The exchange rate between money and power represents a singularity in the system. At the singularity, money is no longer a relevant performance indicator. Good regulation exists to keep us outside of the event horizon, where the rules of capitalism still apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Jungle capitalists” love to talk about how regulation is anti-capitalist because capitalism is a jungle and everyone should compete on merits, not with protections. They love to pretend that the only regulations in play are the ones holding corporations back, while those same corporations love to use their wealth to regulate against competition. There is no corollary in the jungle analogy. The jungle analogy breaks down when money can be converted into power to prevent competition. This is an unchecked, positive feedback loop: a singularity in the system. Indeed, regulation must<\/em> exist to keep us outside of the event horizon of this singularity, not against capitalism, but rather to protect it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interpretation:<\/strong> once wealth concentration passes a structural threshold, it behaves like a \u201csingularity\u201d: political gravity bends so sharply that normal price-signal dynamics (competition, innovation) break down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Implication:<\/strong> after basic security and social standing are met, additional money offers diminishing\u2014or zero\u2014utility. At the societal \u201cevent horizon\u201d, capital accumulation still grows but no longer tracks human welfare or productive output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These findings align with the black-hole metaphor used by economists and policy writers: unchecked concentration produces a self-reinforcing field that erodes market signals, democratic accountability and ultimately economic performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The exchange rate between money and power represents a singularity in the system. At the singularity, money is no longer a relevant performance indicator. Good regulation exists to keep us outside of the event horizon, where the rules of capitalism still apply. “Jungle capitalists” love to talk about how regulation is anti-capitalist because capitalism is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,15,17],"tags":[36,34,35],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalism","category-politics","category-safety-nets","tag-analogies","tag-capitalism","tag-the-jungle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinterrobang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinterrobang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinterrobang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinterrobang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinterrobang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinterrobang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinterrobang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinterrobang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinterrobang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinterrobang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\n1 \u25b8 Money \u2192 Power: a measurable phase-change<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Evidence<\/strong><\/th> Key result<\/strong><\/th> Why it matters<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead> US policy study (N \u2248 1,800 issues)<\/strong><\/td> Economic elites + business lobbies exert decisive<\/em> influence on federal legislation; median-voter preferences have \u201clittle or no\u201d impact. <\/td> Shows a tipping point where wealth converts directly into rule-making power.<\/td><\/tr> Global corporate-control network (43,000 TNCs)<\/strong><\/td> A core of 147 firms controls \u2248 40 % of the value of all trans-nationals through cross-shareholdings. <\/td> Extreme concentration gives a tiny ownership cluster systemic veto power\u2014money ceases to be a mere market signal.<\/td><\/tr> Cross-country panel (World Values Survey, 1990-2020)<\/strong><\/td> Greater income inequality is statistically linked<\/em> to higher political polarisation. <\/td> Polarisation is the social fallout of wealth-power feedback.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n2 \u25b8 Beyond the Threshold, More Money \u2260 More Performance<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Study<\/strong><\/th> Finding<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Kahneman & Deaton (1 M US respondents)<\/td> Emotional wellbeing plateaus<\/em> around $75 k annual income; extra dollars add status, not day-to-day quality of life. <\/td><\/tr> Follow-up PNAS replication (2022)<\/td> Confirms a flattening point for roughly one-third of the population; for the rest, wellbeing rises only mildly with further income. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n3 \u25b8 Regulation keeps the system outside the event horizon<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Regulatory lever<\/strong><\/th> Empirical support<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Progressive taxation<\/strong><\/td> OECD meta-analysis: labour-tax progressivity is the single most robust lever for cutting disposable-income inequality. <\/td><\/tr> Wealth taxes \/ redistribution<\/strong><\/td> IMF & OECD find that redistributive transfers raise<\/em> long-run GDP by boosting aggregate demand and social stability. <\/td><\/tr> Financial & labour rules<\/strong><\/td> Cross-section study shows inequality undermines the effectiveness<\/em> of regulation; conversely, well-designed regulation dampens the inequality\u2013power spiral. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nSynthesis<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n