I agree that in a very strict sense money spent on X definitionally cannot be spent on something else (you already spent it so don’t have it). But does that type of tautological view matter here? (And if that is not the basis of your point and I’m misunderstanding, sorry.)
This kind of reminds me of the old Richard Pryor movie Bruster’s Millions.
I suspect the numbers have change but at one point I recall Bezos had a new worth of 90 billion. Even with a paltry 1% return on total assets that’s like 900 million a year. Could you spend all that? I’m not sure I could really keep tracking of an income stream like that—I suspect I would often be doing the equivalent of dropping a million on the floor now and then and forgetting to pick it up for a week or so.
So the rich buying more vaccines doesn’t really equate to not buying enough of other things that prices for those other things drop enough to make more available to the poor (who are budget constrained much more realistically than are the rich).
I am under the impression that you are thinking something like: “Bezos has ~100 billion to spend. If he spends 1 million in X, then he has 1 million less to spend on the rest. But he won’t even get to spend it in his lifetime, so that extra million in X doesn’t change how much he would spend in Y. Therefore, it’s wrong to say that Y will become more available because Bezos spent in X.”.
I don’t think that’s the right way to think about all this. (Warning: oversimplification coming):
Bezos earns some income, say, in a year. Almost all of it will be spent. Most will be invested and not consumed, so it will still increase his net worth, but that demand for stuff is still there, affecting the economy. Bezos is already probably spending about as much as he can, and what he is not spending he is saving which probably means transferring it to someone else who will spend it. So, if he spends USD 10 in X, it’s reasonable imho to “expect” the economy to get USD 10 less spending in non-X stuff (on avg)
I agree that in a very strict sense money spent on X definitionally cannot be spent on something else (you already spent it so don’t have it). But does that type of tautological view matter here? (And if that is not the basis of your point and I’m misunderstanding, sorry.)
This kind of reminds me of the old Richard Pryor movie Bruster’s Millions.
I suspect the numbers have change but at one point I recall Bezos had a new worth of 90 billion. Even with a paltry 1% return on total assets that’s like 900 million a year. Could you spend all that? I’m not sure I could really keep tracking of an income stream like that—I suspect I would often be doing the equivalent of dropping a million on the floor now and then and forgetting to pick it up for a week or so.
So the rich buying more vaccines doesn’t really equate to not buying enough of other things that prices for those other things drop enough to make more available to the poor (who are budget constrained much more realistically than are the rich).
Yeah, I wasn’t trying to be tautological.
I am under the impression that you are thinking something like: “Bezos has ~100 billion to spend. If he spends 1 million in X, then he has 1 million less to spend on the rest. But he won’t even get to spend it in his lifetime, so that extra million in X doesn’t change how much he would spend in Y. Therefore, it’s wrong to say that Y will become more available because Bezos spent in X.”.
I don’t think that’s the right way to think about all this. (Warning: oversimplification coming):
Bezos earns some income, say, in a year. Almost all of it will be spent. Most will be invested and not consumed, so it will still increase his net worth, but that demand for stuff is still there, affecting the economy. Bezos is already probably spending about as much as he can, and what he is not spending he is saving which probably means transferring it to someone else who will spend it. So, if he spends USD 10 in X, it’s reasonable imho to “expect” the economy to get USD 10 less spending in non-X stuff (on avg)