It shows that America is not a meritocracy and that the American dream is a nice but unfortunately untrue myth. A myth the billionaire class has been telling regular people for decades now in order to keep them quiet and obedient.
There are spoiled brats in the US who are born into billions of dollars. At the same time, the Republican Party has been actively fighting a war against the poor since the late 1970s. In Europe and elsewhere, nations have tried to get as many people as possible out of poverty; in the US, poor people are being publicly shamed and discriminated. Poor people are said to be lazy and dishonest and many other bad things.
Bernie Sanders is the poorest member of the entire US Congress. Think about that for a moment. Bernie Sanders isn't poor, in fact he's quite decently off. Yet, he is THE POOREST person out of 535 representatives. The entire US government is clotted with multimillionaires and billionaires. What does that say about this country? Aren't these people supposed to "represent" regular Americans? When I lived in America, I didn't see cities full of billionaires. I met people who had been working for GE for their whole lives and were laid off. I talked to kids in my High School who lived with their parents in a trailer park without running water. I saw streets and public buildings that were crumbling.
It is hard to describe how much regular Americans are getting fucked over by the system and by their rich overlords. America is the richest country on the planet, yet it won't spend money for its people's health or education or the country's infrastructure. Things that should be self-understanding.
But the worst thing is this constant propaganda that the rich people and of course the corporate media spread. Oh, the glory of capitalism. Holy capitalism, thou makest everyone rich. Except... it doesn't.
And besides, what America has isn't capitalism, it's a plutocracy. Again, real competition isn't allowed by the huge monopolies and meritocracy is a myth.
The whole thing reminds me a bit of China, where government propaganda has seeped in so much that regular people are now defending the government for taking away their rights. For example there are lots of Chinese people who think it's a great thing their country isn't a democracy.
To us, this might sound Orwellian. In reality, America is very similar. Not in regard to civil rights but in regard to money.
Luckily, millennials have begun to realize that this is all a farce.
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Wealth and income inequality have no real bearing.
The important metric is whether people's lives are improving or not. Think of how rich Bezos, Gates, Buffett, Zukerburg, Waltons, Fords, etc. are. That is wonderful. They got that way by providing something people wanted to make their lives better.
Today's American poor live a life of luxury that rich people of 120 years ago could not even dream about. They have cars, air conditioning, medicines, indoor plumbing, electric lights, radios that fit in the palm of their hand and allows them to communicate with anyone in the world. Amazing.
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this is corrupt crony capitalism at work... it's terrible
This is why I left the democratic side, all they talk about is these kinds of charts and not WHY this exists. Like WHY does this happen? Its not because of fucking "corrupt capitalism". Socialism doesn't fucking work when you're giving no incentive to grow. there's no more supply and demand. These people are wealthy because they have CATERED TO THE DEMAND. People rip on Walmart so much but why? Walmart has become successful because they have become so very successful at supplying a demand to the population. They're giving you easier access to products. To become wealthy, you have to actually CONTRIBUTE to society. Like thats why Engineering degrees pay so much compared to a fucking Walmart job, Engineers contribute significantly more per person than people at Walmart. It doesn't mean that people working at Walmart are not important. I worked at Walmart, they're all important in making the mashine run. But there has to be a person who carefully designs and make sure that the mashine is long term going to succeed.
While I agree that income inequality/unacceptable distribution of income is a large problem in the US (among many other places), I would urge people against listening to people about their idea of a "perfect" distribution. The fact is that most people simply have no idea of the implications of saying they like this distribution better than another. It's like asking people how thick they think a pillar holding a bridge should be. Chances are unless you are asking a bunch of engineers or physicist, the answer will be incorrect, and the bridge would collapse.
In short, leave economy to the economists.
Again, there is definitely a problem, I am not trying to sweep it under the rug.
I'd like to mention something though. People would gladly use this video to tell you "we need to raise taxed!". My question would be - do you? Really?
www.nationalpriorities.org/.../
In 2015, about 16% of the total tax money went to the military, 27.4% to healthcare, and 33.3% to social security and unemployment.
Keep in mind, this is only the FEDERAL tax, this doesn't include the local taxes.
Tell me again, why does the US need that large military? The total annual spending is almost three times as much as in China, and 10 times as much as Saudi Arabia (which is kind of scary actually).
OK, I take it back, you guys DEFINITELY need that military spending.
But I am somehow certain reducing the unemployment rate could drastically decrease the spendings, and there would be place for improvement in other places.
