The real redistribution of wealth

[TexasTiger 12,847]

[japantiger 4,051]

Source?  What is the definition of wealth used?

[Mikey 16,580]

1 hour ago, japantiger said:

Source?  What is the definition of wealth used?

SURPRISE!  The source is the People's Policy Project, a socialist think tank whose goal is to promote socialism. So say the several links provided by Google.

[DKW 86 7,419]

That doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Several other sources say basically the same thing btw. 

[japantiger 4,051]

19 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

That doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Several other sources say basically the same thing btw. 

Please provide one with the numbers and how they calculate wealth.

[DKW 86 7,419]

 

 

[McLoofus 35,182]

Congrats to the 1%ers on this forum who can afford to automatically dismiss this research without any genuine concern for its veracity. 

[Mikey 16,580]

2 hours ago, DKW 86 said:

 

 

Is this source the same "The Truth Denied" that seems to focus its main interest on the subject of chemtrails? I couldn't find any other likely candidate with that handle.

[auburn41 492]

11 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Congrats to the 1%ers on this forum who can afford to automatically dismiss this research without any genuine concern for its veracity. 

Well, I'm not a 1%er but you can bet your ass that I'm striving to be one.  Thank goodness we live in a country where hard work, making good decisions and having some luck will allow you to move classes!  

[japantiger 4,051]

I think this is probably a more representative analysis and I've seen this used by Fed governors in discussing the subject.  Source and data in the link as well.  

All classes of income increase...  Lower income levels have experienced bigger gains than the middle class.  And as expected, the top experiences the largest gains.  The curves dramatically diverge in the 1994 and don't come back.  This was the same time that programs like NAFTA (1994) and the China MFN exec orders (1993) went into place permanently giving China MFN status ....at that point; the US middle class was doomed....and China's middle class exploded (from ~80m at the turn of the century to over 600m  people today).   

\https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality

[channonc 466]

5 hours ago, auburn41 said:

Well, I'm not a 1%er but you can bet your ass that I'm striving to be one.  Thank goodness we live in a country where hard work, making good decisions and having some luck will allow you to move classes!  

Unfortunately, your last statement isn’t based on fact. 

Georgetown released a study earlier this year finding that you are more likely to succeed being born rich than being born smart. 

From the CNBC article:

Quote

“To succeed in America, it’s better to be born rich than smart,” Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the CEW and lead author of the report, tells CNBC Make It.  “People with talent often don’t succeed. What we found in this study is that people with talent that come from disadvantaged households don’t do as well as people with very little talent from advantaged households.”

LINK

[Grumps 3,704]

44 minutes ago, channonc said:

Unfortunately, your last statement isn’t based on fact. 

Georgetown released a study earlier this year finding that you are more likely to succeed being born rich than being born smart. 

From the CNBC article:

LINK

Your article did not relate to what 41 said. He said, "Thank goodness we live in a country where hard work, making good decisions and having some luck will allow you to move classes! " Do you disagree with his statement? I'll get bashed for this, but poor people can completely change their family trees by joining the military and working hard and not being stupid.

[auburn41 492]

7 minutes ago, Grumps said:

Your article did not relate to what 41 said. He said, "Thank goodness we live in a country where hard work, making good decisions and having some luck will allow you to move classes! " Do you disagree with his statement? I'll get bashed for this, but poor people can completely change their family trees by joining the military and working hard and not being stupid.

My sentiments exactly. I was in the service with a bunch of guys that flipped their circumstances in life. I still say thank goodness!!!  There are way too many “rags to riches” stories around. Let me say it this way......which other country in the world would you want to be a citizen of, and would you have better opportunity than being a US citizen?

[jj3jordan 2,051]

Serious question:  Has anyone on the left ever identified the proper amount of income inequality?

All I see is complaining.  What is the preferred amount of wealth the top 1, 10% should own?

 

[Grumps 3,704]

6 hours ago, jj3jordan said:

Serious question:  Has anyone on the left ever identified the proper amount of income inequality?

All I see is complaining.  What is the preferred amount of wealth the top 1, 10% should own?

 

I agree that this most just seems like complaining from the left. If the left would focus on reducing poverty then everyone might work together to make things better. It seems that they would rather make villains of the wealthy. Do they realize that income inequality could be drastically reduced by cutting the income of the super-rich? Then the super-rich would have less and the poor would be NO BETTER OFF. THIS is the solution of the left, it seems.

[DKW 86 7,419]

15 hours ago, auburn41 said:

Well, I'm not a 1%er but you can bet your ass that I'm striving to be one.  Thank goodness we live in a country where hard work, making good decisions and having some luck will allow you to move classes!  

You Sir live in a fantasy world that many have long since given up on. They grew up hearing and believing the same things. They have learned over time that Corporations, and Governments are stacked against them. 

[DKW 86 7,419]

16 hours ago, Mikey said:

Is this source the same "The Truth Denied" that seems to focus its main interest on the subject of chemtrails? I couldn't find any other likely candidate with that handle.

