• for: the real BIG LIE, elephant in the room - wealth inequality, working class driven to hard right

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory

“The Sam Vimes "Boots" Theory of Economic Injustice runs thus:<br /> At the time of Men at Arms, Samuel Vimes earned thirty-eight dollars a month as a Captain of the Watch, plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots, the sort that would last years and years, cost fifty dollars. This was beyond his pocket and the most he could hope for was an affordable pair of boots costing ten dollars, which might with luck last a year or so before he would need to resort to makeshift cardboard insoles so as to prolong the moment of shelling out another ten dollars.<br /> Therefore over a period of ten years, he might have paid out a hundred dollars on boots, twice as much as the man who could afford fifty dollars up front ten years before. And he would still have wet feet.<br /> Without any special rancour, Vimes stretched this theory to explain why Sybil Ramkin lived twice as comfortably as he did by spending about half as much every month.”<br /> ― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms (1993)

REPORT: Executive Excess 2023 - Institute for Policy Studies by Sarah Anderson in August 2023

see article about this report at https://hypothes.is/a/D6qzfENbEe6qDg8H-IEo6g

Lauren Aratani in CEOs of top 100 ‘low-wage’ US firms earn $601 for every $1 by worker, report finds at 2023-08-24 (accessed:: 2023-08-25 08:20:02)

• for: W2W, TPF, stats, inequality, wealth redistribution, wealth tax, quote, quote - wealth tax, quote - inequality, stats, stats - inequality, stats - wealth tax
• quote
• stats
  • An annual wealth tax of just 5% on multi-millionaires and billionaires
  • could raise US $1.7 trillion a year
  • enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty
• author Institute for Policy (2023)
• comment
  • that breaks down to approximately $US 1,000 per person for 2 billion people from the 1% elites
  • this is pretty reasonable
  • W2W can begin with this simple VOLUNTARY ASK
  • if the multi-millionaires and billionaires do just this consistently, then it is so little from their coffers and they could avoid a wealth tax by simply stepping up voluntarily
  • Could W2W motivate them to?

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/welcome-to-my-class

Robert Reich course “Wealth and Poverty” 2023

• for: carbon inequality, w2w, leverage point - climate change, 1%, inequality, wealth tax
• title
  • The role of high-socioeconomic-status people in locking in or rapidly reducing energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions
• authors
  • Kristian S. Nielsen
  • Kimberly A. Nicholas
  • Felix Creutzig
  • Thomas Dietz
  • Paul C. Stern
• date
  • Sept 30, 2021 -source
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-021-00900-y
• abstract
  • People with high socioeconomic status disproportionally affect energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions directly
    • through their consumption and
    • indirectly through their financial and social resources.
  • However, few climate change mitigation initiatives have targeted this population segment,
    • and the potential of such initiatives remains insufficiently researched.
  • In this Perspective, we analyse key characteristics of high-socioeconomic-status people and explore five roles through which they have a disproportionate impact on energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions and potentially on climate change mitigation, namely as:
    • consumers,
    • investors,
    • role models,
    • organizational participants and
    • citizens.
  • We examine what is known about their disproportionate impact via consumption and
    • explore their potential influence on greenhouse gas emissions through all five roles.
  • We suggest that future research should focus on strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by high-socioeconomic-status people and to align their
    • investments,
    • organizational choices and
    • actions as social and political change agents
  • with climate change mitigation goals.

• for: inequality, carbon inequality, 1%, wealth tax

• for: inequality, climate justice, wealth tax
• policy paper
• title
  • survival of the richest
• date
  • Jan 16, 2023
• executive summary
  • Since 2020, the richest 1% have captured almost two-thirds of all new wealth
    • nearly twice as much money as the bottom 99% of the world’s population.
  • Billionaire fortunes are increasing by $2.7bn a day,
    • even as inflation outpaces the wages of at least 1.7 billion workers, more than the population of India.7
  • Food and energy companies more than doubled their profits in 2022,
    • paying out $257bn to wealthy shareholders,
    • while over 800 million people went to bed hungry
  • Only 4 cents in every dollar of tax revenue comes from wealth taxes and
    • half the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax on money they give to their children.
  • A tax of up to 5% on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion a year,
    • enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty, and fund a global plan to end hunger.

• for: inequality, wealth tax, climate justice, earth system justice
• policy paper
• title
  • Survival of the Richest
• source
  • Oxfam

• date

  • Jan 2023

• Executive Summary

  • Since 2020, the richest 1% have captured almost two-thirds of all new wealth
    • nearly twice as much money as the bottom 99% of the world’s population.
  • Billionaire fortunes are increasing by $2.7bn a day,
    • even as inflation outpaces the wages of at least 1.7 billion workers, more than the population of India.7
  • Food and energy companies more than doubled their profits in 2022,
    • paying out $257bn to wealthy shareholders,
    • while over 800 million people went to bed hungry
  • Only 4 cents in every dollar of tax revenue comes from wealth taxes and
    • half the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax on money they give to their children.
  • A tax of up to 5% on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion a year,
    • enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty, and fund a global plan to end hunger.

Siehe auch: World's 5% 'Polluter Elite' Responsible for 37% of Global Emissions Growth, Study Concludes - EcoWatch, das Buch Carbon Inequality: The Role of the Richest in Climate Change - 1st Edi, den Bericht über die IPCC-Beratungen zur Studie des Konzeptwerks Neue Ökonomie Maßnahmen gegen die Klimakrise: Ein Flug alle drei Jahre - taz.de

• First stage of characterizing the Safe and Just Corridor
• The black line in Fig. 5 shows that
• redistribution is not enough
  • if everyone’s emissions are equalized at escape from poverty levels, then
  • we would STILL overshoot the climate boundaries (annotator's emphasis)
  • hypothetical pressure from 62% of humanity that is lacking humane access to resources is equal to the pressure exerted by 4% of the elits of humanity

compare with income inequality: https://hypothes.is/a/_JLGuj3HEe2dJFdOJRcvaQ

Why is 2022 a critical year to fund projects that build the commons?

