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Explore Wealth and Income Inequality in the World Wealth and Income Database

wid.world

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Re: Explore Wealth and Income Inequality in the World Wealth and Income Database

#81

Post by Frondo »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #65
david-gpu wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world would be moving away from poverty a lot faster if there was less inequality.

I really dislike the effects that globalization and growing inequality has had on rural America in particular, but I'm not sure that _global_ poverty would be improving at the rate that it has been without globalization. Much of impoverished eastern Asia has been growing economically because manufacturing jobs have been shipped there from the richest areas in the world. Without that massive injection of capital into…

As an American, my interest is in seeing the quality of life for my fellow citizens improve first.

Yes, people in other countries are people too, etc., but they also have their own governance, their own resources, their own economics systems to manage and oversee.

I can take no active part in any of that--only my own country's.

Until we have one world government, I'm always going to prioritize the places where I have at least some capacity to pull the levers in ways I think are better for people.

(This is why I dislike, in general, the specious globalist argument, "but the poors overseas deserve wealth too," sure they do, but they also live in sovereign nations and it's up to them to guide and shape their own.)

Re: Explore Wealth and Income Inequality in the World Wealth and Income Database

#82

Post by creaghpatr »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #68
ctdonath wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want less of something, tax it. If you want more of something, subsidize it. Wealth has been increasingly taxed, poverty increasingly subsidized. For the bottom 50%, this matters.

Are you suggesting that we should tax the poor? Wouldn't that just make it more difficult for them to pay off debts and collect the capital required to escape poverty?

No he's pointing out that we 'anti-tax' the poor currently via entitlements and maybe we shouldn't as much because it allows them a sustainable way to not escape poverty.

Re: Explore Wealth and Income Inequality in the World Wealth and Income Database

#83

Post by danharaj »

alexasmyths wrote: post #77
danharaj wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Abolition of class. Democratic control over the means of production.

"Abolition of class. Democratic control over the means of production" Oh wow, these people still exist. We tried that in the last century and it ended up being the most horrific, mass-murdering, totalitarian, controlling era in all of history. About half of my schoolmates growing up in Canada came from places like Cambodia, Vietnam, Ukraine, Russia, Czech, China, Serbia, Slovenia, Poland, Estonia, Hungary ... see the…

> Cambodia

> Vietnam

Buddy. I've got some news for you.

Re: Explore Wealth and Income Inequality in the World Wealth and Income Database

#84

Post by ameister14 »

david-gpu wrote: post #54
dmix wrote: post #52

Changing the graph from "Share %" to "Average Income or Wealth" shows a much more optimistic looking chart, with every country ramping upwards, almost at an exponentially positive rate. The world as a whole is moving away from poverty and quality of life is improving which IMO is the most important metric here. Far more important to the average person than the relative wealth ratios at the top vs the bottom, which ye…

The world would be moving away from poverty a lot faster if there was less inequality.

It's hard to prove that, actually.

Re: Explore Wealth and Income Inequality in the World Wealth and Income Database

#85

Post by alexasmyths »

danharaj wrote: post #83
alexasmyths wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Abolition of class. Democratic control over the means of production" Oh wow, these people still exist. We tried that in the last century and it ended up being the most horrific, mass-murdering, totalitarian, controlling era in all of history. About half of my schoolmates growing up in Canada came from places like Cambodia, Vietnam, Ukraine, Russia, Czech, China, Serbia, Slovenia, Poland, Estonia, Hungary ... see the…

> Cambodia > Vietnam Buddy. I've got some news for you.

The Communists were the root problem in that area, obviously they came about due to other forms of ostensible dysfunction, but they were the worst, possibly the worst ever ... and really the core of the problem.

And FYI Cambodians were not fleeing bombs dropped near their homes by Americans, they were fleeing Communists who murdered 3 of 8 million, making it one of the worst genocides in history, easily comparable (on the same scale as) the '6 million' who died at the hands of the Nazis.

Everyone from there hates the Communists, much like almost everyone fleeing Cuba hates Fidel, it seems their only supporters are those who are not from there , and who have a very academic view of it all.

