Hacker News with Generative AI: Wealth Inequality

Buy, Borrow, Die – How to be a billionaire and pay no taxes (theatlantic.com)
America’s superrich have always found ways to avoid paying taxes, but in recent years, they’ve discovered what might be the mother of all loopholes. It’s a three-step process called “Buy, Borrow, Die,” and it allows people to amass a huge fortune, spend as much of it as they want, and pass the rest—untaxed—on to their heirs. The technique is so cleverly designed that the standard wish list of progressive tax reforms would leave it completely intact.
Taxes, Wealth Inequality, Finance, Law
10 points by pseudolus 20 days ago | 2 comments
Desperate rich people to fund drug research (theguardian.com)
Each year, hundreds of potentially world-changing treatments are discarded because scientists run out of cash. But where big pharma or altruists fear to tread, my friend and I have a solution. It’s repugnant, but it will work.
Philanthropy, Drug Research, Healthcare, Wealth Inequality
20 points by pkol 26 days ago | 0 comments
Wealth, Shown to Scale (eattherichtextformat.github.io)
Jeff Bezos may be insanely rich, but it is a drop in the ocean compared to the combined wealth of his peers. The 400 richest Americans own about $3 trillion, which is more than the bottom 60% of Americans.
Wealth Inequality, Economics, United States
9 points by diwank 31 days ago | 4 comments
Wealthy Americans fuel half of U.S. economy consumer spending (bloomberg.com)
Industries get recalibrated, economic signals get crossed, and the social fabric begins to fray.
Economy, Consumer Spending, Wealth Inequality
48 points by walterbell 36 days ago | 85 comments
Leave Billionaires Alone (m-onz.net)
"Money, money, money. It's so funny. In a rich man's world."
Wealth Inequality, Social Commentary, Economics
21 points by timothygold 50 days ago | 18 comments
Wealth Shown to Scale (mkorostoff.github.io)
Jeff Bezos may be insanely rich, but it is a drop in the ocean compared to the combined wealth of his peers. The 400 richest Americans own about $3.2 trillion, which is more than the bottom 60% of Americans.
Wealth Inequality, Economics, Social Issues
6 points by archagon 74 days ago | 1 comments
You vs. a Billionaire: An Interactive Perspective on Wealth (budgetflow.cc)
The wealth of the super rich is often discussed in abstract terms which are hard to grasp, but today we'll explore it in a way that makes it more tangible and personal.
Wealth Inequality, Personal Finance, Data Visualization
50 points by mkrd 74 days ago | 64 comments
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 90 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 98 days ago | 0 comments
The Great Wealth Transfer (ft.com)
Economics, Finance, Wealth Inequality
6 points by bookofjoe 99 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 109 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 120 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 120 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 131 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 144 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 149 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 153 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 156 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 158 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 162 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 171 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 173 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 173 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 175 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 179 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 200 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 201 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 206 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 210 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 222 days ago | 196 comments