118 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2024
      • for: elephants in the room - financial industry at the heart of the polycrisis, polycrisis - key role of finance industry, Marjorie Kelly, Capitalism crisis, Laura Flanders show, book - Wealth Supremacy - how the Extractive Economy and the Biased Rules of Captialism Drive Today's Crises

      • Summary

        • This talk really emphasizes the need for the Stop Reset Go / Deep Humanity Wealth to Wellth program
        • Interviewee Marjorie Kelly started Business Ethics magainze in 1987 to show the positive side of business After 30 years, she found that it was still tinkering at the edges. Why? - because it wasn't addressing the fundamental issue.
        • Why there hasn't been noticeable change in spite of all these progressive efforts is because we avoided questioning the fundamental assumption that maximizing returns to shareholders and gains to shareholder portfolios is good for people and planet.**** It turns out that it isn't. It's fundamentally bad for civilization and has played a major role in shaping today's polycrisis.
        • Why wealth supremacy is entangled with white supremacy
        • Financial assets are the subject
          • Equity and bonds use to be equal to GDP in the 1950s.
          • Now it's 5 times as much
        • Financial assets extracts too much from common people
        • Question: Families are swimming in debt. Who owns all this financial debt? ...The financial elites do.
      • meme

        • wealth supremacy and white supremacy are entangled
    1. is maximum returns really what we insist upon if that is the force that's driving our fragility and ecological crisis
      • for: key question - maximizing returns

      • key question

      • quote: Marjorie Kelly
        • Is maximizing returns really what we insist upon if that is the force that's driving our fragility and ecological crisis?
    2. why is, are so many working class whites driving toward the hard right and wanting to support, you know, what seemed to us kind of insane policies? Well, people are desperate. They're looking for the answer. They're looking for the problem, and they're being told the problem is immigrants. And we don't look at wealth as the problem.
      • for: the real BIG LIE, elephant in the room - wealth inequality, working class driven to hard right
    3. Which is exactly what you do in the book. And what did you find? - So what I do, I take apart the operating system of capitalism, which is, and I look at seven myths, really that drive it.
      • for: book - wealth supremacy - 7 myths, 7 myths of Capitalism, capital bias, definition - capital bias

      • DESCRIPTION: 7 MYTHS of CAPITALISM

        • The Myth of Maximization
          • example of absurdity of maximization
            • Bill Gates had $10 billion. Then he invested it and got $300 billion. There's no limit to how much wealth an individual can accumulate. It is absurd.
        • Myth of the Income Statement
          • Gains to capital called profit is always to be increased and
          • Gains of labor is called an expense, is always to be decreased
        • Myth of Materiality (also called capital bias)
        • definition: capital bias
          • If something impacts capital, it matters
          • If something impacts society or ecology, it doesn't matter
        • With the capital bias, only accumulating more capital matters. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS. This is how most accountants and CFO's view the world.
      • quote: Laura Flanders

        • The capital is what matters. We're aiming for more capital and nothing else really matters. That's the operating system of the economy. So the real world is immaterial to this world of wealth as held in stocks and shares and financial instruments.
    4. Are there things that happened that allowed those investors to keep so much of this money just for themselves rather than to reinvest it back in? 00:07:33 - This is where I bring in the concept of wealth supremacy because the whole system is designed to maximize financial income for those who have financial wealth, which is the wealthy, also institutional investors.
      • for: definition - wealth supremacy

      • definition: wealth supremacy

        • is the condition of an economic system that is purposely designed so that those already in possession of a great deal of wealth can at the minimum maintain their share, but more proactively to grow it
        • by definition, wealth supremacy is designed to maintain inequality
        • since carbon inequality tracks wealth inequality, this system is designed to maintain climate injustice
  2. Nov 2023
    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory

      “The Sam Vimes "Boots" Theory of Economic Injustice runs thus:<br /> At the time of Men at Arms, Samuel Vimes earned thirty-eight dollars a month as a Captain of the Watch, plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots, the sort that would last years and years, cost fifty dollars. This was beyond his pocket and the most he could hope for was an affordable pair of boots costing ten dollars, which might with luck last a year or so before he would need to resort to makeshift cardboard insoles so as to prolong the moment of shelling out another ten dollars.<br /> Therefore over a period of ten years, he might have paid out a hundred dollars on boots, twice as much as the man who could afford fifty dollars up front ten years before. And he would still have wet feet.<br /> Without any special rancour, Vimes stretched this theory to explain why Sybil Ramkin lived twice as comfortably as he did by spending about half as much every month.”<br /> ― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms (1993)

  3. Aug 2023
    1. what I'm advocating here isn't radical redistribution it's merely more 00:13:08 redistribution in a and structurally dependable manner that is fair that is inclusive and that allows for the poor and improvised Nations to be granted excess not just a vital strategic resources that are very much needed in 00:13:21 maintaining the quality of life at own citizens but also more importantly the ropes to climb the ladder
      • for: W2W, TPF, stats, inequality, wealth redistribution, wealth tax, quote, quote - wealth tax, quote - inequality, stats, stats - inequality, stats - wealth tax
      • quote
      • stats
        • An annual wealth tax of just 5% on multi-millionaires and billionaires
        • could raise US $1.7 trillion a year
        • enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty
      • author Institute for Policy (2023)
      • comment
        • that breaks down to approximately $US 1,000 per person for 2 billion people from the 1% elites
        • this is pretty reasonable
        • W2W can begin with this simple VOLUNTARY ASK
        • if the multi-millionaires and billionaires do just this consistently, then it is so little from their coffers and they could avoid a wealth tax by simply stepping up voluntarily
        • Could W2W motivate them to?
  4. Jul 2023
      • for: carbon inequality, w2w, leverage point - climate change, 1%, inequality, wealth tax
      • title
        • The role of high-socioeconomic-status people in locking in or rapidly reducing energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions
      • authors
        • Kristian S. Nielsen
        • Kimberly A. Nicholas
        • Felix Creutzig
        • Thomas Dietz
        • Paul C. Stern
      • date
      • abstract
        • People with high socioeconomic status disproportionally affect energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions directly
          • through their consumption and
          • indirectly through their financial and social resources.
        • However, few climate change mitigation initiatives have targeted this population segment,
          • and the potential of such initiatives remains insufficiently researched.
        • In this Perspective, we analyse key characteristics of high-socioeconomic-status people and explore five roles through which they have a disproportionate impact on energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions and potentially on climate change mitigation, namely as:
          • consumers,
          • investors,
          • role models,
          • organizational participants and
          • citizens.
        • We examine what is known about their disproportionate impact via consumption and
          • explore their potential influence on greenhouse gas emissions through all five roles.
        • We suggest that future research should focus on strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by high-socioeconomic-status people and to align their
          • investments,
          • organizational choices and
          • actions as social and political change agents
        • with climate change mitigation goals.
      • for: inequality, climate justice, wealth tax
      • policy paper
      • title
        • survival of the richest
      • date
        • Jan 16, 2023
      • executive summary
        • Since 2020, the richest 1% have captured almost two-thirds of all new wealth
          • nearly twice as much money as the bottom 99% of the world’s population.
        • Billionaire fortunes are increasing by $2.7bn a day,
          • even as inflation outpaces the wages of at least 1.7 billion workers, more than the population of India.7
        • Food and energy companies more than doubled their profits in 2022,
          • paying out $257bn to wealthy shareholders,
          • while over 800 million people went to bed hungry
        • Only 4 cents in every dollar of tax revenue comes from wealth taxes and
          • half the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax on money they give to their children.
        • A tax of up to 5% on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion a year,
          • enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty, and fund a global plan to end hunger.
      • for: inequality, wealth tax, climate justice, earth system justice
      • policy paper
      • title
        • Survival of the Richest
      • source
        • Oxfam
      • date

