Economists Debunk Top 5 Billionaire Myths | WIRED

60% of Americans polled think billionaires like Elon Musk are good for the economy, but the economic data reveals something very different. "These people become a black hole for the economy," says economist Gary Stevenson.

WIRED spoke with Gary as well as Princeton economist Atif Mian to debunk some commonly held beliefs about this nation's ultra rich.


Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Cole Evelev
Editor: Chris Davies
Experts: Atif Mian and Gary Stevenson

Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Samantha Vélez
Production Manager: Eric Martinez
Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila

Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds


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[JamesWest_III]

It will never change unless we close the tax loopholes. But this won’t happen as politicians who create the laws, also enjoy these same tax breaks.

[pickledparsleyparty]

The real problem is that our government officials also want to be obscenely rich. So their interests are counter to tax system reform.

Insider trading in US congress is the most insane thing I've ever heard.

[garyseconomics]

Nice to be involved with this! Plenty more information on the rich and the economy on my channel!

[Aasenzeng]

It’s really weird and sometimes frustrating to think about money and wealth, the gap between income levels.

[halkun]

When people complain thinking poor people try to cheat the system when there are RICH people doing the same thing.

[jopo]

Fine, fine. I won't become a billionaire then.

[Francois_The_Photon_Mechanic]

For years I've been saying that we now have more kings and queens than there has ever been in history. The only difference is that instead of owning a country, they own most of the expensive stuff in the country.

[microcomputermaster]

Billionaires are terrible for the free market, because they tend to accumulate wealth and slow the overall flow of money through the economy. It doesn't "trickle down". Whether we go capitalist or socialist, one things true either way- the multi billionaires have got to go.

[juliegolick]

I'm sorry, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that 60% of people polled think billionaires are good for the economy. Who the heck are these people?!

[carlmarshall]

Glad to see Gary Stevenson getting more recognition

[reedbog]

A big shoutout to Reagan, a precident of a president who mapped the GOPs practice of tax breaks for the rich. Thanks, Ronald. We owe you one.

[stogiermink]

A strong middle class is the cornerstone of economic growth - and that has very little to do with billionaires.

[awetstone]

Hopefully this will actually reach people and educate people on some basics being on this channel

[CH-jy]

Having been around and worked for a few very rich people including multi millionaires, I can say that these people are some of the cheapest people you will ever meet. The richer they get the more of a miser they turn into. They would try to save pennies on things that made no difference to a deal and spent enormous amounts of time on saving a few bucks, while blowing tones of money on other things. They would save money on people's salary for example. Yeah very rich people don't spend money like normal people and it's not great.

[Gigifrancetexas]

They do this because it’s more glamorous and they get more attention and praise to give away a huge chunk than to just pay your workers fairly and pay your fair share of taxes to begin with

[oldcowbb]

like separation of church and state, we need separation of corporation and state, the law makers are making laws that benefits the rich because they themselves are business owner

[alwells]

Okay. Once I become a billionaire, I'll report on what could be done better to help people. I'd like to experience this problem for myself before I comment much about it though...

[Meekox]

This is even devastating to other "middle sized" companies, in countries where they have to pay more taxes its usually more worth to sell these companies to a bigger company in a country that pay's less taxes like what my countries "biggest" companies have done (sold to usa and china)

Patagonia — Avoided tax, ownership remains with the family 🌎

[JohnDoe-fiyh]

The problem isn't billionaires. It's regulation and high taxes. No one with money wants to risk their money if the benefits will just be taken away with taxes. Im not necessarily talking about billionaires but the multi millionaires and decamillionaires. The reason we have so many billionaires and crumbling middle class is because scared money wont invest and be entrepreneurial, which create jobs. Billionaires and extremely rich people and mega corporations choke out the little guy(small businesses) because the stock market bets their scared money on sure things because low net worth people dont want to risk their little capital on risky investments. Billionaires and mega corporations have way more options and can risk way higher than multi millionaires and decamillionaires. In other words, taxes and regulations create funnels for everyones money to get dumped indirectly into billionaires' pockets because it's the only safe bet. We need more competition not less, and a wealth tax is extremely dangerous to the idea of more competition.