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Davos 2015: Less Innovation, More Regulation, More Unrest. Run Away!
Freshly Exhumed writes: Growing income inequality was one of the top four issues at the 2015 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, ranking alongside European adoption of quantitative easing and geopolitical concerns. Felix Salmon, senior editor at Fusion, said there was a consensus that global inequality is getting worse, fueling overriding pessimism at the gathering. The result, he said, could be that the next big revolution will be in regulation rather than innovation. With growing inequality and the civil unrest from Ferguson and the Occupy protests fresh in people's mind, the world's super rich are already preparing for the consequences. At a packed session, former hedge fund director Robert Johnson revealed that worried hedge fund managers were already planning their escapes. "I know hedge fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway," he said. Looking at studies like NASA's HANDY and by KPMG, the UK Government Office of Science, and others, Dr Nafeez Ahmed, executive director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development, warns that the convergence of food, water and energy crises could create a "perfect storm" within about fifteen years.
Ten percent? TEN PERCENT? Sounds like paradise:
http://pgpf.org/Chart-Archive/0102_tax-rates
The "Wealthy" have Billions of dollars.
They own assets that could be converted into Billions, but not in any practical sense. Most of their wealth is in stocks and bonds. You have to sell those to get cash. If Gates sold all of his stocks so he could roll around in a Billion dollars cash with naked teenagers, M.S. stock would probably crash, reducing his wealth by orders of magnitude.
Sure, they have access to a shit ton of money, but it's almost all on paper.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Jobs wasn't wealthy growing up, but he sure as hell was wealthy when he came up with the iPhone. The day the 1st gen iPhone was released in 2007, Apple's stock price was already at $122 a share.
Actually, I have dug into the numbers. They say all but the rich are losing buying power. They say the 1% are doing OK but the 0.1% are making out like bandits.
The Democrats did not pass a plan for health care, they passed a plan for health insurance. They are not equivalent. My insurance was cancelled and now I pay 50% more with four times the deductible. My income is hardly among the rich. Gee, thanks Democrats.
You might also take another look at what you think was wealth transference from the rich. The rich are not paying significantly more taxes as a percentage than they did previously. But, the middle class, through the previously mentioned higher insurance fees and forced reduction in health care usage (deductibles), are subsidizing the previously uninsured.
Stop believing the propaganda and open your eyes. The rich will never surrender their positions. They simply pay for exclusions, exemptions, exceptions, etc. and putative increased tax rates do not equate to increased receipts. In 1962, the top Individual rate was 91% for income over $400,000. Do you believe that anyone actually paid anywhere close to that rate?