        • Jan 2023
      • Executive Summary

        • Since 2020, the richest 1% have captured almost two-thirds of all new wealth
          • nearly twice as much money as the bottom 99% of the world’s population.
        • Billionaire fortunes are increasing by $2.7bn a day,
          • even as inflation outpaces the wages of at least 1.7 billion workers, more than the population of India.7
        • Food and energy companies more than doubled their profits in 2022,
          • paying out $257bn to wealthy shareholders,
          • while over 800 million people went to bed hungry
        • Only 4 cents in every dollar of tax revenue comes from wealth taxes and
          • half the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax on money they give to their children.
        • A tax of up to 5% on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion a year,
          • enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty, and fund a global plan to end hunger.
    1. The second great separation followed the industrial revolution.
      • Second great separation
        • Industrial Revolution
          • The early enclosure movement during the 1600s
          • Prior to the enclosures, land was held in common for public use, not owned by individuals.
          • The rise of capitalism also occurred during this time.
            • Adam Smith wrote his landmark book, The Wealth of Nations, in 1776.
            • Land was privatized so the most efficient use of land could be determined
              • by market competition rather than
              • community consensus.
            • Labor then also had to be ​“commodified,” or bought and sold,
              • so non-farmers could work for wages and buy food and the other necessities of life they had been getting from the land.
            • With reliance on working for wages, buying, and selling
              • the necessity for personal relationships were diminished.
            • With the diminished necessity for personal relationships,
              • the social cohesion within families, communities and society began to diminish as well.
          • The persistence of chronic poverty and malnutrition, even during times of tremendous economic growth and individual wealth, are direct consequences of a growing sense of disconnectedness from each other that was nourished by the industrial era of economic development.
    1. we are more affluent than ever but riches and power the only point in having riches do not make people happier ask a psychiatrist
      • comment
        • extreme financial wealth
          • is often not only accompanied by, but actually CREATES
          • extreme poverty of MEANING
        • this is the equation:
          • extreme financial wealth = extreme meaning poverty
    1. Millionairres are just regular people lol. They don't (always) have luxury and other high paid stuff.

    2. Becoming a millionaire takes skillset and effort, not saving.

    3. Becoming wealthy means aiming high. You will not go higher than the goals you set. Aim for a crazy amount, and do the work it takes. It filters behavior down to the essentials.

  5. Jun 2023
    1. One) Successful men realize that the most important decision in their life is the woman they choose, because outside of work, this is what they'll be spending most time on. The woman must understand the man's grand ambition, and support them with it. (Cf. Flow & The Intellectual Life as well). Women should be chosen on personality, not looks. Looks fade (attraction as well), personality "stays".

      Two) Everyone deserves an opinion but not everyone deserves a say. Charlie Munger sums this up right: "I don't ever allow myself to have [express] an opinion about anything that I don't know the opponent side's argument better than they do." Or Marcus Aurelius, who says: "The opinion of ten thousand men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject." In short: Only state your opinion when you can back it up!; knowledge and experience. The same goes for judging opinion (and advice) from others.

      Three) Successful people buy assets when the money is enough. Assets > Luxury. (See also: Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki). Only buy glamor and other "interests" once your assets are there to secure your financial success.

      Four) Be pragmatic. Do what's practical, not what is "sexy". Notice inefficiencies and solve them. The entrepreneurial mindset.

      Five) The morning sets the tone for the rest of the days. Time is subjective, waking up early doesn't matter as much as waking up later. It depends on the person. Someone who wakes up at 10am can be as successful as someone who wakes up at 6am. Instead, what defines success, is a highly effective morning routine.

      Six) The less you talk, the more you listen. Talking less means less mistakes. In addition, the less you talk, the more people will listen when you do speak. It puts extra weight on your message. Listening means analysis and learning.

      Seven) Pick the right opportunity at the right time. Pick the right vehicle. Do the right things in the right order! The advice "don't do what someone says, do what they do" is bullshit, as you can't do what someone is able to do after ten years of experience.

      Eight) Discipline > Motivation. Motivation, like Dr. Sung says, fluctuates and is multifactorial dependent... When you are lead by motivation you will not be as productive. Don't rely on chance. Rely on what is stable.

      Nine) Once a good career has been made, buy A1 assets and hold on to them to secure a financially successful future.

      Ten) Just because you won, you are not a winner. Being a winner is a continuous process, it means always learning and reflecting as well as introspecting. Don't overvalue individual wins but do celebrate them when appropriate.

      Eleven) Build good relationships with the banks early on. At times you need loans to fund certain ventures, when having a good relation with them, this will be significantly easier. Understand finance as early as possible. Read finance books.

      Twelve) Keep the circle small. Acquintances can be many, but real close relationships should be kept small. Choose your friends wisely. "You become the average of the five people you spend most time with." Privacy is important. Only tell the most deep secrets to the Inner Circle, to avoid overcomplication.

      Thirteen) Assume that everything is your fault. Responsibility. It leads to learning. It requires reflection and introspection. It leads to Dr. Benjamin Hardy's statement: "Nothing happens to you, everything happens for you."

