Literally unimaginable wealth [real-$$ inequality, Bitcoin inequality, taxes, banking the unbanked]

[erinptah]

"Jeff [Bezos] is so wealthy, that it is quite literally unimaginable. Let's put this wealth in perspective by comparing it to some familiar things."

New Yorker: "The actual truth about the American tax system is that it is slightly progressive. The richest one percent earn about 21 percent of the income and pay 24 percent of the taxes." (Honestly, better than I expected! But they could absolutely pay more.)

"This trend has been characterized as the Great Resignation, and just about every economist and pundit has taken their crack at teasing out why it’s happening. [...] In these moments, it’s best to actually ask the workers themselves. I did that, talking to dozens of people who have recently quit their job, or experts who closely track workers who have. And some patterns emerged."

"Those top players represent a mere 0.01% of all bitcoin holders and yet they control 27% of the digital currency, the Wall Street Journal reported. That compares to the old-fashion dollar, where the top 1% controlled 30% of total U.S. household wealth, according to Federal Reserve data." But hey, cryptocurrency is gonna be the great decentralized revolution that lets us escape the inequalities of fiat currency, right?

"DC/EP [China's test run of a digital-only currency, in beta] would have to be able to handle at least 300,000 transactions per second across the country at peak times to do what cash does. So DC/EP won’t be a blockchain." (For comparison, a single credit card like Visa averages a couple thousand per second and says they can handle at least 24,000, and Bitcoin averages a whopping between-3-and-4 transactions a second.)

"He told the press how the problems of banking the unbanked were technical — that banks were unable to move money fast enough without a blockchain. This is completely backwards. Banks know how to move numbers between computers. The slow part is settlement and compliance — making sure that everything is done in order, and making sure that banks, and money transmitters in general, are solvent, honest and not fronting for drug runners."