At one point many people reach the conclusion that the accumulation of wealth in an unchecked manor is a pathway to hereditary governance and monarchial or fascist tendencies.
So, there I reply "Yes".
Accumulation of wealth above a threshold - whether it is $100M, $500M, $1B or anything in between - is a fundamental problem in representative governance when it fails to address the distinction between money, wealth, power and speech. We cannot have an equitable society with inequitable representation and laws. Living under the rule of law is being emptied of meaning by the uber-wealthy and their bought and paid for representatives. This is fundamentally at the center of the well-known graph that displays worker productivity and compensation from the 1950s to the present - with a sharp break right around the introduction of Reaganomics in 1980.
HOW this disparity is addressed is less important than THAT it is acknowledged and addressed.
Another problem - and why I mention assets and not income - is the tax-dodge that allows capital gains (and losses) to be used to shelter purchasing power and influence and the paying of taxation at reduced rates for the affluent and increased percentages of the poorer citizenry.
There must be a taxation system that acknowledges the use of assets to obtain spendable wealth as the source of taxation rates and not the labor or hourly rate of acquisition of capital for use. When Musk and Bezos and company can take loans against their assets and pay reduced taxation rates relative to the rates of a line worker, teacher, cop or other lower income persons, THAT is a problem that can be fixed. There was a time when I believe that was why we had representatives in the first place - to discuss, debate and determine new ways to solve old problems. For the last 45 years, we have had one party with one idea - TAX CUTS AND DEREGULATION and they have held sway over fiscal policy long enough to make this falsehood into an accepted economic principle.
Its a lie and the sooner we collectively wake up to that and act on it, the more likely we can survive without a revolution, bloodshed and violence unlike anything since 1861-1865.
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