      Fourteen) Work like new money, but act like your old money. Combine the hunger of the new with the wisdom of the old.

      Fifteen) Assume that you can't change the world, but slightly influence it. It prevents disappointments and gives a right mindset. Do everything (that has your ambition) with an insane drive. Aim to hit the stars. To become the best of the best.

      Sixteen) Private victories lead to public victories. The solid maxim is the following: "The bigger the public victory, the more private victories went into it." Work in private. Social media doesn't need to known the struggle. Let your results talk for you. This is also why you should never compare yourself to others, but rather to your own past self.

      Seventeen) After extreme experience, the most complicated task will look elegant and effortless. Unconscious competence.

  6. May 2023
  7. Apr 2023
  8. Mar 2023
    1. Table 1. Interrelationship of wealth and emissions per capita.
      • Table
        • Interrelationship of wealth and emissions per capita. //
      • It is clear that we have an urgent need
      • to bend the curve of emissions of elites
    1. We can no longer ignore the fact that the pursuit of the goodlife can impact the chances of others to live a good life.

      // - This becomes a moral and ethical question, indeed could it become a legal question? - If excessive wealth, leading to excessive personal carbon emissions and denial of the wellbeing of others, limiting the freedom of others, does this not constitute harm? - If the law is about preventing harm, then extreme wealth with adverse social impacts on many others could be construed and theoretically considered as a potential form of societal harm and hence come under legal considerations. - in other words, some forms of excessive wealth could be construed as harmful wealth - excessive wealth, as it exists today, could have unintended consequences of bringing about societal harm - excessive wealth is potentially a large progress trap

    1. The black line in Fig. 5 shows that redistribution is not enough; if everyone’s emissions are equalized at escape from poverty levels, then we would still overshoot the climate boundaries
      • First stage of characterizing the Safe and Just Corridor
      • The black line in Fig. 5 shows that
      • redistribution is not enough
        • if everyone’s emissions are equalized at escape from poverty levels, then
        • we would STILL overshoot the climate boundaries (annotator's emphasis)
        • hypothetical pressure from 62% of humanity that is lacking humane access to resources is equal to the pressure exerted by 4% of the elits of humanity
    2. We find that meeting such access needs for the billions in poverty may lead to crossing ESBs unless resources are reallocated from the rich to the poor28, in line with limitarian and sufficientarian justice37,73.
      • Comment
      • The transformation of the economically wealthy will be critical to the future of civilization
  9. Feb 2023
    1. windfall taxes on excess profits could help to fund low-carbon investment, as well as progressive taxation in countries, including developing countries, which often under-tax rich citizens and companies.
      • = tax the rich everywhere
  10. Jan 2023
    1. Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy.

      Wealth

    1. the   true source of economic prosperity is not  financial capitalism investment in education   investment in the real economy in infrastructure  and you know when the in the middle of the 20th   century in the 1950s 1960s when the u.s had were  in a situation of economic dominance over the rest   00:54:32 of the world it was not through extreme financial  inequality except you know you had 19 percent top   income tax rate after roosevelt and but you had  a big educational advance as compared to you   know at that time you had a 90 percent of a court  would go to high school in the us in 1950s 1960s   at the same time it was 20  30 percent in germany or in   00:54:56 france or so and this was this educational  advance which made prosperity historically and and   and we seem to to have forgotten this uh you know  in the us following you know since the 1980s but   so we we have to manage to put this back on the on  this agenda but that's that's of course that's not   that's not easy

      !- Thomas Piketty : The real source of wealth - is investing in real value such as education, infrastructure, skills, etc, NOT financial capitalism - In the 1950's the US dominated other countries through real investments in education. They led other countries so had more skilled workers that increased productivity enormously - We have to pivot away from illusory financial capital and real capital

    2. there are some sources of energy which  which create a negative value because of   00:48:39 of of global climate change and climate working  and warming and you know all the negative   external effect of using some energy so we have  some to make some of the energy uh sources just   illegal you know we have to keep some of the oil  in the ground we have to stop looking for new oil   and gas so you know so the solution to some of  the of the energy questions we have is just to to   00:49:04 to make illegal you know the use of certain energy  and to to to move to other energy so that's part   of the answer now if we if we have done that  and we deal with with energy that don't have the   the negative this much bigger negative impact  on mankind than their positive productive impact   then you know redistribution of wealth must be  about all forms of wealth you know whether it's   00:49:32 rent or energy or financial assets or i  was seeing you know we we need to have a   permanent circulation of wealth and power so you  know that's the way i i view you know taxation of   wealth is will be a permanent you know progressive  tax on net wealth which in effect will will will   wipe out all the biggest uh wealth right away you  know say up to 90 percent tax per year for you   00:49:59 know for for billionaires but among you know there  will still be some people who want 100 000 dollars   some people who earn 1 million or 2 million but  there will be a permanent circulation of wealth   holdings within within this limited uh wealth  gap that that will still exist and this should   be for all forms of wealth you know whether it's  land or housing or whatever whatever the origin

      !- Thomas Piketty : On redistribution of all forms of wealth - concerning energy, certain harmful forms of energy such as fossil fuels need to be phased out and made illegal due to their harmful effects - ALL forms of wealth, whether financial, energy, housing, needs to be progressively taxed and redistributed equitably. So a billionaire would pay 90 percent tax per year but there will still be a range of wealth...up to millionaires for instance.

