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Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by roenxi on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @01:20PM (#24201410)
All but 5 of those families have less wealth than MacKenzie Scott; whose claim to fame is marrying the son of a bike shop owner.

The odds of breaking in to that list are something like 1 / 300,000,000 but evidence is anyone can do it. MacKenzie is also my subtle counterargument to "Look at the Waltons". Breaking up the wealth ain't always voluntary.

Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by hannasanarion on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @04:25PM (#24203916)
*grandson of one of the first nuclear engineers and nephew of one of the most successful musicians of the 20th century, whose parents had nearly a million (2020) dollars to spare to help him get in on the dotcom boom. But anyway.

Those are about the same odds as breaking in to the House of Lords.

Would the explanation that "while it is statistically impossible, it is strictly speaking plausible for an extremely devoted and lucky regular person to join the club" be a good enough excuse for re-introducing a landed aristocracy to American government, in your estimation?

Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by Gibbon1 on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @05:05PM (#24204339)
I just remember when I was school in the 60's there were a lot of games played where one person out of 30 would 'win'. Very much like professional sports. Talked to my dad whose much older. He said they didn't do that when he was a kid. I think schools don't do that shit as much because they realize that one kid has a very temporary positive experience and 29 kids have a negative one.

Seems to me where the system is fair is unimportant, first we know it's not. Second is it designed to create disparities and a negative experience for most people. From a societal point of view that probably bad. And as I like say, the needs and wants of a couple of super wealthy people shouldn't be anything society cares about.