Glad you didnt look at the sources cited in the video and I bet you didnt even watch the video.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/06/the-richest-1-percent-now-owns-more-of-the-countrys-wealth-than-at-any-time-in-the-past-50-years/?utm_term=.1e776ed98020

[DKW 86 7,419]

America's Wealthiest three men own as much as the bottom 50% of America.
https://inequality.org/facts/wealth-inequality/

https://dqydj.com/net-worth-brackets-wealth-brackets-one-percent/

Who are the top 1% by net worth?

In 2016, we estimate that you need $10,374,030.10 in wealth to be in the top one percent. To be in the top 10%, you’d need $1,182,390.36. Here’s a look at our estimates for the wealth of the top one percent in the United States in 2016:

Net Worth Percentile	2016 Dollar Cutoff
90.0%	$1,182,390.36
95.0%	$2,377,985.22
99.0%	$10,374,030.10
99.5%	$16,115,373.00
99.9%	$43,090,281.00

[DKW 86 7,419]

I could go on and on.  There  is a profound wealth gap in America and it doesnt need to be this way.  
Wealth also is in Healthcare, Housing and where it is located. QOL of the area, etc. That isnt even reflected in these statistics. 

[AFTiger 282]

The true redistribution of wealth is:

You build it and I buy it. 

DKW, government enforce redistribution never work as the government becomes the holder of all wealth.

[johnnyAU 3,630]

Bernie Sanders combs his top 1% hair with a balloon. 

[AU64 10,122]

We live in a country where a guy can grow up in a country town of 1500 people and graduate from a high school with maybe 100 grads, then go to a state land grant school and get his engineering degree......and eventually end up running the more iconic  US corporation of our time.    Way to go Tim Cook.

Before we decry lack of opportunity...it would be good to take a look at the AU graduates who have risen through our state's education system to lead major business enterprises....based on opportunity and hard work.....and few of them were high born.    Rather than stifle opportunities, corporations provide huge amounts of it every year by hiring people into entry level jobs and giving them the opportunity to climb the ladder to wealth according to their ambition and abilities.  Not sure where some of you work or have worked in the past, but every business I've been involved with was eager for me to succeed and take on more responsibility...and to pay me accordingly. 

I do accept that government provides some stumbling blocks by making the incentives for laziness so attractive.   JMO but much of the crying about lack of opportunity in this country comes from people who have a mentality of entitlement …..and are looking for someone else to do the heavy lifting for them. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

3 hours ago, Grumps said:

I agree that this most just seems like complaining from the left. If the left would focus on reducing poverty then everyone might work together to make things better. It seems that they would rather make villains of the wealthy. Do they realize that income inequality could be drastically reduced by cutting the income of the super-rich? Then the super-rich would have less and the poor would be NO BETTER OFF. THIS is the solution of the left, it seems.

It's not a partisan issue. The fact that people like you think it is is one reason why we will continue to live in an oligarchy masquerading as democracy.

It's not about redistribution of wealth. It's about removing the mechanisms that the uber wealthy use to dictate policy (almost always in service of further enriching themselves and their stockholders).

Jesus Christ. A very much not left but very sane person already laid this out in very plain terms but y'all would rather cut off your noses to spite your faces than even think about this rationally for a second. Not that this subject is any different than any other in that regard.

[Mikey 16,580]

42 minutes ago, AU64 said:

I do accept that government provides some stumbling blocks by making the incentives for laziness so attractive.

The U.S. could remedy most of the problem at the southern border by simply starting to reduce public assistance programs by, say, 10% a month. The porch sitters would have to get off their butts and go to work, there would be no jobs for illegals and we'd solve two problems with one action.

I had an extensive acreage of pine trees planted here recently. The crew that came to do it consisted of one supervisor and 12 Mexicans. I knew the people that did the previous planting 35 years ago and they were local residents. Today, the sons and daughters of a few of those original tree planters went to college and moved away. Several that could be planting trees are sitting on their porches drawing whatever public assistance they can draw. That's a small sample, but it does illustrate the "incentive for laziness".

1 hour ago, DKW 86 said:

17 hours ago, Mikey said:

 

 

[auburn41 492]

1 hour ago, DKW 86 said:

You Sir live in a fantasy world that many have long since given up on. They grew up hearing and believing the same things. They have learned over time that Corporations, and Governments are stacked against them. 

Well Sir, the fantasy world that I live in was to earn an academic scholarship to AU, earn an engineering degree, work in the military, work as a defense contractor and eventually move into electronic sales (computer chips). I have earned more at every stop along the way. Like I said, if you make good decisions (don’t get involved with drugs, don’t break the law, don’t get a girlfriend pregnant, try to stay in as good a shape as possible, and most importantly, don’t live beyond your means or stated a better way.....accumulate as little debt as possible) you can move up classes more easily in the US than anywhere else.