I am not an economist, by a long shot, but without wanting to make premature judgments, I think Trump's attempts at limiting the unemployment rate are good.The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. I don't worry or stress over it, I mean compared to any other time period in history the working class have it made. We are no longer restricted by class, title or nobility. We have more security, housing, conveniences, and opportunities to rise than at any other period in history. Just because 1 percent of Americans control the vast majority of wealth, doesn't mean you can't amass more wealth than you were born into. It boils down to hard work, wisdom, discipline, and strategic planning. If you blow your weekly checks on bullshit every week, you will never gain wealth. If you focus on how unfair life is, you will never improve your own life. Just like there are athletes who I will never be in better shape than, does that mean I shouldn't workout? Should I neglect my health and fitness levels because life is unfair, and they are more talented than I will ever be? So because Bill Gates, the Rockefellers, etc have abundant wealth I shouldn't aspire to amassing my own personal fortune? It is not impossible to become a millionaire over the course of one's lifetime. People just need to focus on life and financial fundamentals. Remain as debt free as possible, maintain a high credit score, own rather than lease or finance if possible. Work hard, and save. It takes time and consistency.
Good for them. The richest 1% keep growing their money despite contributing more in individual income taxes than the bottom 90% combined.
Not to mention the value they bring in companies started, employees hired.. etc.
Whoever thinks the super rich are a drag on the economy is delusional. They are an incredible boon.
I live in an area that has some of the richest zip codes in America. Many of my friends make a 6 figure incomes in the SERVICE industry! Apparently the uber wealthy don't like mowing grass, cleaning pools, or landscaping.That dream is all but a lie, some might get lucky and be wealthy and do very well, but it won't happen to the majority or a significant percentage of the population. With the way how things are terribly unbalanced in regards to wealth distribution all the more reason I'd call it quits on things such as having a family and children long time ago, because I already knew it was all a big lie anyway.
1) Crony Capitalism.
2) America does really just have many businessmen who are making money selling services and products around the globe and buying things in the US.
3) The average person is still richer now than at any time in history.
4) The American dream is possible in an economy that is good for small businesses, government interference through regulations, higher minimum wage, taxes, etc, affect small businesses more than large ones, thus pushing them that much closer to bankruptcy.But rich people neeeeeed those tax cuts because they’re supposed to be the only ones who can move the economy.
It’s so stupid. The Walmart kids are worth millions if not billions of dollars but they made that money by finding every possible way to screw over their workers. Then they pass the expense of providing for them onto the taxpayer while they hold onto their money! It’s WRONGThere is an exponential corrilation between IQ and wealth. It seems the two main factors contributing to wealth are IQ and ambition/hardwork. Wealth disparities provide great incentive for people to earn more. The reason tax cuts are made mainly on the 20% and above are due to the fact that the mid to low class don't pay much taxes in the first place. Increasing taxes dont work as in these increases in taxes less wealth is being created as people have less incentive to work and provide serveses/make prducts althogh the government takes in a bigger percentage of the populations money there is less wealth and the government ends up taking in less tax revenue.
Unfortunately the system is designed that way...
the more at the top you are the faster you climb up...
but to go from a wealth of 20k a year to 250k cash in the bank seems almost impossible for someOf course they do, the population density is 85/sq m, vs. 188/sq m. How does having 10 square metres rather than 5 to eat your cheap meal in make a difference?
Really? A Cadillac Queen? I thought that was so 1980's. There are people who take the piss in all societies; there are TV series about them getting caught.
You didn't answer my question about the contracts.Unfortunately wealth is distributed based on the pre prescribed value of a product or service, what regulates this value is supply and demand, if you are at the bottom of the pile chances are you are lazy, don't have the ability to accumulate wealth, eg, disabled people, don't have an interest in accumulating wealth. You can't be at the bottom and expect people to give you money, money you never earned in the first place.
Everyone makes their own opportunities to succeed or fail. I was the son of a middle class government employee. I started my own company, made money, sold company, now I don't work and will never have to work, barring a collapse of society. No one helped me along the way. I did it on my own.
I don't have a problem with this. It's called survival of the fittest. If you work hard/smart you're going to succeed. You can't expect to drop out of school , be lazy, lack ambition and still expect to earn a million dollars per year. Think about this logically. If we all were rich, who's going to do the minimum wage jobs?
I work hard for what I have. Exactly how much more of that do you feel I should be giving away to people not willing to put in the work for it? One of the biggest reasons for this "unequal wealth distribution" is the very visible unequal work people are willing to do. Everybody wants to make a million dollars but not everybody is willing to put forth the effort necessary to get it.
I couldn't care less about the wealth distribution. It has no bearing except maybe decreasing my taxes. The rich are basically sugar daddies. I don't understand why people want to eliminate them when it would just make their taxes go up.
The best part is eventually the concept of money will collapse when people realize that scraps of paper and metal are worthless to survival and the only reason people are so indentured to it is because civilians are groomed to desire wealth by the world we live in
I think it's fine. People are rewarded dependant on the effort they put in. If you look at the most successful people (Elon Musk, Bill gates, etc), they put in a lot of effort to get where they are. Except for people who are born rich, screw them, they're always arrogant and don't understand the value of money like people who worked for it.
Wealthy people don't spend money and if they do it's as investment or to avoid paying tax. Money makes money. Meanwhile the average person is marketed into spending their money foolishly by consumer culture.
The one percent stacks the deck and benefits from it. Rich oligarchs will continue to run the country until we restrict them from doing so
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