    3. it's what i write about and that is why what  is it that has created this uh uh disparity   and why is it widened so much since 1980. well  the most obvious reason is uh interest rates   reached a peak of 20 in uh 1980 and they've gone  down ever since well in the late 1970s uh my old   00:16:50 boss's boss at chase manhattan paul volcker  said let's raise interest rates to very high   because the 99 are getting too much income their  wages are going up let's uh raise interest to slow   the economy and that will prevent wages from going  up and he did and that was a large uh reason why   carter lost the the election to ronald reagan  interest rates then went down from 20 to almost 0   00:17:20 today the result was the largest bond market boom  in history bonds went way up in price the economy   was flooded with bank credit and most of this  credit uh apart from going into the bond market   went into real estate and there is a uh symbiosis  between finance and real estate and also between   finance and raw materials and also like oil and  gas and minerals uh extraction natural resource   00:17:48 rent land rent and also monopoly rent and most of  the monopoly rent has come from the privatization   that you had from ronald reagan margaret thatcher  and the whole neoliberalism uh if you look at how   did this one percent get most of its wealth well  if you look at the forbes list of the billionaires   in almost every country they got wealth in  the old-fashioned way from taking it from   00:18:13 the public domain in other words privatization  you have the largest privatization and transfer   of wealth from the public sector to uh the private  sector and specifically to the financial sector uh   in in history uh sell-offs and all of a sudden  instead of uh infrastructure uh public health uh   other uh basic needs being provided at subsidized  rates to the population you have uh privatized   00:18:41 owners uh financed by the banks raising the rates  to whatever rate they can get without any market   firing power uh in the united states the  government is not even allowed to bargain with   the pharmaceutical companies for the drug prices  so there's been a huge monopolization a huge   privatization a huge flooding of the economy with  credit and one person's credit is somebody else's   00:19:11 uh debt so you you've described the one percent's  wealth in the form of uh savings but uh i focus   on the other side of the balance sheet this one  percent finds its counterpart in the debts of the   99 so the one percent has got wealthy by indebting  the 99 uh for housing that is soared in price 20   00:19:37 uh just in the last year in the united states uh  for medical care for uh utilities for education   uh the economy is being forced increasingly  into debt and how how can one uh solve this   taxation will not be enough the only way  that you can uh actually reverse this uh   concentration of wealth is to begin wiping out uh  the debt if you leave the debt in place of the 99   00:20:10 uh then uh you're going to leave the one percent  savings all in place uh and these savings are   largely tax exempt uh so basically i think you  you uh left out the government's role in this   wealth creation of the one percent so your  finance has indeed grown faster than economy   absorbed real estate into the finance insurance  and real estate sector the fire sector finances   00:20:39 absorb the oil industry the mining industry  and it's absorbed most of the government so the   financial wealth has spilled over to become  essentially the economy's central planner   it's not planned in washington or paris or london  it's planned in wall street the city of london   and the paris ports the economy is being managed  financially and the object of financial management   00:21:04 isn't really to make money it's capital gains  and again as your statistics point out capital   gains are really what explains the increase  in wealth you don't get rich by saving the   income rent is for paying interest income is for  paying interest you get rich off the government   basically subsidizing an enormous increase in the  value of stocks the value of bonds by the central   00:21:31 banks which have been privatized and uh the reason  that this is occurring is that uh the largest   public utility of all money creation and banking  is left in private hands and private banking   in the west is very different from what government  banking is in say china

      !- Michael Hudson : Wealth is created in the 1% through privatization and loss of the 99% - Largest transfer of wealth in history from the public sector to the private sector, especially through financial sector - govt fire sale of public infrastructure - credit was created and invested in the biggest bon market boom in history - many of Forbes billionaires got rich through such privatization - the 1% got wealthy by indebting the 99% through privatization all around the globe - this was the effect of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher's neoliberal policies - taxation alone is not sufficient to reverse this wealth concentration, the debt has to be completely wiped out

      !- key statement : the elite get rich off the government subsidizing an enormous increase in the value of stocks the value of bonds by the central bank which have been privatized. The reason THAT is happening is because the largest public utility of all, money creation and central banking has been privatized.

  11. Sep 2022
    1. We will also examine wealth inequality. This is analogous toincome inequality but is looking at the distribution of economic assets ratherthan income. Net worth refers to all of one’s assets minus all of one’s debts.Financial wealth is exactly the same but does not include the equity that onehas built up in a home.6

      compare with income inequality: https://hypothes.is/a/_JLGuj3HEe2dJFdOJRcvaQ

  12. Jul 2022
    1. 16:15 - Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations

      Adam Smith thought that there were two sides to us, one side is our concern for SELF, that gets what it needs to survive but the other side is our empathic side for OTHERS, we cares for the welfare of others. His economic design theory distilled into THE WEALTH OF NATIONS was based on the assumption that these two would act in a balanced way.

      There are also two other important and related variables at play that combine with Whybrow's findings:

      1. Death Denialism (Ernest Becker) A growing meaning crisis in the world due to the waning influence of Christianity and significant misinterpretation of most religions as an immortality project emerging from the psychological denial of death

      John Vervaeke's Meaning Crisis: https://www.meaningcrisis.co/all-transcripts/

      Glenn Hughes writes about Becker and Denial of Death: https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fernestbecker.org%2Flecture-6-denial%2F&group=world

      1. Illusion of Immediacy of Experience Jay L. Garfield explains how philosophers such as Nagarjuna, Chandrakurti and Dogen have taught us to beware of the illusion of the immediacy of experience that consists of two major ways in which we mistaken conventional, relative reality for intrinsic reality: perceptual faculty illusions and cognitive faculty illusions. https://hyp.is/go?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocdrop.org%2Fvideo%2FHRuOEfnqV6g%2F&group=world
    1. this is going to be a really critical year uh for public goods uh generation um and here at year i'm using 00:00:40 you know starting from now through the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. uh so what i'm going to go through is a case for why this year really matters and why this decade really matters in 00:00:53 the century

      Why is 2022 a critical year to fund projects that build the commons?

      From a scientific, commons and Stop Reset Go perspective, humanity now stands at the doorsteps of the Anthropocene and we as a species have collectively shaped the planet in a way that is harming many species on the globe, including our own.

      We are at a bifurcation point in human history, a fork in the road and the next few years will determine the course of humanity for the next thousands of years to come.

      The funneling of human resources to the few elites at the top leaves the majority of humanity little agency to determine our own future and carbon emissions are also related to structural inequality: https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oxfam.org%2Fen%2Fpress-releases%2Fcarbon-emissions-richest-1-percent-more-double-emissions-poorest-half-humanity&group=world

      See Jason Hickel's arguments against the overly optimistic story that Neoliberal capitalism has alleviated poverty. Hickel finds the opposite when critical analysis is applied to the rosy claims that Steven Pinker and Bill Gates make: https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fjacobin.com%2F2019%2F02%2Fsteven-pinker-global-poverty-neoliberalism-progress&group=vnpq69nW

      Funding projects in the commons counters the wealth of elites, a trend that is counter to planetary health because it continues degrading the environment through carbon inequality:

      https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/carbon-emissions-richest-1-percent-more-double-emissions-poorest-half-humanity#annotations:8gdC3ht8EeyWyQ-BBdinXw

      and wealth inequality.

