The “having just enough” opens the door for a discussion on relevant and irrelevant inequalities

Sir, I refer to Janan Ganesh’s “The holy grail of having just enough” April 6.

It is a great article, though because of its honest shadings, those who want to see all in black or white will criticize it. But its real importance could be in helping to put the finger on the need to redefine all discussions and measuring of inequality, by allowing these to focus much more on the relevant existing inequalities, and much less on the irrelevant inequalities.

That some “filthy rich” has decided to use his purchase power to buy a yacht, something which makes yacht builders happy, or to contract a yacht crew, something that gives those crew members a job, or freeze $450m of it in a painting, such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which should make the one who sold him that painting very happy, does not make me feel one iota unequal to him. But, I can perfectly understand that the fact I own a house, a car and a reasonable amount of money, can make many owning much less feel unequal to me, and many who have nothing feel unequal to all.

And clearly those without a job must feel unequal to those with a job… and in that case unequal to the yacht crew, not unequal to the yacht owner.

In these days when redistribution and polarization profiteers seeding so much hate and envy, at zero marginal costs, create so much odious societal divisions, it behooves us to, as a minimum minimorum, make sure those divisions are in reference to something real and relevant, and not just fake divisions that can lead to absolutely nothing good.

PS. My generous feelings towards what the “filthy rich” own, are of course based on that they have obtained all that wealth in legal and decent ways.

What produces more bread? An economy with all consumers being equal, or one with some being filthy rich?

Sir, David Redshaw quotes John Kenneth Galbraith from his 1929 book The Great Crashwith: “The rich cannot buy great quantities of bread.” “Excess wealth can lead to speculative froth” December 13.

True, but when the rich transfer their purchasing power by buying assets that would often otherwise not be demanded, might that not be causing others to have job opportunities that would allow them to buy greater quantities of bread, than would have been the case without the rich?

And Redshaw goes on to say “The economy is motored by the regular and reliable spending of a confident workforce rather than by the mega rich, whose erratic and luxury-end spending always seems to end in boom and bust.”

Really? When has an erratic and luxury-end spending by the mega rich ended in a boom and bust? Last time I looked it was poor buyers of homes in the subprime sector in the US, empowered by being packaged into AAA rated securities, these securities in its turn empowered by regulators who allowed European banks and US investment banks to leverage more than 60 times their capital with these only because they had an AAA to AA rating, which ended in boom and bust.

Sir, never forget that a paper is also measured by what it allows to be published.

@PerKurowski

When the “filthy rich” buy assets, they might do it good or bad, but they are de facto voluntarily redistributing money.

Sir, Tim Harford writes “Researchers concerned about the concentration of money in the hands of a small number of people tend to focus on the income or wealth share of high earners”, “All things are not equal in measuring inequality” August 18.

Indeed, all things are not equal, the income or wealth shares of high earners, c'est pas la même chose.

The debates on inequality, promoted mostly by redistribution profiteers, conveniently ignore that the moment money, meaning Main-street purchasing power, is exchanged for an asset, it has effectively been redistributed, to the vendors of those assets.

So yes, governments can redistribute money, but that does not mean it can redistribute wealth as easy, and without possibly serious unexpected consequences.

Not long ago, someone really wealthy, by means of a sort of voluntary tax, froze US$ 450 million of his real purchasing power on a wall, by acquiring Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi. How do you redistribute that painting? One way is to get another filthy rich to redistribute his money buying it, most probably for less. Another way might be cutting it in thousands of small-certified pieces and thereby allow many much less wealthy to buy these, and thereby perhaps redistribute much more than US$ 450 million. Should we proceed to hack up Salvator Mundi?

Sir, at the end of the day, the one question that always lingers is, who redistributes money the best? The usual answer “Me!” or “Us!”

@PerKurowski

How much of billionaires’ wealth might have de facto already been redistributed?

Sir, John Gapper writes interestingly, from the perspective of how these are designed, about “public art museums funded by billionaires”. He concludes in that, as so many follow the same principles; it is beginning to have similitudes to a franchise. “Billionaires are franchising the art museum” August 9.

Currently in the political market, way too often we hear offers phrased in the simplistic terms of: “Let’s take it from the filthy-rich and give it to the poor and, Puff! all odious inequality will have disappeared.”

In order to stop the creation of those false expectations, which at the end only leads to frustrations and the enrichment of the of the redistribution and/or polarization profiteers, by increasing the value of their franchises, there is a real societal need for much more information. 

Like, what wealth to be redistributed are we talking about? How much might billionaires have already de facto redistributed their Main-street purchasing capacity wealth, by demanding and buying assets that no one else but them would be demanding, at least not at those ridiculously high prices?

Not long ago, someone really wealthy, by means of a sort of voluntary tax, froze US$ 450 million of real purchasing power on a wall, by acquiring Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi. Sir, I ask, how do you redistribute that painting without perhaps serious unexpected consequences? Cutting it in thousands of small-certified pieces, and selling these in the market for much more than US$ 450 million? 

@PerKurowski