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Re:The Real Class War by mensetmanusman on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @09:05PM (#21644687)
Economic growth increases the gap.

The only fix is working with other countries on inheritance tax and anti-tax evasion schemes.

Re:The Real Class War by 0x8BADF00D on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @10:31PM (#21645009)
Where is the growth? The Federal Reserve pumping easy money into the economy doesn’t count. The author completely missed the point as to why capital is misallocated. True growth is when productivity increases, prices fall, and capital investment increases.

It’s easy to sell 10 dollar bills for 8 dollars a piece. In what world is that considered growth?

Re:The Real Class War by aguyfromnb on Wednesday November 27, 2019 @06:29AM (#21647021)
>It’s easy to sell 10 dollar bills for 8 dollars a piece. In what world is that considered growth?

Silicon Valley.

Re:The Real Class War by rimliu on Wednesday November 27, 2019 @05:35AM (#21646783)
When prices fall it is called deflation. The investment then decreases as well, because who in the sane mind would invest into something that is getting less valuable as time passes?
Re:The Real Class War by roenxi on Wednesday November 27, 2019 @06:24AM (#21647009)
Someone who wants more stuff or anticipates change in the future. Best time to buy an asset is in the latter stages of a long price decline.

Speaking from a mining industry perspective, best time to invest might be after about 3-5 years of price deflation. If you invest in capital when prices rise sharply then you can lose a lot of money; as mining companies generally seem to do discover when there is a bull market :/. I've seen mining companies do a pretty good job of bankrupting themselves by not investing when prices have been dropping for a while then over-'investing' when the price rises.

So, in the real economy, sane people would invest when prices drop. On a sane timeframe. None of this millisecond knee jerk day trading business.

Basically, the argument is that investment depends on anticipated change over some time horizon. If someone has a long time horizon, best time to set up is in a deflationary period. It isn't a general rule but you'd certainly see some canny people getting their hands dirty if they anticipated a shortage of some good or service.

Re:The Real Class War by StacyRoberts on Wednesday November 27, 2019 @11:17AM (#21649129)
Far too many people apparently. New phones every year or more often. Apple products built with the intention to prevent their repair.

I was reflecting on the increasing gap recently between price and quality. If inflation were the cause of increased prices the expectation is that quality would stay the same. Quality is going down however.

Where is that difference going then? Shareholder pockets.

What is the value of hoarding all that cash? If the Fed didn't print more there would not be enough currency liquidity in the market.

This is what we see today. Deflation is staved off only through QE. It should be through incentives to spend, but there are too many incentives to hoard.

Re:The Real Class War by bildung on Friday November 29, 2019 @03:49AM (#21663022)
> Economic growth increases the gap.

Piketty et.al. showed the exact opposite, for the US and other countries. Economic growth seems to generate more opportunities for upwards social mobility.

But they and you (and me) agree that inheritance is a main driver for the growing inequality, and progressive taxation of capital was proposed as a solution in the book, too.

Re:The Real Class War by dragonwriter on Friday November 29, 2019 @03:51AM (#21663037)
> Economic growth increases the gap.

Economic growth may or may not, but neoliberal trade regimes definitely do, for both more and less developed partners in such trade; they also tend to cement the position of economically advantages (and disadvantaged) ethnic groups by the same process.