  13. Jun 2022
    1. “Being rich is not about how much money you have or how many homes you own; it's the freedom to buy any book you want without looking at the price and wondering if you can afford it.” ― John Waters, Role Models
    1. Between 1914 and 1980, inequalities in income and wealth decreasedmarkedly in the Western world as a whole (the United Kingdom,Germany, France, Sweden, and the United States), and in Japan,Russia, China, and India, although in different ways, which we willexplore in a later chapter. Here we will focus on the Western countriesand improve our understanding of how this “great redistribution”took place.

      Inequalities in income and wealth decreased markedly in the West from 1914 to 1980 due to a number of factors including:<br /> - Two World Wars and the Great Depression dramatically overturned the power relationships between labor and capital<br /> - A progressive tax on income and inheritance reduced the concentration of wealth and helped increase mobility<br /> - Liquidation of foreign and colonial assets as well as dissolution of public debt

    1. need for transformative changes in consumption patterns is particularly pertinent for wealthier nations and the rising global middle-class, given higher per capita levels of material consumption and aspirational effects on others. In contrast, for the most disadvantaged people in the world, material consumption must increase to meet multiple SDGs including eradicating poverty and hunger (McMichael et al., 2007); this may also help reduce unsustainably high rates of population growth in many regions if coupled with education and empowerment of women

      This already suggests a strategy. An education program that helps citizens to recognize the greater satisfaction from helping their fellow citizens can shift and reduce consumption patterns to be within planetary boundaries.

  14. Apr 2022
    1. ReconfigBehSci [@i]. (2021, November 27). @STWorg @PhilippMSchmid @CorneliaBetsch this clip got me too- for non-German speakers. She is asked whether she is ‘concerned’. Her response: Of course I’m concerned, I’m double vexed, I’m waiting for my booster vaccination, my husband died of Covid, I was in hospital, now I’m avoiding my grand children [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1464660287739596802

    1. ReconfigBehSci on Twitter: ‘@STWorg @PhilippMSchmid @CorneliaBetsch and every now and then we have to watch a clip like this to be reminded what all of this is really about. This pain and suffering is happening in one of the richest countries in the world at a time in the pandemic when we know exactly what to do to avoid it’ / Twitter. (n.d.). Retrieved 22 April 2022, from https://twitter.com/SciBeh/status/1464662622440144896

  15. Feb 2022
  16. Jan 2022
    1. deceitfulness of riches

      The NET translation says "the seductiveness of wealth". This gave me pause as I was reading it this morning sitting on my couch under a blanket with hot coffee, while the garbage men drive past all bundled up in the 27 degree weather. Wealth is seductive because it enables comfort.

      Do not let comfort prevent you from getting out there and being "doers of the word, and not hearers only" (James 1:22).

  17. Nov 2021
    1. this is a fundamental issue of justice and equity so the top one percent uh in 00:09:22 terms of wealth around the world use 15 produce 15 of the greenhouse gas emissions which is twice as much as the bottom 50 percent whose total 00:09:34 emissions are just seven percent of the total so we're looking at uh a very small number of people grabbing the lion's share of natural wealth they claim to be wealth creators they're actually taking 00:09:47 wealth from the rest of us they're saying we're going to have all this atmospheric space for ourselves and incidentally all these other resources all the mahogany and the gold and the 00:09:58 diamonds and the bluefin tuna sushi and whatever else that they're consuming on a massive scale and this is driven by to a very large extent by their remarkable disproportionate use of aviation 00:10:12 there's one set of figures suggesting that the richest one percent are responsible for 50 of the world's aviation emissions but also by their yachts for example the average 00:10:24 um commonal garden super yacht um kept on standby for a billionaire to step onto whenever he wants um produces 7 000 tons of carbon dioxide per year 00:10:38 if we're to meet even the conventional accounting for staying within 1.5 degrees of global heating our maximum emissions per person are around 2.3 00:10:49 tons so one super yacht is what over 3 000 people's worth of emissions this is just grossly outrageously unfair and we should rebel 00:11:01 against the habit of the very rich of taking our natural wealth from us

      Stop Reset Go needs to implement a STOP the STEAL! campaign against the elites and luxury producers and also a WEALTH to WELLth program to transition high carbon consumption lifestyle to a low one that helps the wealthy funnel their wealth into climate justice and become carbon heros instead of carbon villains.

      See the reports that George Monbiot is referring to:

      OXFAM REPORT: https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Foxfamilibrary.openrepository.com%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F10546%2F621305%2Fbn-carbon-inequality-2030-051121-en.pdf&group=__world__

    2. um kevin anderson 00:12:43 if you can talk more about this issue both you and george assad raymond and so many other climate activists talking about this issue of wealth 00:12:55 you say per capita is a flawed metric as most polluting industries have been moved to developing nations so it's not reflective of the rich nation's emissions take all of this on 00:13:09 yeah i mean that's a really key issue and i think if i focus in here on the uk where i know it's a place obviously i know much better that what we've done in the uk we've closed down a lot of our industry and then we import the manufactured goods from elsewhere in the 00:13:22 world and then we turn around to those parts of the world and then we blame them for the emissions in manufacturing the goods that we are enjoying and that's everything from our electronic goods to parts for our cars as our clothes so you know the uk is 00:13:35 effectively moved to a bar and banking culture and and and offshore virtually everything else and so we when we looking at our total amount of emissions we have to take account of the carbon footprint of our lifestyles and that 00:13:47 does include the emissions that we associated with things that we import and export i mean you take that into account you tend to find that most wealthy countries have a much larger carbon footprint than when you just look at the energy they use within their 00:14:00 boundaries and i think it's really key again when we think about these issues of equity we we that we take this what's often referred to as a consumption-based accounting method we take that into account because it is unfair to be 00:14:12 penalizing poor parts of the world for them making things to help us have a better quality of life over here and when we do that then the challenges get even more striking in terms of what we have to do and it also also brings out 00:14:25 even further the issues of equity the disparity between the richer parts of the world and the poorer parts of the world but i also think on the equity point it's really worth bringing out that it's not as if everyone in the uk is even 00:14:37 there isn't just one public in the uk there are multiple publics there were those of us who are the wealthy ones in our own country that are responsible for the lion's share of missions within the uk that will be true chain for the u.s for germany for japan australia and so 00:14:50 within all of our countries there are large swathes of the country who are the average and below average consumers and for them the response to climate change is very different from those of us who are in our own countries are responsible for the lion's share of 00:15:03 emissions so i think we have to differentiate not just between countries but even within our countries and my concern there is that who are the people that frame the climate dubai debate they're the climate scientists and the academics they're the 00:15:14 entrepreneurs the business leaders the journalists the barristers they're all the people that are in the very high emitting category so we frame the debate and we never ever frame the debate with equity at its core and with regardless 00:15:26 of our maths or our moral sorry regardless of our moral position the maths tell us if we are to deliver on the commitments then equity has to be a key part of our responses but we never talk about that because we are in that 00:15:38 high emitting group

      Kevin points out why a CONSUMPTION-BASED METRIC is more accurate than PER CAPITA metric, as the PER CAPITA metric does not include the embodied carbon emissions of the manufactured goods that consumers purchase. Per Capita metric reflects that the manufacture is responsible, not the consumer, an inaccurate moral indication.

