this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2024
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I bet for a long while you'd be like, "What even are dollars?", since they hadn't been invented yet.
Nevermind dollars. What about inflation? $5000/day in 1900 would be worth $187,000 today. That's $68M/year.
You'd need, what? 15 years to get a billion at that rate. You'd also be accusing money faster than Rockefeller.
I have to wonder where all that wealth would even be coming from.
Presumably the same place real rich people get it today. Gradually inflating the currency so that even if they're not directly stealing from you the increase in their wealth comes from the lessening of value of your, mine, and everyone elses money.
Gradual inflation that happens under the national growth rate is fine. You need more currency moving at a faster rate in an expanding economy.
Gradual inflation in a contracting national growth rate is a huge problem.
Thomas Picketty lays this all out mathematically in "Capitalism in the 21st Century", and builds a strong economic case for a high graduated tax rate as a means of tying inflation back to real economic growth.
It was the 20 dollar bill that killed the butler, with a candelabra in the hall!
You don't have to go that fast. Rockefeller rarely accused money at all, he was pretty slow at it.
I think you have to deflate to the year to make it equal to $5k today. For instance, if we go back to 1635, we're looking at $131.62/day