gofigure

GDP per person in the US is around $50K. Some of the GDP has to go to investment and the government, so at best people can consume on average $30K worth of products/services per year.

Would you be happy consuming just $30K/year? I didn't think so.

The ratrace is not a matter of absolute numbers, it's because everyone wants to have more than their neighbors have and more than what their parents had. Also, everyone seems to want to spend 20% more than what they are making hence most people in the country are in (consumer) debt. Government is no exception and mirrors the behavior of the citizen.

This whole thing about the rich not giving enough money to the poor to keep them working is BS.

it does, but you also have to tax some people so that they spend less.

Recent narratives is that you can do welfare for 'free', either by printing money and not worry about inflation or default, or by taxing 'billionaires' so nobody feels it except 100 people.

this is why focusing on the wage part of inequality is the wrong approach.

Figure out how to make products cost less and cheaper -> more can enjoy them and everyone becomes richer.

Print more money to give to people to fight inequality? If you don't invest to make supply more efficient, all you'll get is inflation.

Rich people don't buy the same products as poor people. In fact, most rich people (Elon) own capital that is being invested in part to make production more efficient.

If you were to tax all of Elon's wealth and give it to the poor, it's just not the case that everyone could suddenly afford a Tesla. What would happen is that nobody could afford it, even people that can afford it today, because you are moving capital away from investment and into consumption.

There's also an element here people don't talk: Covid created insane amounts of hard-to-repay debts. If interest rates go up quickly, the Govrermnent will suddently have to spend a lot of its budget on interest - expected, of course, but not something they are used to.

In NYC, many restaurants and property owners survived thanks to debt which will eat into their profits for years to come and may even bankrupt them down the road.

What is the answer to overwhelming debt? Inflation. Inflation makes the principle that you owe a lot cheaper and if you have borrowed in fixed interest rates, it makes the interest payments cheaper as well.

It would help both the government and the businesses mostly affected by Covid to run high inflation for a few years. This may or may not be part of the Fed calculation but I don't understand why nobody talks about it.

Politically, 'big tech' is on the defensive and this is one way for FTC to show some teeth.

That being said, nVidia is currently not playing in ARM's space, so it's hard to argue that this acquisition will harm US consumers or raise prices for them. Hence my feeling is that this is politically motivated, at least to some extent.

Also, we (the US) are entering a period of intense competition with China that may last decades and may even include acts of war. Semiconductors are a key area of competition. More US control of key semiconductor assets is in the US interest. However to be totally fair that doesn't typically concern anti-trust law. But it should concern the current administration and drive some of these decisions about where to focus. It would be very different if this was about social networks and funny cat gifs.