US income inequality at record high

[BawanaRik]

For all this talk of how good the bottom has it, I find it somewhat disingenuous that it's coming from presumably comfortable middle class posters. Why not take that vow of poverty if you believe they have it so easy?

May I, with every possible respect, offer you the chance to choose to get rich and see if we they have it so easy.

 

[Unrepresented]

Show us the tyrants that are holding people back. Which tyrants are making students not learn as much at school or making sure that workers possess less skills?

Does cutting education funding count? Increasing costs of tuition? Threats to raise the student loan repayment percentage?

 

[Marial]

There seems to be a misconception that all the wealth in America is like a pie, and that once the pieces are taken there is no more pie. But wealth reproduces--the more that people have, the more there is.

The more there is for those that are already wealthy, that is. The misconception is that the wealthy are returning their income to the general population via investment. Wealth is being concentrated, which is the point of this thread.

The old saying, it takes money to make money, is quite true. As is, if you want to make a million, start with two.

Previous posts to the effect that the post-war boom was an aberration and that we are regressing back to previous norms are spot on.

It doesn't have to be this way, but that is the way it is, so far as I can see.

 

[BawanaRik]

I'm not really coming after you on the inequality thing, but what you're describing hardly qualifies as tyranny. Tyranny may be characterized by brutal acts of a ruling elite such as being put in prison or taken out and shot without so much as a trial. I'm not seeing that in the US. If people were permanently disappearing after criticizing the government or elites, then I'd say that's tyranny.

All I'm saying is to characterize the situation for what it actually is, which is not tyranny by nearly any definition.

Thanks for pointing that out. Not only do we have hot showers indoor plumbing and more food than we know what to do with we don't have to worry about disappearing.

Thanks for making me even happier than I was

 

[sloasdaylight]

The more there is for those that are already wealthy, that is. The misconception is that the wealthy are returning their income to the general population via investment. Wealth is being concentrated, which is the point of this thread.

The old saying, it takes money to make money, is quite true. As is, if you want to make a million, start with two.

Previous posts to the effect that the post-war boom was an aberration and that we are regressing back to previous norms are spot on.

It doesn't have to be this way, but that is the way it is, so far as I can see.

So you're saying we need another World War.

 

[BawanaRik]

The more there is for those that are already wealthy, that is. The misconception is that the wealthy are returning their income to the general population via investment. Wealth is being concentrated, which is the point of this thread.

The old saying, it takes money to make money, is quite true. As is, if you want to make a million, start with two.

Previous posts to the effect that the post-war boom was an aberration and that we are regressing back to previous norms are spot on.

It doesn't have to be this way, but that is the way it is, so far as I can see.

Yet, not to beat a dead horse, people come here little more than change in their pockets and manage to do well.

It takes more than money to make money as any shirt sleeve to shirt sleeve family can attest.

 

[NWB]

Does cutting education funding count? Increasing costs of tuition? Threats to raise the student loan repayment percentage?

I don't think those things quite rise to the level of, say, doing hard labor in a North Korean prison camp.

I don't disagree that those are quite serious problems that you've listed and should be addressed.

 

[Marial]

Certainly they can, but what resources were available to them? And I don't mean just government resources. No one succeeds alone.

 

[Unrepresented]

I'm not really coming after you on the inequality thing, but what you're describing hardly qualifies as tyranny. Tyranny may be characterized by brutal acts of a ruling elite such as being put in prison or taken out and shot without so much as a trial. I'm not seeing that in the US. If people were permanently disappearing after criticizing the government or elites, then I'd say that's tyranny.

All I'm saying is to characterize the situation for what it actually is, which is not tyranny by nearly any definition.

What about if the concentration of wealth and resulting poverty created an environment where regular unpleasantries occur to those who've seen their percentage of wealth decrease?

If a citizen is shot in the street from random gang violence because of erosion of wealth in his community which the rich have extracted, that citizen is still harmed. It's simply indirect tyranny, the results are still the same.

 

[Kaa]

What about if the concentration of wealth and resulting poverty created an environment where regular unpleasantries occur to those who've seen their percentage of wealth decrease?

