OTOH It will die a slow, painful death if we lose a few middle class workers.

not just fine but much better if there were no billionaires.

All of that money would be in circulation by people that needed it and would spend it.

Economy would be thriving, infrastructure in good shape and building if the billionaires would stop crippling govt's ability to collect their fair share of the taxes. The real moochers in this country are the one's shipping billions overseas to tax-sheltered accounts, breaking down the whole system. Private enterprise alone cannot support our populace by competitive design, so the unemployed must be subsidized until employed again. Infrastructure supports business, but business is not supporting what supports it and makes it affordable for workers to thrive.

as soon as his net worth hits $999.99 million. Then he should never start another company for the rest of his life, just in case his net worth passes the dreaded $1 billion. I mean, Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon) is worth $25 billion. If only he had shut Amazon down and fired all its workers the second his net worth looked like it was going to pass $1 billion, we would all be much better off.

Who needs these so-called trained economists when we have threads like this on DU.

I'm taking about a very small number of parasites hogging the fruits of labor from the people who create it - the workers.

Jeff Bezos has $25 billion. How many local companies have been driven out of business because of him? Thousands? Tens of thousands? How many unemployed people has he created to get that $25 billion? Hundreds of thousands? How many of his own employees has he short-changed?

Billionaires are parasites who exist to drain the life out of the economy.

Also, I am sure Barnes and Noble has put many independent, local booksellers out of business too. So we would all be better off if that company too had not been started. And Home Depot, I am sure, has caused many small local hardware stores to close down. So too bad that company ever got started up. And don't even get me started on CVS and Walgreens.

and Amazon sitting where ever it sits, perhaps you need to do a rethink.

But that isn't really the problem being discussed here. The problem is people sitting on money and how that contributes to the decline of society. Billionaires and banks are hoarding money, that hurts the rest of us. Companies used to put their profits back into the companies to increase their value, but they can't do that anymore because the greedy millionaire and billionaires need to have that wealth in their hands.

Please don't insult my intelligence by telling me they are the job creators.

If he had made $24 billion less personally, and allllllllllll that money distributed across the many thousands of people working for and connected to Amazon. Amazon still thrives...actually, that's not entirely honest. Amazon does fucking better than ever, because thousands of people have a fuckton more money they can spend.

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Same thing in present context, except the slaves house and feed themselves now.

I am convinced after the next World War only roaches, gonorrhea, and this parasite class will survive. Tis a shame.

like Big Oil is taking and not giving back equally.

Why did the Congress give away mineral rights to Big Oil? Influence peddling, campaign donations, plain and simple.

If you have 3 or 4 houses, 10 cars, a boat, memberships at country clubs, and a fancy office, you deserve to pay less taxes, and receive subsidies (hand outs) from the government. But if you work full time, just trying to keep a roof over your family's head and food on the table, you deserve nothing, and should pay more taxes than the wealthy as a percentage of your income.

In what totally screwed up world does this happen? (One run by the millionaires, apparently.) We have the best government money can buy.

We need to take the money out of campaigns, mandate publicly funded campaigns, and sweep out the old millionaires from Congress to allow new people who know first hand what it's like to sacrifice and worry about how the bills are going to be paid.

Only then will things truly get better.

to this monstrous, sociopathic behavior.

As in the animal kingdom, the parasite eventually kills off the host and dies as a result.

so he has to mooch. i.e.

Of course, you have to employ the best accountants - and then claim what you pay them back on your taxes

Has rental properties around the country

Has businesses that would not work if not for the government handouts - to the owners (who object to having to be accountable to government)

Has a couple of trust funds

Doesn't "own" a car - they all belong to the corporation

Doesn't "own" a house - they (plural) belong to corporations and trusts

Invests in other properties/business ventures

Maxes out his (and his wife) contributions to all those retirement accounts

Almost everything he buys seems to have a "business" connotation to it - and, of course, using the corporation credit card helps.

He never pays any late fees - he just ignores them

Another thing millionaires are able to do, that the rest of us can't, is pay "cash" - and thereby receives preferential treatment, very inexpensive items/labor.

Oh and then he institutes pay cuts for nearly all employees.

Yes, my poor boss has to be a mooch - how else could he survive.

Instead of castles and knights in armor, we have giant corporations and drones. The Lords and masters are now CEOs. The serfs are still serfs.
Very eye opening article that makes sense....

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