Too Much Wealth?

Capitalism works! It works so well that socialism and communism can suck off some of the wealth it creates and it still survives. Where capitalism is left relatively unencumbered, as in the United States and parts of the British Commonwealth, it creates wealth, enormous wealth. For instance here are some of the successes of this economic system:

- A Beverly Hills mountain-top estate is valued at a cool $1 billion

- A deVinci painting recently sold in New York for $453 million (in this case the buyer rumored to be a Saudi prince)

- During the holidays due to large influx of mega-yachts, some are parked at St. Barths as far as a mile out to sea

- Bill and Melinda Gates donated §4.78 billion to charity last year but still were 12th overall in wealth. Jeff Bezos gave away $2 billion, yet was still was the wealthiest man in the world (before his divorce settlement.) Last year Warren Buffet donated $3.6 billion to the Gates Foundation.

- In the 25 years since China adopted capitalism (albeit state-controlled), it has gone from a third-world economy to the number two wealthiest nation.

But, for whatever reason, when wealth bubbles occur, there always seems to be a way to bleed off the excess:

- The Pharaohs built the great pyramids and the Sphinx

-The Catholic Church built the great cathedrals of Europe

- The Chinese Song Dynasty built the Great Wall ... and modern China builds million-person “ghost” cities

- The US multi-billionaires hold gigantic conferences on global warming

Actually the negative interests rates in Europe and Japan nay well be another symptom of too much money sloshing around. In Germany, you can loan the government one million Euros and, in ten years, it will give you back 5 thousand Euros less. Some deal! Perhaps, just perhaps those Democrat candidates advocating a wealth tax are responding to this notion of too much wealth. We’ll see.