      We have also noticed that wealthy and poor exist in ALL countries of the world and the more nuanced terminology we employ based on a Country-Wealth Sector classification matrix as described here:

      https://medium.com/@gien_SRG/more-nuanced-terminology-for-post-colonialist-inequality-af2f1609635c

      Using this new terminology, Monbiot and Anderson are referring to the North-North and South-North class as all the elites of the world has having the highest personal carbon footprint whilst the North-South and South-South class are the victims.

    1. A final cluster gathers lenses that explore phenomena that are arguably more elastic and with the potential to both indirectly maintain and explicitly reject and reshape existing norms. Many of the topics addressed here can be appropriately characterized as bottom-up, with strong and highly diverse cultural foundations. Although they are influenced by global and regional social norms, the expert framing of institutions, and the constraints of physical infrastructure (from housing to transport networks), they are also domains of experimentation, new norms, and cultural change. Building on this potential for either resisting or catalyzing change, the caricature chosen here is one of avian metaphor and myth: the Ostrich and Phoenix cluster. Ostrich-like behavior—keeping heads comfortably hidden in the sand—is evident in different ways across the lenses of inequity (Section 5.1), high-carbon lifestyles (Section 5.2), and social imaginaries (Section 5.3), which make up this cluster. Yet, these lenses also point to the power of ideas, to how people can thrive beyond dominant norms, and to the possibility of rapid cultural change in societies—all forms of transformation reminiscent of the mythological phoenix born from the ashes of its predecessor. It is conceivable that this cluster could begin to redefine the boundaries of analysis that inform the Enabler cluster, which in turn has the potential to erode the legitimacy of the Davos cluster. The very early signs of such disruption are evident in some of the following sections and are subsequently elaborated upon in the latter part of the discussion.

      The bottom-up nature of this cluster makes it the focus area for civil society movements, human inner transformation (HIT) approaches and cultural methodologies.

      Changing the mindset or paradigm from which the system arises is the most powerful place to intervene in a system as Donella Meadows pointed out decades ago in her research on system leverage points: https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/

      The sleeping giant of billions of potential change actors remains dormant. How do we awaken them and mobilize them. If we can do this, it can constitute the emergence of a third unidentified actor in system change.

      The Stop Reset Go (SRG) initiative is focused on this thematic lens, bottom-up, rapid whole system change, with Deep Humanity (DH) as the open-source praxis to address the needed shift in worldview advocated by Meadows. One of the Deep Humanity programs is based on addressing the psychological deficits of the wealthy, and transforming them into heroes for the transition, by redirecting their WEALTH-to-WELLth.

      There are a number of strategic demographics that can be targeted in methodical evidence-based ways. Each of these is a leverage point and can bring about social tipping points.

      A number of 2021 reports characterize the outsized impact of the top 1% and top 10% of humanity. Unless their luxury, high ecological footprint behavior is reeled in, humanity won't stand a chance. Annotation of Oxfam report: https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Foxfamilibrary.openrepository.com%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F10546%2F621305%2Fbn-carbon-inequality-2030-051121-en.pdf&group=__world__ Annotation of Hot or Cool report: https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhotorcool.org%2Fhc-posts%2Frelease-governments-in-g20-countries-must-enable-1-5-aligned-lifestyles%2F&group=__world__

    1. You can learn about it here, but fundamentally, there is an assumption on the part of the Siksika that rather than attaining what we would call "self-actualization" over time one is, in fact, born with it and this would seem to inform many other aspects of the culture. Childrearing, for example, is very hands-off, which would make sense if you believed your child arrived basically okay and kind of awesome so why would you fuck with that?  Furthermore, their views on wealth suggest that the whole point of attaining wealth is that so you can give it away. The one considered the wealthiest is the one who has given the most away. Which ties into why one has difficulty finding poverty in this environment because the second someone is poor, the rest of the community chips and makes them whole (instead of questioning "well do they really *deserve* to be made whole?" because, again, arrived self-actualized).

      I'll make further notes on the actual article, which I want to read.

  18. Oct 2021
    1. The fact that someone is a billionaire doesn’t make them more capable of solving any of our problems. In fact, the pursuit of that amount of wealth means that they were able to ignore — and in fact directly profit off of — the exploitation and violation of rights that is required to get there.

      This is an astute observation about the destructive journey towards wealth concentration...it often leaves a trail of destruction in its wake. It would make a good subject for a book.

  19. Sep 2021
    1. there has been a spectacular rise in luxury consumption, with the consumption patterns of the global elite acting as a marker for those further down the income scale. Robert Frank (2000) describes the process as 'luxury fever', as consumption expectations are ratcheted up all the way down the income scale. The global elite are pushing up people's expectations and assumptions. In the US, for example, the average size of house has doubled, in square feet terms, in the past thirty years. In part it is a function of the positional nature of consumption. We consume in order to position ourselves relative to other people. Not only do the global elite raise the upper limit, everyone is thus forced to spend more just to keep up, but they also become the perceived benchmark, Juliet Schor's work, for example, shows that people are no longer keeping up with the people next door, but the people they see on television and magazines (Schor, 1998). In order to keep up with these raised consumption standards people are working harder and longer as well as taking out more debt. The increase in luxury consumption has raised consumption expectations further down the income scale, which in order to be funded has involved increased workloads and increased indebtedness. It is not so much keeping up with the Jones but 'keeping up with the Gates'.

      The elites point the way for those in even the lowest income brackets to follow. This crosses cultures as well. Capitalism trumps colonialism as former colonized peoples reserve the right to taste the fruits of capitalism. Hence, hard work, ingenuity and leveraging opportunity to accumulate all the signs and symbols of wealth, joining the colonialist biased elites is seen as having arrived at success, even though it means contributing to the destruction of the planetary commons. The aspirations to wealth must be uniformly deprioritized in order to align our culture in the right direction that will rescue our species from the impact of following this misdirection for the past century.

