Is there a benefit to racism?

[Belsnickel]

(08-15-2018, 09:43 AM)michaelsean Wrote: You don't have to sell to have wealth.  The materials are also what someone would pay for it.  There is no value to anything that isn't based on what someone will pay, and what they pay with is subject to market changes.  So when someone says we are willing to give you $60 for that stock you paid $55 for, then my wealth increases even if I didn't sell it.

But even when you look at the speculation it still involves winners and losers. You mention in your post to Dino about wealth being static if this is the way it works, but it isn't. The reason is because the government injects money into the economy. So as wealth is added to the economy through monetary policy. As this money is added into the economy, it is distributed out. If it is distributed out evenly, then there are no winners and losers. However, it doesn't get distributed evenly. When money is injected into the economy you will see an overall increase in wealth. That increase in wealth will go to some people more than others because of things like the speculative market. When there is an overall increase in wealth and you gain during that period, someone else is not gaining from this injection into the economy.

The moving parts to all of this are massive and complex. There are people with degrees in this subject that don't understand all of the ins and outs, and I certainly don't come close. I was actually just talking to an economist friend about this and something else last night at the bar, which is the only reason I can really talk about it like I am. By the end of the week I will have forgotten the conversation.

Addition: The other thing we were discussing was government budget deficits and how they aren't as bad as people think they are. I just realized that this was relevant to this conversation because that is another way that the overall wealth in the nation is increased. The reason deficit spending is used to pull an economy out of a recession is because a budget deficit puts money into the economy while a budget surplus removes money from it.