Re:The Rate of Return on Everything, 1870–2015 [pdf]
by ivalm on Monday May 06, 2019 @02:44AM
(#19837310)
You can buy real assets (traditionally gold). Think of a world with large inflation -- if you are rich and hold bonds or money in the bank you wealth doesn't grow or potentially diminishes, but if you are a worker you still get money and presumably your wage growth increases quite fast (in line with the large inflation).
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Re:The Rate of Return on Everything, 1870–2015 [pdf]
by Dylan16807 on Monday May 06, 2019 @07:05PM
(#19844825)
Real assets are great if r goes negative. What if r is still positive in real terms, but g is more positive?
Re:The Rate of Return on Everything, 1870–2015 [pdf]
by ivalm on Monday May 06, 2019 @07:41PM
(#19845049)
First, it's hard to imagine such a world. Under normal circumstances as productivity/automation increases worker labor will always be an increasingly smaller part of the value added, which means capex grows relative to opex which drives r.
The way r can get suppressed long-term is through (1) wealth taxation, (2) depreciation of an important asset class (eg as birth rate falls further below replacement housing can start to depreciate), or (3) high inflation.
If it is (1) then there really isn't much to be done, although hopefully the redistribution will be administered sufficiently well to help everyone achieve a high quality of life. If it is (2) then you can avoid the depreciating assets. If it is (3) then you once again avoid depreciating assets (don't hold cash/bonds/cash-like assets).