An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Thursday, December 9, 2021
WORLD INEQUALITY REPORT 2022
Gabriel Zucman
@gabriel_zucman
More from the just-released World inequality Report 2022, available online at https://wir2022.wid.world (with complete data & methodology):
The top 10% owns 76% of global wealth, the bottom 50% a mere 2%
We all know Bill Gates as the co-founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation but did you know Gates takes a keen interest in agriculture. This might not sound very believable, but Gates is America biggest farmer. Bill Gates and his estranged wife Melinda Gates have accumulated more than 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 American states.
As per the Land report and NBC report, Gates has farmlands in Louisiana, Nebraska, Georgia and other areas. The report states that Gates has 70,000 acres of land in North Louisiana where they grow soybeans, corn, cotton and rice and 20,000 acres in Nebraska, there as well as the farmers grow soybeans. Additionally, they have 6000 acres in Georgia, 14,000 acres of farmland in Washington where the farmers majorly grow potatoes.
So how much of this output in crops is Bill Gates consuming? Probably no more than the average person.
We have all these people working to produce an output which they themselves end up consuming. All Bill Gates and his offspring get is increasing claims on wealth they can never consume in a million lifetimes.
Which raises the question, what if we took all these ownership claims on that land away from Bill Gates and distributed it to the people at large? Sure, they'd have more financial security, which is a good thing, but I would argue that they wouldn't be able to consume any more than they are consuming now.
This because the people are the ones currently consuming that output right now. I would also argue that they wouldn't have any increase in leisure time either because you still need that labor working the fields.
re: farmer Bill
ReplyDeleteWe all know Bill Gates as the co-founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation but did you know Gates takes a keen interest in agriculture. This might not sound very believable, but Gates is America biggest farmer. Bill Gates and his estranged wife Melinda Gates have accumulated more than 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 American states.
As per the Land report and NBC report, Gates has farmlands in Louisiana, Nebraska, Georgia and other areas. The report states that Gates has 70,000 acres of land in North Louisiana where they grow soybeans, corn, cotton and rice and 20,000 acres in Nebraska, there as well as the farmers grow soybeans. Additionally, they have 6000 acres in Georgia, 14,000 acres of farmland in Washington where the farmers majorly grow potatoes.
So how much of this output in crops is Bill Gates consuming? Probably no more than the average person.
We have all these people working to produce an output which they themselves end up consuming. All Bill Gates and his offspring get is increasing claims on wealth they can never consume in a million lifetimes.
Which raises the question, what if we took all these ownership claims on that land away from Bill Gates and distributed it to the people at large? Sure, they'd have more financial security, which is a good thing, but I would argue that they wouldn't be able to consume any more than they are consuming now.
This because the people are the ones currently consuming that output right now. I would also argue that they wouldn't have any increase in leisure time either because you still need that labor working the fields.