Debate Primer: Billionaires

This week, Political Union will be debating whether the United States should let billionaires exist.

First, a basic rundown of wealth in the United States from the Pew Research Center.  [6 minutes]

• A brief explanation into the philosophical arguments behind wealth distribution from Crash Course Philosophy. [10 minutes] **I think this video is really worth it, if you do nothing else please check this out before our debate.

  • An argument against income redistribution summarizing philosopher Robert Nozick’s objections. [2 minutes]

An op-ed from the Atlantic on why we need to eliminate billionaires, and a defense of billionaires as an economic model.  [8 minutes]

• An overview of the wealth tax debate from Forbes, and another analysis. [4 minutes] [4 minutes]

  • A case against a wealth tax. [4 minutes]

• Some basic economics on the utility of wealth [3 minutes]

• A Brookings analysis on wealth inequality. [5 minutes]

• Musings on a study analyzing the role billionaires have to play in our economy. [5 minutes]

  • Economic opinion varies, so here’s another take on whether billionaires enrich economies. [4 minutes]

  • A case against billionaires in the economy. [4 minutes]

  • The case for billionaires in the economy. [4 minutes]

Image credit: "Jeff Bezos" by jurvetson is licensed under CC BY 2.0