    1. wealthe

      Winthrop believed that the acquisition of wealth and profit was acceptable so long as it was done in the glory of God and for the common good. In other words, he justified the acquisition of wealth in a religious society that it was the duty of members in a society to band together to correct the inequality put forth by God. The act of charity was portrayed as a service to God. He also believed that excessive wealth lead people astray from God.

      Winthrop addressed wealth in "A Model of Christian Clarity" because he called for members of his community so they could establish successful colonies in the face of numerous hardships. This was because many were not willing to share their wealth with others or cooperate. He wanted to place the interests of the community over the interests of the individual.

      Citations: Wood, Dr. Andrew. “Summary of John Winthrop’s ‘Model of Christian Charity.’” San Jose State University COMM 149 Rhetoric and Public Life, www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/s149/149syllabus5summary.html. Accessed 8 Sept. 2021.

  20. Jun 2021
    1. As a result, Markovits calculates that three-quarters of elite income now originates from labor rather than inherited capital.

      Financialization of the economy may indicate that this isn't the case. What labor is really being done? Isn't more of it built on information and information flows?

      These numbers definitely need to be checked.

    2. The rich are also more skilled than ever.

      What level of rich are we talking about with this comparison? The uber-rich or the rich?

      The rich need at least some level of education to prevent themselves from being scammed certainly, but how hard do the uber-wealthy really need to work?

    3. Fifty, 60, 70 years ago, you could tell how poor somebody was by how hard they worked.
    4. A Harvard Business Review survey found that 62 percent of high-earning individuals work over 50 hours a week, more than a third work over 60 hours a week, and one in 10 work over 80 hours a week. According to Markovits, elites today work an average of 12 more hours per week than middle-class workers (the equivalent of 1.5 additional workdays).

      This may be the case for high-earners, but where do these people sit with respect to the higher elite or "leisure class"?

      Are these hard working high-earners a new class of people that has emerged that aren't the previous elite of the mid-1900s?

      What effect does the rise of finacialization (versus manufacturing or service sectors) since the 1970's have on this shift? Did these high-earners arise out of a hole in the market to service the elites on the highest rung up to make their wealth grow faster?

      There seems to be a hole in this argument with respect to the prior quote:

      Fifty, 60, 70 years ago, you could tell how poor somebody was by how hard they worked. Today, that relationship has been completely reversed. Elites work for a living. They work harder than they used to. They work harder in terms of brute hours than the middle class on average, and they get most of their income by working.

    1. Anita: Let’s begin by you telling me a little bit about migrating to the United States.Luisa: Migrating to the United States: okay. My parents had an extremely bad divorce - very, very, very bad divorce. My dad's family is on the wealthier side and a little bit on the powerful side, and my mom has no money nor connections, and she's poor. When they were divorcing, by the end of their marriage—I think it was the most awful marriage that I've seen—he was threatening her with taking us away and completely … you know she would never see us ever, so like a thief in the night, she grabbed my two sisters and I and she moved us to the States.

      Migration from Mexico, Reasons, Violence, Domestic Violence

    2. My dad's family is on the wealthier side and a little bit on the powerful side, and my mom has no money nor connections, and she's poor. When they were divorcing, by the end of their marriage—I think it was the most awful marriage that I've seen—he was threatening her with taking us away and completely …

      Mexico/ Before the US, Mexican Childhood, Family; Migration From Mexico, Reasons, Domestic Violence

  21. May 2021
    1. Right now, fewer than half a dozen tech firms concentrate huge resources on a small number of global post-graduate AI programmes around the world. They directly and indirectly influence the training and content of those programmes, especially through access to data-sets. Compliance of senior academics is easy to gain, however they individually rationalise it.

      The dominant culture being in a position of power and wealth makes it far easier to direct the future to ensure that the dominate culture stays in power and wealth.

      How does one "break this wheel" of power?

  22. Apr 2021
    1. This is the middle branch of Mount Tauris [Tibesti Mountains]. Many Saracens coming from the West pass through this mountain wishing to go to Mecca to see the arch of Mohamed that contains their Law.

      Mecca is considered the holy city of Islam, near Cairo, Egypt on the west side of Africa. When Mansa Musa made his pilgrimage, as is tradition for a Malian sovereign, he impressed the court so much with his offering that people wrote about it for decades to come. Looking further at his journey, we note that he left Niani and most definitely passed one of the branches of Mount Tauris (the Tibesti Mountains). It's incredibly interesting to think about how long this journey was, and the fact that he left such a large impression by his gifts and wealth was fascinating to me considering the era. In our readings, it also said he brought 10,000 of his followers, which is even more incredible that that many people made this perilous journey

    1. This black Lord is called Musse Melly and is the sovereign of the land of the negroes of Gineva [Ghana]. This king is the richest and noblest of all these lands due to the abundance of gold that is extracted from his lands.

      In this section, the atlas is referring to the Malian King, Mansa Musa. I was not aware that he was also called Musse Melly, but was able to infer due to the familiar image of him as well as the description of his wealth. As we know, Mansa Musa is still believed to be the richest human in world history. We also learned that Mansa Musa used his wealth to benefit his country, though this was not mentioned in this section.

    1. My surprise that no one is insulted by this is quickly overtaken by surprise that Venmo is condoning alcohol consumption among kindergarteners, the only group in America who is routinely asked, with educational toys like Leapfrog, to match short words with pictures.

      I appreciate what Barron is getting at here but I think he's taking an extremely contrarian stance to get at his point. Obviously Venmo is not condoning childhood alcohol consumption - a better and more nuanced take (which he alludes to elsewhere in the article) is that the conditions of modern life have prolonged adolescence for millennials (and generation z) - the traditional signifiers of adulthood are gone and the aesthetics of contemporary corporate app and internet design have adjusted to reflect this shift.

  23. Mar 2021
    1. Preliminary results from the first year are tantalizing for anyone interested in solutions to address rising inequality in the United States, especially as they manifest along racial and gender lines. Within the first year, the study’s participants obtained jobs at twice the rate of the control group. At the beginning of the study, 28 percent of the participants had full-time employment, and after the first year, that number rose to 40 percent.

      This is what happened when 125 participants were given $500/month over two years to see what would happen.

