billionaires

a very trendy topic in the 2020 US political campaign is centered around billionaires, wealth taxing, and how to fix ‘capitalism’

I don’t think any country is only ‘capitalist.’ Sure, the United States is more capitalist-ish, but still sprinkled with a little government intervention, anti-trust policies, and socialist social security cherry on top.

Should billionaires exist though?

They have incomparable power to the middle class – in the form of monetary power, political influence, and status.

Those with money can do great things in the form of business, philanthropy, and advancing the economy and generating wealth.

On the other hand, they can also use it in corrupt ways to forward their own agendas. Of course, we all are selfish and will look out for ourselves, but it is the wealthy that can have a significant impact on their actions. Take for example the college scandals where famous people paid upwards of $500K to get their children into universities like USC. But seriously, if you’re going to pay that much money anyway, shouldn’t it be Harvard or Princeton? Political campaigns are also dependent on funds, and lobbying is a big way for the wealth to push their political agendas.

My fellow business colleagues probably share my ideals – either consciously or subconsciously – and that is we wish to be wealthy. The billionaires club is an admirable position – one that holds a lot of power for the 1% of the 1%.

Jeff Bezos is worth over $100+B (likely less after his divorce settlement), but a lot of his wealth is held up in stock, or non-cash. No one has billions dollars sitting in one bank account, because 1) that’s too much cash to hold 2) you’d probably want several banks accounts for insurance and 3) cash does not generate more wealth – investments do.

Income taxes then don’t really work on those super-wealthy especially if you are one of those big-tech CEO’s that claim a salary of $1, or Warren Buffett who has an income of $100,000 while being worth over $80B.

US politics is all very interesting and I get to watch it in a detached way without legitimate pressure to influence politics. So we’ll see where these wealth-tax plans come into play and whether or not they’ll be a favorite in the 2020 campaigns. I for one am watching Andrew Yang because I like his economics and business background, interesting take on capitalism and socialism mix through UBI, and his slogan – MATH : Make America Think Harder. He’s also the opposite of President Trump – an Asian man who loves math.