From a scientific, commons and Stop Reset Go perspective, humanity now stands at the doorsteps of the Anthropocene and we as a species have collectively shaped the planet in a way that is harming many species on the globe, including our own.

We are at a bifurcation point in human history, a fork in the road and the next few years will determine the course of humanity for the next thousands of years to come.

The funneling of human resources to the few elites at the top leaves the majority of humanity little agency to determine our own future and carbon emissions are also related to structural inequality: https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oxfam.org%2Fen%2Fpress-releases%2Fcarbon-emissions-richest-1-percent-more-double-emissions-poorest-half-humanity&group=world

See Jason Hickel's arguments against the overly optimistic story that Neoliberal capitalism has alleviated poverty. Hickel finds the opposite when critical analysis is applied to the rosy claims that Steven Pinker and Bill Gates make: https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fjacobin.com%2F2019%2F02%2Fsteven-pinker-global-poverty-neoliberalism-progress&group=vnpq69nW

Funding projects in the commons counters the wealth of elites, a trend that is counter to planetary health because it continues degrading the environment through carbon inequality:

https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/carbon-emissions-richest-1-percent-more-double-emissions-poorest-half-humanity#annotations:8gdC3ht8EeyWyQ-BBdinXw

and wealth inequality.

Inequalities in income and wealth decreased markedly in the West from 1914 to 1980 due to a number of factors including:<br /> - Two World Wars and the Great Depression dramatically overturned the power relationships between labor and capital<br /> - A progressive tax on income and inheritance reduced the concentration of wealth and helped increase mobility<br /> - Liquidation of foreign and colonial assets as well as dissolution of public debt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM

And this was from 2012... I wonder how much worse it is today?

Stop Reset Go needs to implement a STOP the STEAL! campaign against the elites and luxury producers and also a WEALTH to WELLth program to transition high carbon consumption lifestyle to a low one that helps the wealthy funnel their wealth into climate justice and become carbon heros instead of carbon villains.

See the reports that George Monbiot is referring to:

OXFAM REPORT: https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Foxfamilibrary.openrepository.com%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F10546%2F621305%2Fbn-carbon-inequality-2030-051121-en.pdf&group=__world__

The bottom-up nature of this cluster makes it the focus area for civil society movements, human inner transformation (HIT) approaches and cultural methodologies.

Changing the mindset or paradigm from which the system arises is the most powerful place to intervene in a system as Donella Meadows pointed out decades ago in her research on system leverage points: https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/

The sleeping giant of billions of potential change actors remains dormant. How do we awaken them and mobilize them. If we can do this, it can constitute the emergence of a third unidentified actor in system change.

The Stop Reset Go (SRG) initiative is focused on this thematic lens, bottom-up, rapid whole system change, with Deep Humanity (DH) as the open-source praxis to address the needed shift in worldview advocated by Meadows. One of the Deep Humanity programs is based on addressing the psychological deficits of the wealthy, and transforming them into heroes for the transition, by redirecting their WEALTH-to-WELLth.

There are a number of strategic demographics that can be targeted in methodical evidence-based ways. Each of these is a leverage point and can bring about social tipping points.

A number of 2021 reports characterize the outsized impact of the top 1% and top 10% of humanity. Unless their luxury, high ecological footprint behavior is reeled in, humanity won't stand a chance. Annotation of Oxfam report: https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Foxfamilibrary.openrepository.com%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F10546%2F621305%2Fbn-carbon-inequality-2030-051121-en.pdf&group=__world__ Annotation of Hot or Cool report: https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhotorcool.org%2Fhc-posts%2Frelease-governments-in-g20-countries-must-enable-1-5-aligned-lifestyles%2F&group=__world__

This is what happened when 125 participants were given $500/month over two years to see what would happen.

Alfani, G. (2020, October 15). Pandemics and inequality: A historical overview. VoxEU.Org. https://voxeu.org/article/pandemics-and-inequality-historical-overview

EXAMINE THE SYSTEMS WHICH HELP TO ENFORCE THIS RACIAL INCOME DIVIDE! Most relate. Fixing these systems could help to bridge the income gap between racial groups. Even laws so ingrained in us.

Harvard’s Chetty Finds Economic Carnage in Wealthiest ZIP Codes. (2020, September 24). Bloomberg.Com. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-09-24/harvard-economist-raj-chetty-creates-god-s-eye-view-of-pandemic-damage

If rich countries monopolize COVID-19 vaccines, it could cause twice as many deaths as distributing them equally. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2020, from https://news.northeastern.edu/2020/09/14/if-rich-countries-monopolize-covid-19-vaccines-it-could-cause-twice-as-many-deaths-as-distributing-them-equally/

Goodman, J. D. (2020, August 31). A Quick Virus Test? Sure, If You Can Afford It. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/nyregion/rapid-coronavirus-test.html

Du, H., Chen, A., Chi, P., & King, R. B. (2020, May 7). Income Inequality Reduces Civic Honesty. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/upm47

Im, H., Ahn, C., Wang, P., & Chen, C. (2020, April 13). An Early Examination: Psychological, Health, and Economic Correlates and Determinants of Social Distancing Amidst COVID-19. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/9ravu