Why is income inequality a bad thing?

[ClimateSanity]

Specifically? What can't it do?

Even if we just reduce our imports of oil, it would lower our trade deficit. But not only is Trump not trying to do that, but he's actively eliminating measures that encourage it.



Ok. That doesn't help a lot, but it's something. Are you really worried about disclosing your wife's nationality? I don't want to pry too much, but I wouldn't think that would hurt her privacy meaningfully...



Any wealth transfer between nations is some sort of trade. Unless I'm missing something, it is up to other countries how they invest their money, right?

I'm talking about American financiers making paper wealth and using that to invest in third world countries. That is extraction of wealth from us to them.

 

[rexlunae]

Ok. That doesn't help a lot, but it's something. Are you really worried about disclosing your wife's nationality? I don't want to pry too much, but I wouldn't think that would hurt her privacy meaningfully.....


It hurts my privacy meaningfully.

Ok, fair enough. I just can't really consider an example without really knowing what I'm considering is all.

 

[rexlunae]

I'm talking about American financiers making paper wealth and using that to invest in third world countries. That is extraction of wealth from us to them.

But...if it's just paper wealth, what actual wealth is being extracted? If American financiers are printing money to buy real assets in foreign countries, isn't that extracting wealth from those countries?

 

[rexlunae]

The last time I was in Africa, one of the most prominent examples of foreign there investment was from China. The Chinese government was building a major port, which would eventually include a naval base, building the local economy, and making a return on their investment for China. You know what the US was investing in? Anti-gay propaganda. That's what was making the news. A US pastor was being denied entry to South Africa to preach his gay-hating gospel. The Chinese are making an investment that helps them, helps the host country, and grows wealth for everyone while Americans were obsessing over who people go to bed with.

 

[ClimateSanity]

But...if it's just paper wealth, what actual wealth is being extracted? If American financiers are printing money to buy real assets in foreign countries, isn't that extracting wealth from those countries?

When American financiers generate paper wealth to invest with , they put asset based investors at a disadvantage. Main Street cannot compete with Wall Street under the rules of the last thirty years. Wall Street is choking out capital available to mainstreet. That is where the wealth extraction comes in. Main Street has been getting poorer over those last thirty years and it's very stark since 1973.

 

[rexlunae]

When American financiers generate paper wealth to invest with , they put asset based investors at a disadvantage. Main Street cannot compete with Wall Street under the rules of the last thirty years. Wall Street is choking out capital available to mainstreet.

Wall Street is choking out capital to Main Street...by not investing in them?

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing here, just trying to understand what you're saying.

 

[The Barbarian]

Are we really creating more wealth?

Everyone else seems to think so. They keep buying it.

Doesn't the article and the other one I posted state that most of our economy is based on fake wealth that is all on paper and not backed up with anything real?

Services are "fake" only when no one will purchase them. So long as we continue to sell them, then they are real.

This fake economy has been driving real wealth out of our economy and replacing it with paper wealth (wall street).

If so, then dollars wouldn't be buying more stuff than before. But they are. The dollar is strong (i.e. other nations see the wealth backing it as greater than before) to the point that it's actually harming exports and manufacturing in the U.S.

This is a huge change from the 90s, when we had to work to strengthen the dollar. Now, one of the things Trump is doing right, is reconsidering the strong dollar policy we've had since then. It's the victim of its own success.

Our real wealth is in what we make and real services. We don't make anything anymore and now the only real economy we have is service based.

We don't make things that are easily made with unskilled labor. Nor should we. We can't compete with many other nations for cheap unskilled labor. And if we were to do so, we'd make those nations poorer, and less able to buy what we do sell.

We do better with high tech products, some minerals, and of course agricultural products which we produce more efficiently than any other nation on Earth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_exports_of_the_United_States