Is extreme wealth, and the tax system that protects it, a problem?
Hank later says exemptions create an oligarchy and AI is built to concentrate wealth, and in 2026 John says there is no difference between more than enough and much more than enough.
Axis: a serious problem ... not a problem / earned
Concept: economic inequality
Positions by date: 22 records in 22 videos. The position was refined (2013), never reversed, in these records.
John
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-11-04 | first on record | John thinks Romney's plan to exempt the first $250,000 of capital gains, even for people making a billion a year, is a bad idea and Obama's higher capital gains rate is better, though he might be wrong. | Policy and Politics: Brotherhood 2.0 Week Begins 00:02:55 |
| 2015-06-08 | restate | John thinks wealth inequality is one of the biggest issues facing the United States and that the decoupling of wages and productivity is very worrying. | Monday Bonus Video! 00:03:18 |
| 2016-01-26 | restate | John names income inequality first among the big problems he left Davos thinking about, after learning there about the perils of economic inequality. | Billionaires and Radical Hope: Thoughts from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland 00:03:22 |
| 2017-08-01 | restate | John says wealth inequality is growing, though still low by historical standards, which is bad for the poor and for the social order because it inhibits economic growth and socioeconomic mobility. | Death and How to Avoid It (...for a while) 00:00:39 |
| 2018-04-10 | restate | These deductions mostly benefit wealthy people, and by far the greatest benefit, in dollars and share of income, goes to the richest 1% of US households. | Who Do Tax Breaks Benefit? 00:03:22 |
| 2024-08-27 | restate | John says it also harms the user-generated internet and the social order by concentrating capital and power in fewer hands, which history shows tends to work out terribly. | How The Internet Is Rigged 00:05:40 |
| 2025-06-17 | restate | John says he constantly misses the mark, hoarding wealth though he knows it is a sin and not treating neighbours as he would wish, so he constantly needs forgiveness. | My Religion 00:02:26 |
| 2026-05-26 | restate | John says he and Hank have more than enough money, and despite what billionaires believe, there is no difference between more than enough and much more than enough. | Hank Green Is a Fool 00:02:55 |
Hank
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-08-31 | first on record | Hank: taxing capital gains below earned income seems tremendously unfair: an Applebee's waitress pays a higher rate than a billionaire; maybe bad policy, certainly bad ethics; open to being convinced. | Why The Rich Pay Lower Taxes 00:02:46 |
| 2013-08-23 | refine | Hank: Bath's monuments display the excesses we rightly complain about (income inequality, concentrated wealth), yet only such concentration made them; global inequality is worse still, and the best legacy would be peace, plenty and equality. | Thoughts from Bath: The Legacy of Wealth 00:02:06 |
| 2013-12-06 | refine | Hank says inequality arises naturally as the path of least resistance and is bad for the poor, the economy and everyone's happiness, so society needs structures, including government, to fight it. | I Am President Snow 00:02:59 |
| 2014-01-03 | restate | Hank lists US income inequality as ridiculous, one of the things that are not good. | The Golden Gate Bridge Didn't Collapse!! 00:03:25 |
| 2015-06-05 | restate | Hank worries the decoupling of productivity and wages means the rich get richer while the poor don't benefit, creating instability and suffering. | Just for Nerdfighters 00:01:48 |
| 2015-07-03 | restate | Hank worries that if no one is ever satisfied, wealth will never stop concentrating and surpluses will not go to global goals like ending poverty, war and climate insecurity. | Thoughts from Yachts 00:02:18 |
| 2017-07-28 | restate | Hank says this is especially true for the very rich, and more and more money is in their hands; for them a small business is an inconsequential investment for a lot of work. | Why You Haven't Started a Business 00:02:09 |
| 2017-11-17 | restate | Hank says high earners are taxed more because they can afford it and because raising their rate brings in far more money; hence brackets and more complexity. | Why Are Taxes So Complicated? (The Musical?) 00:04:12 |
| 2019-03-29 | restate | The description says Hank realized that most theft in America is literally the rich robbing the poor. | The Largest Theft of All Time video description |
| 2019-08-16 | restate | Hank wants a sociologist to explain it, but it seems real: both a cause of increasing inequality and something that worsens with it, and the source of much bad. | ...Not My Proudest Moment 00:03:15 |
| 2020-10-16 | restate | Hank says power and wealth concentrate, so any mechanism that distributes making money, connecting with people and influencing people more evenly is interesting. | Still Riding a Big Wave that I Do not and Cannot Know 00:01:09 |
| 2025-04-11 (said on 2025-04-10, implied) | restate | Hank says exemptions are how you create an oligarchy: favours for big businesses that please the president, none for small businesses, terrible for consumers. | How Actually Crazy is This Mess? 00:15:31 |
| 2025-12-19 | restate | Hank says AI is a tool of economic elites designed to concentrate wealth in their hands, and that this is why they are building it. | My Big 2026 Prediction is...Not Fun 00:04:53 |
| 2026-04-24 | restate | AI might even make housing worse by further concentrating wealth, since intense inequality creates incentives to serve only the wealthiest consumers. | The AI Question that No AI Person Asks 00:02:07 |
Dates are upload dates, which set the order. Where the speaker gives a different recording date in the video, it is added as "said on YYYY-MM-DD, implied" (derived from the date said in the video).