Re: Explore Wealth and Income Inequality in the World Wealth and Income Database

#86

Post by hkmurakami »

Frondo wrote: post #81
TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really dislike the effects that globalization and growing inequality has had on rural America in particular, but I'm not sure that _global_ poverty would be improving at the rate that it has been without globalization. Much of impoverished eastern Asia has been growing economically because manufacturing jobs have been shipped there from the richest areas in the world. Without that massive injection of capital into…

As an American, my interest is in seeing the quality of life for my fellow citizens improve first. Yes, people in other countries are people too, etc., but they also have their own governance, their own resources, their own economics systems to manage and oversee. I can take no active part in any of that--only my own country's. Until we have one world government, I'm always going to prioritize the places where I have…

I just want to vocally support your having expressed this view. I don't necessarily agree wholesale with the position, but I think it's a perfectly reasonable and sound preference to have, but one that, if said in public, with your real identity attached to it, you may be admonished for.

And that I find to be a shame -- that we find it so difficult to see the logic in a position we may disagree with.

Re: Explore Wealth and Income Inequality in the World Wealth and Income Database

#87

Post by ameister14 »

dmix wrote: post #70
david-gpu wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world would be moving away from poverty a lot faster if there was less inequality.

Yes, lowered inequality is a good metric for success but it's very popular these days for it to be sold as a complete solution in itself. The problem with pure redistribution as a model for increasing wealth in developing countries, or stagnant wealthy ones, is that you can only take someones money and give it to another person once. You can't transfer a wealthy persons ability to generate wealth to another person or…

>lowered inequality is a good metric for success

For measuring the success of what, exactly? Economic success? Average incomes? Doesn't seem to be a very good metric for either.

Lowered inequality seems to me to be a good metric for measuring the success of attempts to lower inequality, and not much else.

Re: Explore Wealth and Income Inequality in the World Wealth and Income Database

#88

Post by jesusisreal »

david-gpu wrote: post #54
dmix wrote: post #52

Changing the graph from "Share %" to "Average Income or Wealth" shows a much more optimistic looking chart, with every country ramping upwards, almost at an exponentially positive rate. The world as a whole is moving away from poverty and quality of life is improving which IMO is the most important metric here. Far more important to the average person than the relative wealth ratios at the top vs the bottom, which ye…

The world would be moving away from poverty a lot faster if there was less inequality.

and we’d all go to heaven if we all believe in jesus. both have the same exact possibility of occurring

Re: Explore Wealth and Income Inequality in the World Wealth and Income Database

#89

Post by nashashmi »

bduerst wrote: post #57
nashashmi wrote: post #34

Ok. So I looked into it and I had my "OHHH!!" moment. It seems income/wealth inequality got magnified because of the number of opportunities went exponentially higher. Those who were able, took advantage of those opportunities if they had education, business acumen, surplus income, liquid wealth, or were fortunate enough to have ownership in an industry that was not valued very highly before and became very valuable…

This seems like confirmation bias, or selectively interpreting the data. Which metric are you using for net opportunities and how does it correlate with wealth/income inequality?

Not a statistics expert or anything like that, but I click on bottom 50% and I see after 1980, their share begins to decrease in the U.S. This was during the Reagonomics Era which according to Wikipedia, brought in small governemnt, big military, reduced taxes, and reduced regulation.

To me, that is the opening of many opportunities on the private side and healthy cash flow to sustain it. The strong get stronger, and the weak get weaker. Feel free to disagree. I'd be interested in a different view.

Re: Explore Wealth and Income Inequality in the World Wealth and Income Database

#90

Post by dangerlibrary »

dmix wrote: post #70
david-gpu wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world would be moving away from poverty a lot faster if there was less inequality.

Yes, lowered inequality is a good metric for success but it's very popular these days for it to be sold as a complete solution in itself. The problem with pure redistribution as a model for increasing wealth in developing countries, or stagnant wealthy ones, is that you can only take someones money and give it to another person once. You can't transfer a wealthy persons ability to generate wealth to another person or…

"You can't transfer a wealthy persons ability to generate wealth to another person or country."

When wealth generation is coming from rent collection on existing assets, redistributing wealth and redistributing wealth generation are equivalent.

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