3 months ago
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BlackRock CEO Larry Fink argued Monday that long-term investing could help limit wealth inequality at a moment when the rapid rise of AI risks further concentrating wealth at the top of society.
In his annual letter to investors, Fink underscored that in recent decades, most wealth has moved toward people who own assets, rather those who earn their money by working.
“Now AI threatens to repeat that pattern at an even larger scale—concentrating wealth among the companies and investors positioned to capture it,” he wrote. “This is where much of today’s economic anxiety comes from: a deeper feeling that capitalism is working—just not for enough people.”
“And a focus on short-term investing is not a fix for that,” he continued. “Rather, it is long-term investing that allows countries to build domestic industries, that lets people build enduring wealth and shows how their country’s growth can benefit them too.”
Fink pointed to employer-backed emergency savings accounts and federally backed kids’ savings accounts, like Trump Accounts, as methods of opening up investing to more people.
“When people invest their savings—over decades, not days—the capital markets put that money to work, financing companies, infrastructure, and jobs,” he added. “And when that cycle happens in your own country, your future and your nation’s future become linked. You help finance its growth. It helps finance yours.”
The BlackRock CEO’s comments come as AI is widely expected to disrupt the job market, although AI leaders differ on the extent of the disruption from the technology.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned last year that AI could wipe out as many as half of entry-level white-collar jobs, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has taken a more optimistic view, suggesting AI will likely reshape jobs and expand the need for trade workers.
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