Post by @tonyvanderhoef

Socialism’s rise in America is due to the rise of the money machine. The topic of wealth inequality has captured the collective mind of American voters, because it is a very real problem, and it’s getting worse. Well, the wealthiest 1% of Americans now hold roughly $55 trillion in assets which is about equal to the combined wealth of the bottom 90% of the country. This is the largest wealth gap we’ve seen since the Great Depression. So now the left has geared their campaign slogans and talking points to an endless onslaught of creative ways to tax the most wealthy among us with the promise of putting more money in your pocket and making the nation “more equal.” But in reality, this is a small temporary bandaid that does nothing to address the actual, major issue. That’s because the problem is… we’re printing so much money. A [bleep] ton. The real reason the wealth divide has gotten this bad is because of where the wealthy stores their wealth versus where you store yours. The wealthy hold stocks, real estate, businesses, assets that rise in value right along with the money supply. Most Americans hold a paycheck and a savings account, neither of which does that. So every time new money enters the economy, it doesn’t spread evenly. It flows into assets first. That’s why home prices and stock portfolios can double while wages crawl up a few percent a year. Economists call it the Cantillon Effect. Whoever gets the new money first gets richer. Whoever gets it last, usually regular people like you and I, pays for it in higher prices. So where the hell did all of this new money come from? In 1971, the US completely cut the dollar loose from gold. And so naturally, the left looks at this gap and says: let’s tax the billionaires. Let’s Eat the rich. They’re great slogans that win elections. But these efforts are futile. Even if you seized every dollar a billionaire has today and split it evenly, the printing press starts rebuilding that same gap again tomorrow. Because the money machine that’s manufacturing the problem to begin with is still running. — #socialism #capitalism #politics