General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums1% Of Americans Own Half Of Our Nation's Wealth What Does That Mean?
Thoughts?
Kaleva
(36,240 posts)TheFarseer
(9,317 posts)I keep finding conflicting stats on by how much but all sources agree it is growing. According to the New York Times, when including debt, the richest 1% has 90% of the wealth. This used to be not so lopsided. The bottom half are increasingly sinking into negative wealth. Its fine that some people are rich, but there used to be some left for the rest of us. Thats the issue.
Kaleva
(36,240 posts)Historically speaking, what we see today may be the norm. When a nation is rich and powerful, the income inequality may be greater.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/01/income-inequality-today-may-be-the-highest-since-the-nations-founding/
TheFarseer
(9,317 posts)Youre talking about a time when there were kings and lords, no real Democracy and children working in coal mines for a hay penny a day. Labor had worked so hard to get to where we were in the 1950s-1980s (this era is the typical starting point to measure change in Income inequality)and I hate to see it all melt away and go back to robber barrons and peasants.
Kaleva
(36,240 posts)in the history of human civilization. The rest of the world was broke and devastated from WWII and in the US, there was plenty of good paying jobs and the US had a very high tax rate to pay for WWII. Conditions that may be very hard to replicate.
Skittles
(153,104 posts)that all the raises we should have received over the past four decades went straight to the top
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)What else could it mean?
beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)Beakybird
(3,330 posts)BootinUp
(47,053 posts)ritapria
(1,812 posts)Reaganism followed by positive Incrementalism; followed by more Reaganism; isn't going to get the job done ..We need structural change brought about by a massive grass roots movement that demands it .If not, 20 years from now , 80% of the American people will be living paycheck to paycheck .
Quackers
(2,256 posts)dhill926
(16,307 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Actually, I am kidding. What people will do is simply kill them and take their money and possessions if things get much worse. The greatest defense that the rich can put up for themselves is sharing some of their wealth with the rest of society. The rich simply can't build a secure gilded bunker, despite what some have convinced themselves of, there will always be ways to get to them, and let's say they somehow survive in their gilded bunkers, what type of world will they come out to?
Disaffected
(4,544 posts)what you thought was trickling down wasn't money.
California_Republic
(1,826 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Not the first time. But those who came before fixed it when it finally genuinely hurt the voting middle classes, and here we are again.
It's sad that so many eagerly jumped on the "get off the backs of business" lies and enthusiastically approved dismantling the controls their grandparents instituted. But imo, far sadder were all those so spoiled and feckless that they just sat around on their fingers while it happened. A little hurt is good for those.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)When I say borrow, I mean the payday loan type of borrowing. What that means is those that have credit cards have maxed them out.
30% of the people who borrowed short-term money to buy Christmas presents last year have not fully paid the money back as of October of this year.
Things are reaching a breaking point.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)should replace capitalism. Just kid's ignorance, of course, but growing interest in extremist fixes is another sign. I've been waiting for people to get fed up for 30 years of increasing idiocy.
Speaking of, in a couple months'll be the third of the annual massive PAYGO payments for the Republicans' special $1.7 trillion wealth transfer to the 0.1%. Legal bank robbery.
Unbelievable.
GeorgeGist
(25,310 posts)Is out of whack.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)handmade34
(22,756 posts)wealth is created off the backs of the less wealthy?
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,462 posts)Rich people are parasites.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)spinbaby
(15,088 posts)How much wealth does it take to be in that 1%? Anyone know?
Yavin4
(35,415 posts)spinbaby
(15,088 posts)More than Ill ever have. Although 10 million is tiny fraction of what Bezos has.
Yavin4
(35,415 posts)A HERETIC I AM
(24,360 posts)somewhere north of $190 BILLION.
That is more wealth than the bottom 40% of American households combined, or the bottom 131 million people in the US.
That puts them in the top 1/10th of 1%, just as a comparison, but again, that is all of the family members combined.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,488 posts)Aside from regular income inequality, the wealthy are bleeding our lower classes of every spare penny during our working years so that saving is difficult or impossible while access to debt is quite free.
Other than providing basic subsistence items and a few superficial playthings, we're trending toward renting everything and their ultimate goal is for all the working class to die penniless.
KY............
melm00se
(4,984 posts)I am going to shift this a bit.
If you are someone who makes $32,500/year (just a shade over the US median individual income), you are in the top 1% (globally) of wage earners. That would make you the focus of a worldwide anti-1% movement.
My point is that the value (or not) of the 1% is subjective.
http://www.globalrichlist.com/