Gabriel Zucman Explains How the Rich Get Richer
Gabriel Zucman Explains How the Rich Get Richer
https://prospect.org/economy/gabriel-zucman-explains-how-the-rich-get-richer/
This article titled “Gabriel Zucman Explains How the Ritch Get Ritcher” by The American Prospect details an interview of Gabriel Zucman (a University of California economist) by Capital & Main regarding his book “The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay” that he co-wrote with Emmanuel Saez (also a University of California economist). Zucman explains his views on how simple it is for corporations and the wealthy to evade taxes such as by simply setting up a shell company in Bermuda. He states how not only has it become common for the very rich to pay very little taxes, but it has sadly also become accepted. The example that was referenced was how Trump declared that his ability to not have paid federal taxes one year makes him “smart”.
This directly relates to “the rich get richer” concept we have reviewed in class and have used as a process in spreading decisions throughout a network. The article explains that after accumulating a bit of wealth, individuals are able to afford key information through higher educated & specialized expensive accountants and financial advisors. This key information then spreads and is able to afford them more wealth as it protects them from paying as much taxes as they normally would have without this information (example: how to move highest profits to lowest taxes areas and etc…). With this larger amount of wealth, the same individual now invests in an even more expensive & knowledgeable financial advisor that will have more privilege information (example: little known loopholes in tax law) that will enable him to evade even more taxes thus have even more wealth and in turn get a new even more expensive and more knowledgeable financial advisor and the cycle repeats on and on. This is how the rich get richer. Much like how certain decisions in the models we have seen will be repeated on and on again in a similar circular manner with the more nodes that make the same selection and so on. Or much like how we learned videos with a high number of views will get even more views due to the attention on the original high number and the cycle goes on. This cycle is present in many aspects of our society and is applicable to many of our network models.