commit: 3b9eb3868b8b9fbe07501ea2fa09504a1db19681
parent d3edea61148b866d41a19745f9649fbbcbdbf571
Author: Matt Korostoff <MKorostoff@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2020 11:40:36 -0400
Fix math on volume percentage
Diffstat:
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/THE_PAPER_BILLIONAIRE.md b/THE_PAPER_BILLIONAIRE.md
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Essentially all of this wealth is [held in stocks, bonds, and other comparable f
Billionaires [regularly liquidate in this manner](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/11/jeff-bezos-sold-4point1-billion-worth-of-amazon-shares-in-past-week.html) as a matter of routine, and it has never caused the market collapse consistently forecast by billionaire defenders. I have never once heard anyone advocate instant liquidation in an immediate one-time firesale, except when used as a straw man to prove the supposed impossibility of liquidation.
-Now you may be wondering, just how slowly would you have to do this liquidation in order to avoid flooding the market? And the answer is, surprisingly, not that slowly. The market cap of the [US stock market is around $35 trillion](https://siblisresearch.com/data/us-stock-market-value). Around [$122 trillion worth](https://www.nasdaqtrader.com/trader.aspx?id=FullVolumeSummary#) of stock changes hands in the US every year. If you wanted to liquidate a trillion dollars over, say, five years that would constitute about 0.16% of all the trading that happens in that time.
+Now you may be wondering, just how slowly would you have to do this liquidation in order to avoid flooding the market? And the answer is, surprisingly, not that slowly. The market cap of the [US stock market is around $35 trillion](https://siblisresearch.com/data/us-stock-market-value). Around [$122 trillion worth](https://www.nasdaqtrader.com/trader.aspx?id=FullVolumeSummary#) of stock changes hands in the US every year. If you wanted to liquidate a trillion dollars over, say, five years that would constitute about 0.05% of all the trading that happens in that time.
There are a wide variety of serious policy proposals floating around aimed at reducing inequality, and none of them include a massive immediate seizing of all assets from wealthy people. Some play out over generations (such as a more progressive [inheritance and gift tax](https://americansfortaxfairness.org/tax-fairness-briefing-booklet/fact-sheet-the-estate-inheritance-tax/)) some play out over decades (such as a more progressive [capital gains and corporate tax structure](http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/81551/2000817-a-proposal-to-reform-the-taxation-of-corporate-income.pdf)) and others play out over a few years (such as immediate term deficit spending repaid over time through a [single-digit wealth tax](https://www.npr.org/2019/12/05/782135614/how-would-a-wealth-tax-work)).