  24. Feb 2021
    1. brocade,

      A "brocade" is "a rich fabric woven with a raised pattern, typically with gold and silver thread."

      How rich does one have to be to wear literal gold?

  25. Dec 2020
    1. Recently he and his wife, Chelsea, a second grade teacher, had launched One Love Travel, organizing excursion packages and cruises as part of their long-term plan to build generational wealth.

      Think about the extra work needed to attain a start to generational wealth. How is this different for different people? What have you seen in or around your life that seems similar or which has a different pattern?

    1. wealth persist across racial groups.

      EXAMINE THE SYSTEMS WHICH HELP TO ENFORCE THIS RACIAL INCOME DIVIDE! Most relate. Fixing these systems could help to bridge the income gap between racial groups. Even laws so ingrained in us.

  26. Nov 2020
    1. Jeff Bezos has so much money he doesn’t know what to do with it all, so he figures he’d might as well spend it on spaceships. That’s what the Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -1.04%   founder and chief executive told Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Business Insider parent Axel Springer, in an interview published over the weekend.
  27. Sep 2020
    1. Longer term, the report says the gap must be addressed by expanding healthcare access for all Americans. In New York City, the center of the pandemic, Covid-19 is killing black and Latino people at twice the rate of white patients. One factor is the higher proportion of uninsured people in communities of color.

      This is why I doubt Snowden's claim that most plagues did not discriminate against the poor or rich. The poor will always have it worse as they are forced to congregate with others for income and live in unsanitary conditions, for example

    2. In the 12 weeks between 18 March and 11 June, the combined wealth of all US billionaires increased by more than $637bn to a total of $3.581tn, more than the entire wealth of the US’s 59 million Latinx population combined and equal to three-quarters of all Black wealth, according to an analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).

      Rich get richer while poor get poorer. Why is this? Perhaps find an article explaining this

    3. Over the same period, 44 million Americans lost their jobs and filed for unemployment insurance. The numbers have declined from a one week peak of 6.6 million in April but are still historically high. More than 3 million people have filed for unemployment in the last two weeks alone. Latinx and African American people have been hit hardest by the layoffs.

      research unemployment statistics more, compare to financial hardships in pandemics throughout history

    4. The share of households of color with zero or “negative” wealth, meaning their debts exceed the value of their assets, is much higher than the share of white households. According to the report, 37% of black families and 33% of Latino families have zero or negative wealth, compared to just 15.5% of white families. Black Americans have a homeownership rate of just 44%, compared to a white homeownership rate over 70%.

      how are communities with zero or negative wealth harmed during pandemics? Do research on this

  28. Aug 2020
    1. Remote work distributes wealth into the whole system

      I think there is potential to do that, but then you hear cases like how some companies have reduced the pay for remote workers based on the cost of living of the cities that they live in.

  29. Jul 2020
  30. Jun 2020
  31. May 2020
  32. Apr 2020
  33. Jul 2018
    1. One of the simplest reasons so many clamor for formal spaces is because they are a signifier of wealth and prestige, a sign of having “made it.”
  34. Oct 2017
    1. Wealth and high office also supported claims to fine lineage.
    2. advancement
    3. The most lucrative and influential government positions involved tax collection.
    4. conspicuous
    5. Most people were employed in manufacturing or the retail trade, largely in the areas of food, clothing, and construction, in which the bulk of demand was concentrated

      Most people were employed in manufacturing or the retail trade, largely in the areas of food, clothing, and

      construction, in which the bulk of demand was concentrated

  35. Jan 2017
  36. Oct 2016
    1. Those are pearls that were his eyes

      This piece is repeated from the first book of the poem during the tarot reading. This repetition draws me back to that and makes me think that section has power through the entire poem. Not only that, but it takes on new meaning because this book has great emphasis on wealth and material items.

    2. The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,

      So far, this suggests that the woman is wealthy and of high status. I imagine her jewels in a a rectangular box, all mixed together, so she can run her hands through them and decide which one to wear. It sounds like she has many, she doesn't even need candles.

  37. Feb 2016
    1. From Mexico, Spain expanded northward. Lured by the promises of gold and another Tenochtitlán, Spanish expeditions scoured North America for another wealthy Indian empire.

      It's always interesting to see that the pattern in history was always to chase riches and are fueled by promises of resource, whether it be consumable resources or precious metals.

  38. Dec 2015
  39. Jul 2015
    1. This document presents details on the wealth and income distributions in the United States, and explains how we use these two distributions as power indicators.

      Testing out this app....

  40. Dec 2014
    1. Creating a Workforce Housing Equity Fund: Tech companies taking advantage of tax breaks should pay into a Workforce Housing Equity Fund for building affordable housing as part of their Community Benefits Agreements.

      Now we're talking. Welcome the new wealth, tax the hell out of it, and re-invest that in equitable developments.

  41. Feb 2014
    1. The breakthrough patent that produces a Polaroid company is more the exception than the rule. The rule is the modestly successful novelist, the minor [*292] poet, and the university researcher -- all of whom may profit by licensing or selling their creations.

      Breakthrough patent of Polaroid (the exception) vs modestly successful novelist (the more common case)

    2. In the final analysis, intellectual property shares much of the origins and orientation of all forms of property. At the same time, however, it is a more neutral institution than other forms of property: its limited scope and duration tend to prevent the very accumulation of wealth that Burke championed.
  42. Oct 2013
    1. What a man wants to be is better than what a man wants to seem, for in aiming at that he is aiming more at reality. Hence men say that justice is of small value, since it is more desirable to seem just than to be just, whereas with health it is not so. That is better than other things which is more useful than they are for a number of different purposes; for example, that which promotes life, good life, pleasure, and noble conduct. For this reason wealth and health are commonly thought to be of the highest value, as possessing all these advantages.

      I think that we still seek health and wealth above all else.

  43. Sep 2013
    1. Wealth as a whole consists in using things rather than in owning them; it is really the activity -- that is, the use -- of property that constitutes wealth.

      Definition of wealth as an activity, we are only wealthy through spending--an interesting idea. Then I know a lot of wealthy people, don't mind their credit card debt

    1. GORGIAS: What is there greater than the word which persuades the judges in the courts, or the senators in the council, or the citizens in the assembly, or at any other political meeting?—if you have the power of uttering this word, you will have the physician your slave, and the trainer your slave, and the money-maker of whom you talk will be found to gather treasures, not for himself, but for you who are able to speak and to persuade the multitude.

      Rhetoric can give freedom and create slavery, give power and wealth.