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Comment by ConcreteGidget | Hacker News Reader

Its pretty crazy how no one is talking about how only 18% of the stimulus bill is going to individuals. I'm by no means rich but I made 80k passively this year so I don't know which side of the wealth transfer I'm on.

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If you make $80k passively, you are above average and likely border on rich.

If you don't mind me asking, how'd you make 80k passively? Investments, properties, or a "passive" sass/tech product?

Stock market. Coronavirus was financially beneficial for the corporate portion of the upper middle class.

or the value of the dollar has dropped, which makes demand for equities higher (causing their price to rise).

You didn't create more wealth - the equities didn't become more productive (cept may be the tech companies did more this year and thus have a deserved rise in price).

You made 80k in dividends or appreciation in the value of your stocks? The latter is not usually considered as "income".

It’s odd how it seems the US is capitalist on the way up, and socialist on the way down (for big co’s and industries - airlines, banks, ect).

Good for equity investors. But - Individuals? We’re on our own. A bit crony, in my mind.

True capitalists do not applaud the crony capitalism common throughout the entire world. Japan’s government now owns sizable percentages or even outright majorities of all major corporations. The endless appetite for debt-fueled stimulus has led to crazy malinvestment that will be an extremely difficult pill to swallow when the bill finally comes due.

Why even tax us anymore? If it’s so easy to print new money just sum all the money necessary for the budget and print it fresh. Basically the same thing at this point.

You can't (I think?) do progressive QE, so for most developed economies that's not the same thing.

> Japan’s government now owns sizable percentages or even outright majorities of all major corporations

Is it a positive or negative thing? (honest question, I don't have much knowledge in this area)

Very negative. It allows for zombie companies to survive for far longer than they ideally should have. So many companies in Japan that should have gone bankrupt years ago but are still surviving. Also makes everyone complacent and uncompetitive at global scale, which has been the theme for Japan for past few decades.

The government is not good at creating and sustaining businesses despite their nearly unlimited resources and centuries of attempts. When the government owns large stakes in businesses then the business operations become political, as the government is elected and the government owns the business, so the business is now answerable to voters. The business will be encouraged to make malinvestments in politically important projects and regions, allow unproductive employees to remain, and lead to general stagnation.

Some socialists have openly stated that the end goal of democratically run companies can be attained by funneling government money directly into buying equity stakes in businesses, growing over time. This would be an extremely terrible outcome for anyone that likes productivity and efficiency.

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