The Top 1% Own 32.1% of Total Wealth, Bottom 50% Own 2.5% Who's to credit or blame?

http://mishtalk.com/economics/the-top-1-own-32-1-of-total-wealth-bottom-5--own-2-5 ^

[DIRTYSECRET]

The bottom never had much to lose but they managed to lose a bit anyway. The top keep padding their wealth but remain the most impacted by recessions. The middle class is shrinking.

The poor who spend every penny and them some on food and shelter get hammered by inflation.

[JonPreston]

+100

[Leaning Right]

> The middle class is shrinking. <

That is the most important takeaway in the article. A healthy country depends on a vibrant middle class. As I see it, the middle class is shrinking mainly because there is no industry left in this country.

No industry means no more well-paying factory jobs. Trump understood this, and he tried to fix the problem. But, no. Getting rid of the mean-tweets guy was more important than bringing the factories back.

[Starboard]

The bottom 50% don’t produce much.

*************

They produce a lot of demand for more largesse.

[Yo-Yo]

It is implied that the top 1% STOLE THEIR WEALTH FROM the bottom 50%.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Economics is not a zero-sum game.

[Chode]

they print money everyday, and it’s up to ME, to get as much of it as i need/want...

never been a rich-man’s wealth stopped me yet

i fail to see the problem

[beancounter13]

I am getting to be an old man, but there is one thing I have noticed throughout my life:

The ‘poor’ people always manage to wear expensive clothes. Not expensive, like having a good job expensive, but expensive in terms of Nike shoes and pro sports jerseys. They may live in a shabby house and drive shabby cars and only have a few of these items, but they do have them. They spend their money instead of saving and investing it.

The poor are constantly giving their money to the rich through these vain purchases. They are where they are because of the choices they make.

[central_va]

Wages have not kept up with productivity.

[enumerated]

Wealth is misunderstood.

The people who hold wealth can’t help but share it.

When the wealthy spend money, they are employing less wealthy people.
When the wealthy invest money, they are financing less wealthy people’s hopes and dreams.

It is impossible for the wealthy to enjoy their wealth without sharing the benefits.

If we redistributed wealth from the wealthy, who would be wealthy enough to hire us? Who would invest in our businesses?

[CodeToad]

Productivity includes machinery and other automated production. Even in the upper incomes there has been a reduction in income versus productivity.

Take my profession of Engineering. In 1972, an engineer could make in today’s money $274,000. The average today for an engineer is half that.

So, that chart, while probably accurate, doesn’t tell the whole story. A big part of the story is illegal aliens, H1B, and other seditious means to dilute the American worker with cheaper foreign workers.

[PGR88]

If you want to see real wealth divisions, look at Venezuela or Brazil, or any African country.

Yes, and while I question how this statistic is calculated, on the other hand, I absolutely believe the leftist, highly-political, centrally-planned, fiat money governments, most definitely, cause great variances in wealth.

America's present QE/Covid/Fed.gov debt induced inflation is going to make America's wealth disparity much worse.

[Starboard]

They are where they are because of the choices they make.

*************

You could give them $1 million and it would be gone in less than a year. Same thing happens with many people in the sports and entertainment world. They piss away the money that could have sustained a comfortable lifestyle for the rest of their lives.

Its all about choices, priorities and discipline.

[ifinnegan]

Occupy antifa BLM AOC Bernie stuff.

Remember occupy Wall Street?

[x]

Half the country is half the country. I doubt half the country has expensive sneakers.

I don't think that the rich half stole the money from the poor half, but you or I could be in that lower half (or at least outside the top 1% or 10%) for all we know.

[Starboard]

It is impossible for the wealthy to enjoy their wealth without sharing the benefits.

**************

True.

As a case in point people who own yachts spend a ton of money on the construction, operation, repairs, and maintenance of them. A lot of people in the marine industry make good money and many actually enjoy the work they do because of wealthy people.

Likewise, the rich usually have multiple homes and live lifestyles that require support from lots of people.

So yes, the things rich people spend money on do help to support livelihoods and certain occupations.

[escapefromboston]

Open borders and globalism. I generally don’t care how much money someone has but using their money to control the government is a bit of a problem (especially when they are functionally getting my tax dollars via government contracts)

[Myrddin]

But for statistical purposes there’s 3 Americans with no wealth, while my wife and I seemingly have much more greater and unequal wealth than they do.

You're comparing apples and oranges. Young people in school have had little time to climb the financial ladder and accrue wealth. You and your wife have worked at least 20 years to raise children to that age. You've had time to accrue wealth. There will always be "inequality". People have different ability and motivation to improve. The person that flips hamburgers by day and watches TV all night has a different result from a software engineer that works all day and spends evenings acquiring new skills and certs that offer upward mobility in salary. It would be unjust to not have significant inequality of wealth when there has been a significant inequality of effort.

[crusher2013]

The inevitable result of a debt based fiat money system.

Many people get rich by manipulating money and riding the inflationary tides without producing anything of value.

It is also the result of financial ignorance, most people are not taught financial literacy and thus do not understand the rules of money.

This is by design, in a sane world schools would spend a lot of time teaching kids personal finance. But they avoid these subjects on purpose and teach things of no value instead.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

The Top 1% Own 32.1% of Total Wealth, Bottom 50% Own 2.5%

More accurate statement: The top 1% generate and own 32.1% of total wealth, the bottom 50% generate and own 2.5%.

Most wealthy people did not inherit their wealth. They created it, and in the process enriched themselves and their community. Love them or hate them, guys like Bezos and Gates have created thousands of jobs, enabling thousands of people to earn salaries, buy houses, cars, clothes, food...

[Bob434]

The top 1% own 32% of the wealth? Good,for them, they earn3d it. But problem is, the left are jealous and want to take it away, because that is what the left does, they destroy people and their things and their comforts, out of sheer petty jealousy, and also because they are just simply miserable rotton people who cant stand anyone but themselves and other likeminded miserable peeps.

The top 1% are why the bottom 1% are doing as well as they are, and aren’t in a dump scavenging for food or for things to sell just to get medicine, like other poor nations have to do. The top 1% basicslly,basically, the bill for welfare peeps to sit on porches drinking beer all day, and smoking 2 packs a day, and texting on their apple phones while admiringmgheir many tattoes while they witch about not having enough money and how the “rich aren’t paying their fair share”

[Myrddin]

That productivity vs cost is largely due to the introduction of automation. The humans aren't working harder. They are leveraging automation to do more at a lower cost. As automation continues, there will be more productivity gains and less need for humans to perform productive labor. That is what drives the social scientists angling for universal basic income. Lots of humans whose services are no longer required.