates currently underway in France and the discussions which took place at the 2024 G20 summit demonstrate that the issue of tax justice and the taxation of billionaires is not about to disappear from the public debate.

Taxation, Economics, Wealth Inequality, France

23 points by worik 93 days ago | 18 comments

Plutocrat Archipelagos (macguffinmagazine.com)
Razor wire fences, galvanized spikes and electrified perimeters: the barriers that entomb the ultra-rich in their walled settlements isolate them from perpetual violence and societal collapse.

Wealth Inequality, Security, Social Commentary, Architecture

47 points by bookofjoe 94 days ago | 13 comments

Of course we can tax billionaires (pluralistic.net)
Billionaires are pretty confident that they can't be taxed – not just that they shouldn't be taxed, but rather, that it is technically impossible to tax the ultra-rich.

Taxation, Billionaires, Wealth Inequality

19 points by ssklash 94 days ago | 8 comments

Off-grid living: A boon for the wealthy, a burden for the rest? (studyfinds.org)
How would you like to never have another electric bill? Advances in technology have made it possible for some consumers to disconnect from the power grid — a move that was once only available to the ultra-wealthy who could afford the associated costs, or survivalists willing to trade convenience for freedom. This is no longer the case.

Off-grid living, Technology, Wealth Inequality, Sustainability

6 points by Brajeshwar 97 days ago | 1 comments

Wealth Inequality in America Has Never Been Worse [video] (youtube.com)

Wealth Inequality, Economics, United States, Social Issues, Video

6 points by kwanbix 101 days ago | 2 comments

People underestimate the income of the top%, researchers find (phys.org)
People selectively underestimate how rich the world's richest people are, according to a study.

Wealth Inequality, Economics, Psychology, Research

10 points by pseudolus 122 days ago | 3 comments

Taxes on everyday Europeans bring in 13 times more revenue than taxes on wealth (oxfam.org)
Taxes that disproportionately affect ordinary Europeans – consumption and labour taxes – bring in 13 times more revenue than taxes on wealth, which are paid mainly by the super-rich, according to a new analysis by Oxfam.

Taxes, Wealth Inequality, Economics, Europe

23 points by pera 123 days ago | 14 comments

Personal carbon footprint of the rich is vastly underestimated (cam.ac.uk)
The personal carbon footprint of the richest people in society is grossly underestimated, both by the rich themselves and by those on middle and lower incomes, no matter which country they come from. At the same time, both the rich and the poor drastically overestimate the carbon footprint of the poorest people.

Wealth Inequality, Climate Change, Carbon Footprint

68 points by geox 128 days ago | 76 comments

Unrealized gains taxes are a pointless hassle. Much better ways to tax the rich (noahpinion.blog)
There’s this annoying thing that some Democratic politicians do in America. They want to toss out some economic populist red meat — a reasonable enough impulse — but they make it overly wonky and then get lost in the weeds.

Politics, Taxes, Wealth Inequality

27 points by NavinF 131 days ago | 84 comments

Should the richest 1% – who gained $42T/decade – be taxed more? (business-standard.com)

Taxation, Wealth Inequality, Economics

45 points by paulpauper 143 days ago | 196 comments

U.S. Wealth Inequality [video] (youtube.com)

Economics, Wealth Inequality, Social Issues, United States

22 points by Rinzler89 153 days ago | 9 comments

The Beggar Barons – the rise of the trillionaire beggars (2022) (zedshaw.com)

Wealth Inequality, Social Commentary, Economy, Satire

12 points by pabs3 154 days ago | 4 comments

How the super-rich are building their luxury 'safe house' bunkers (cnn.com)