I was once told straight white males are the reason for adversity in this country. I was then told guns are the sole reason for mass shootings. And now, I’m being told billionaires are bad people, solely due to the fact that they possess more capital than the common man/woman.
Are “progressives” angered by the fact that billionaires’ are more well off than about 95% of the country? Or is it the fact that they envy their wealthy lifestyle? I remember a time in Nazi Germany when the wealthy Jews were looked at as having too much success and being the sole reason for the collapse of the Germany Economy. Just saying.
Regardless the reason for the hostility toward the 5%, who is the government to dictate how someone should live? And, if they’re contributing the inequality gap to billionaires, they might want to first look to government intervention. Data shows Government Intervention has raised inequality, by slowing productivity and miss allocating resources with exploiting the private sector. As well as the rise of national debt and increasing inflation.
But the left is blaming billionaires for inequality and the wealth gap?
If anything, billionaires are huge contributors to both economic and innovative growth. For examples, let’s take investors and Venture Capitalists who invest millions of dollars in startup companies. Most of these investors have acquired their capital through entrepreneurial revenue growth, and sometimes from inheritance. Regardless of where the wealth came from, they invest their capital into other people’s services and products to help expand their business and accumulate more wealth.
Let’s use a hypothetical situation: Bob works as a coder in Brooklyn NY, and on his free time he works on a new app that helps better organize and plan people’s day. Bob doesn’t have the money to launch his company, so he goes to the bank. The bank refuses to hand out the money because they feel there is too much risk involved in the project and they don’t think they will get their money back. So, Bob meets with a Venture Capitalist who believes in his project. The Venture Capitalist gives Bob 400k to launch his new app, but in return, they want 40% of the company. A consensual agreement between Bob and the Venture Capitalist takes place.
Now, Bob is able to take his money from the investor and A: create new jobs for people that will grow the economy, and B: bring a new innovative product to the market that we all benefit from. Let’s say Bob then sells the company for 25 million, the investor then profits 10 million and Bob goes away with 15 million.
These investments take place every day and bring our economy new jobs and new innovations that help us all in our everyday lives. Do you think Jeff Bezos started Amazon off of his savings? No, he was helped by investors that believed in his products and services.
Would we rather see billionaire’s money go into the government where it will fund wars and be miss allocated to non-productive resources? No, the money should be appropriately allocated by the billionaire/millionaire investor who creates more wealth and grows the economy.
This anti-billionaire jargon is not only toxic, but it’s also utterly foolish. If someone could show me the evidence that billionaires are the reason for world hunger, poverty, and inequality then I would say they’re a problem, but that isn’t the case. So this hatred for the ultra-wealthy does nothing but stir up more unnecessary hate towards a sector of people, so please, just stop it.
