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A comment on The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich [pdf]. Parent comment

Re:The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich ... by ramesh31 on Monday July 26, 2021 @01:43PM (#27962499)
>We find that major reforms reducing taxes on the rich lead to higher income inequality as measured by the top 1% share of pre-tax national income.

This isn't surprising; a tautology almost. But it doesn't really give us any answers. The real question is: is that a bad thing, and if so how bad is it?. Wealth inequality has been a constant of the human condition since the first farmers learned to aggregate more grain than others. But what, if any, deleterious effect does this actually have on society? And does the concentration of wealth lead to innovations only possible with such an ability to deploy capital in a highly targeted manner?

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Re:The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich ... by KittenInABox on Monday July 26, 2021 @01:53PM (#27962668)
My understanding is that wealth inequality is suboptimal because it leads to political and economic power being concentrated in a few people, which makes the system fragile and leads to instability, thus causing less investment, and then it becomes a fallout.
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Re:The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich ... by missedthecue on Monday July 26, 2021 @02:36PM (#27963371)
Michael Bloomberg threw his fortune at becoming president and lost miserably. Jeff Bezos is the most hated person in Washington. I don't see any evidence or a correlation that wealth is buying people political power, at least in my country.
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Re:The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich ... by jimbilly22 on Monday July 26, 2021 @02:38PM (#27963405)
Here's one small example that I found illuminating and funny.

Bezos (a major political donor) lost a NASA contract for 10 billion to SpaceX. He freaked

So the US Senate, looking out for their buddy, simply added the 10 billion to their next budget directly for him:

https://theintercept.com/2021/05/25/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-s...

Just one small example

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Re:The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich ... by missedthecue on Monday July 26, 2021 @02:44PM (#27963491)
"The Endless Frontier Act, a bill to beef up resources for science and technology research is being debated on the Senate floor this week. An amendment was added to that legislation by Democrat Sen. Maria Cantwell, to hand over $10 billion to NASA. Cantwell’s amendment is no sure bet though."

This doesn't sound like money for Jeff Bezos. It's money for NASA. What it sounds like is some tortured analysis of a bill that probably isn't going to pass by a journalist who also hates rich guys.

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Re:The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich ... by mcguire on Monday July 26, 2021 @03:11PM (#27963912)
You would have never heard of Michael Bloomberg's presidential run if he had not been wealthy. Or Donald Trump's, for that matter.
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Re:The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich ... by spiralx on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @04:44AM (#27981619)
But I can't even remember the name of the other billionaire who ran in the Democratic primary this year, so I don't think it's a sufficient condition. Nobody will be concerned with Bloomberg's 2020 run in a decade, heck, nobody was concerned with it a month after he joined the race :)

Ah, it was Steyer I think, just came to me.

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