If a citizen is shot in the street from random gang violence because of erosion of wealth in his community which the rich have extracted, that citizen is still harmed. It's simply indirect tyranny, the results are still the same.

Interesting point.

 

[BawanaRik]

I don't think those things quite rise to the level of, say, doing hard labor in a North Korean prison camp.

I don't disagree that those are quite serious problems that you've listed and should be addressed.

Look what happened to his ex girl friend

 

[aborgman]

+1 It is less of an awful thing IMO when you realize that the strange period in the US post WWII was a total historical outlier that will most likely never happen again.

I guess you can view that as depressing.

I don't view it as depressing - I view it as unnecessary.

It COULD happen again.
It COULD continue to happen.
It is ceasing to exist purely due to human CHOICES.

 

[Unrepresented]

I don't think those things quite rise to the level of, say, doing hard labor in a North Korean prison camp.

I don't disagree that those are quite serious problems that you've listed and should be addressed.

What if we know that education has a direct impact on decreasing criminal acts?

If we're increasing the likelihood that citizens will commit crimes and serve prison sentences isn't cutting education opportunity more or less equivalent to a prison sentence for a certain percentage?

 

[aborgman]

IMO, this won't happen. Automation takes a good deal of energy.

There just aren't enough remaining energy resources for this to take place. I expect the opposite actually.

There is MORE than enough energy. We aren't currently capable of tapping into it - but eventually, sometime in the next couple hundred years, fusion will lead to basically unlimited energy.

 

[BawanaRik]

What about if the concentration of wealth and resulting poverty created an environment where regular unpleasantries occur to those who've seen their percentage of wealth decrease?

If a citizen is shot in the street from random gang violence because of erosion of wealth in his community which the rich have extracted, that citizen is still harmed. It's simply indirect tyranny, the results are still the same.

It's my opinion that the erosion of wealth has more to do with the choices made by that community. Bad choices.

But please explain to me how the "rich" have extracted wealth from any community. They actually are the one creating the wealth according to some of the posters here.

And let's note that when they leave they leave their real estate, a major component of wealth in the US. And at least by me they send tens billions of dollars every year to the "poor" areas.

I don't see the rich "extracting" wealth form poor areas. Just the opposite

 

[aborgman]

Work to provide the wants of the people providing their needs?

In the future I'm positing, a small percentage of the population will be able (with automation) to provide EXCESS beyond the needs of the entire world.

I suspect we'll see a lot more folks involved in "service" and "entertainment" (creative endeavors) and a lot less folks supplying "needs".

 

[aborgman]

Call me a jerk, but I really don't give two ***** about income inequality.

Neither did Marie Antoinette.

"Let them eat cake" she said.

Lost her head to a mob of peasants largely due to economics.

 

[NWB]

What about if the concentration of wealth and resulting poverty created an environment where regular unpleasantries occur to those who've seen their percentage of wealth decrease?

If a citizen is shot in the street from random gang violence because of erosion of wealth in his community which the rich have extracted, that citizen is still harmed. It's simply indirect tyranny, the results are still the same.

Looking up a definition of tyranny, I think perhaps that you're not misusing the word so much as I thought.

: cruel and unfair treatment by people with power over others

Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary definition.

It seems that I had a more extreme definition of the word in mind.

 

[BawanaRik]

Neither did Marie Antoinette.

"Let them eat cake" she said.

Lost her head to a mob of peasants largely due to economics.

Hungry peasants. In the US over weight peasants are an issue. Not hungry ones.

As long as WICs is accepted at MickyDee's it's going to take a lot to get the "peasants" risking their free happy meals

 

[UncleFluffy]

In the future I'm positing, a small percentage of the population will be able (with automation) to provide EXCESS beyond the needs of the entire world.

I suspect we'll see a lot more folks involved in "service" and "entertainment" (creative endeavors) and a lot less folks supplying "needs".

Yeah, that's probably one of the two "happy" possible outcomes.

The other being that we spread the remaining burden evenly and everyone gets a six day weekend to indulge in creative pursuits for the simple joy of it.

(Personally, I'd prefer the latter, but either would be better than a lot of the possible Invalid Link Removed out there.)