RE: Hive: Plutocracy or Democracy?
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Great post, though I will say I know and have known a lot of wealthy people so when you say
They don't actually control a billion dollars (because holding fiat is stupid). Rather they control stocks, bonds, real-estate, commodities, and other non-fungible assets (aka property).
this is both true and false.
Take Elon Musk, people say "he isn't actually a billionaire, he doesn't have that money to spend it is all locked up in Tesla blah blah".
It's a misunderstanding of how wealth works at that level.
If I have a million dollars value in Tesla stock I could go to my bank and ask for a $600,000 loan at very favorable terms, easily - and with a better relationship yada yada, a much more favorable deal than that.
"Buh Buh debt is bad!?" no it isn't, bad debt is bad.
Now Mr Stock holder has the stocks AND liquid cash.
And it is tax-free.
Unlike if he sold those stocks to get liquidity, where tax is owed. Loans are tax-free and the repayments are deductible.
So the actual wealthy control assets using corporations OR they own assets paid for by earnings from their investments and spend against them, not with them.
That is how the rich get richer and pay fewer, and lower taxes.
Plus the banks fall over themselves to lend out this money because of how 'guaranteed' they perceive the return on their investment to be. Like private consultations, free drinks, free meals, being treated like royalty so their bank can be the one to earn the $10,000+ interest on one of their large loans.
Yep, as the saying goes, owe the bank $100, your problem, owe them $1,000,000,000, and it’s their problem
Very accurate analysis.
By using collateral to secure debt, billionaires can leverage their worth into tax-free loans and use those loans to build even more value that remains untaxable until they actually sell it. Buy why sell it when you can just put it up for collateral and take out another favorable loan?
It's one of those "got to know the rules to win the game" things that most of us never even think about :)
Another is getting taxed and then spending whatever is left, versus spending / investing then paying taxes on the remainder ... if at all ...