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https://youtu.be/HA1YKg_OLBw

Financial services makes the unrealistic consumption of rich countries possible. That’s worth 9%.



Nice clip yet it does not make it clear why 9% is the good value of GDP. Why not 7%?


Why not 50%?


Wait, so we could end unrealistic consumption in rich countries and get 9% of our economy back to doing something useful? Sounds like a win-win.


Yes, and you could go back to agrarian life too! Win-win-win!

The finance industry's ability to teleport value across time and space is a massive boon for quality of life across the world.


I can't help but wonder if there's a middle ground between people not being able to obtain credit to pursue new enterprises, and entire productive enterprises being swallowed up in the pursuit of short-term rent seeking.


Could such a middle ground exist? Sure. Could someone design a system where that middle ground was a natural equilibrium? Unsure. I don't see how you incentivise the goldilocks behaviour (but I am not the smartest bear so maybe someone else can)


There's a good book on this topic by a Scottish philosopher: An Inquiry into the Nature and Cauſes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, LL. D. and F. R. S, formerly Profeſſor of Moral Philoſophy in the Univerſity of Glasgow.


The economy is not a fixed pie that you can just take slices from one sector and give them to another. Financial services provide liquidity that supports every other sector; getting rid of them would cause contraction in every other sector.


That's true to a degree. But giving them free reign inventivizes the kind of behavior that gave us the 2008 financial crisis. So the commenter can be forgiven for wanting to limit that sector.


They don't have "free reign". And who's to say whether 9% is better or worse for society as a whole.

The comment is an uninformed take.


It feels like a fairly hefty tax for the benefits it provides.


Policy is generally decided on more than what "feels" right. You'd have to quantify "hefty" and "benefits it provides"


Yes it's like magic! Let's "JUST STOP OIL" while we're at it. Oh and end world hunger too.


I'm banking on Space Emperor Elon. If he can form a Musk Sphere around Mars, he should be able to generate enough energy to push Deimos into Earth reasonably fast. Of course, he doesn't have to actually do it. Instead, he could extract tribute and demand we push 50M people into a volcano each year in exchange for not extincting us. In just a few decades, most all our issues resolve.


How do they do that?


Money multiplier, resource allocation.


Odd, they just seem mostly parasitic to me.




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