Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money

good.is

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 194 posts

Re: Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money

#91

Post by z0r »

javert wrote: post #42
redwood wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other thing is that the bottom folks aren't as "needy" as folks were in, say, the great depression. - I.e. "no one starves in america" and most people know this: so while the distribution in wealth is extreme, the distribution in QUALITY OF LIFE is less extreme. - This biases people's view and makes them feel that generally, for most americans, things are okay. This is all true of course: except that the worry ab…

it may be that, through the miracle of technology's abundance, we will continue on a track where we all have a high quality of life, but only a smaller and smaller pool of people "own" the production engines. I think the first part of what you said is right: we will continue on a track where we all have a high quality of life, absent a paradigm shift in which the economy crashes like in Weimar Germany. The second par…

Who cares who owns what, as long as it isn't stolen from others, indeed.

But there are conflicting opinions about how predatory the current economic system is. How much wealth is stolen? It's not easy to answer unless you are an ideological zealot.

Re: Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money

#92

Post by jonhendry »

cletus wrote: post #78
jshen wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm kind of confused. The big three are our biggest expenses (which includes healthcare for veterans). So giving tax cuts to the super rich (or anyone really) without addressing the big three is the problem that the person you're replying to is pointing out. How is that a "no sale"? Cause he mentioned veterans?

http://www.comw.org/qdr/fulltext/100223williams.pdf > Growth in Budgets for Military Health Care > The DoD's health care costs rose from about $20 billion in 1998 to $47 billion in 2010 (FY 2010 dollars)—an annual growth rate of 7.4 percent above inflation. Absent changes in policy, CBO projects they will at least double between now and 2028. It's no sale because it's ~2% of the budget masked in emotion, which is at…

I agree with what you're saying about the big issues and the 3 sources of deficits. But when considering something like the estate tax cut, it makes sense to consider the 'cost' of it in terms of either borrowing necessary to replace the lost revenue, or the cost of cutting government programs to make up for the lost revenue. The $50 billion or whatever cost of the estate tax cut might be a drop in the bucket compared to the overall deficit, but it should still be dealt with responsibly.

Re: Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money

#93

Post by jonhendry »

Encosia wrote: post #66
jonhendry wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Of late in Atlanta, one news story about someone unable to pay to heat more than one room " Meaning she probably was using an inefficient electric heater, in a poorly-insulated home in a normally-warm region, in an unseasonably cold period. I could see that raising the electric bill significantly. I once went away for Thanksgiving weekend and accidentally left my refrigerator or freezer door open a crack. That month…

It drops below freezing quite often in Atlanta. Most houses here have natural gas heating. Needing significant heat in the Winter here is a given.

Oh. Well. Nevermind about that part then.

Re: Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money

#94

Post by tajddin »

pg wrote: post #6

I wouldn't be surprised if most respondents are answering as if the question were about income rather than wealth.

What you're arguing is the semantics of a very personal word that means different things to very different people. To the poor, wealth == money; to the rich, wealth == all of the other things that one can think about when you don't have to worry about a roof over your head.

Don't take this as an attack -- just as a my personal opinion.

Re: Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money

#95

Post by ryanwaggoner »

clarkm wrote: post #77
gort wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea is that your neighbours are poorer than you thought they were.

Poorer relative to the other neighbors, not poorer in absolute terms.

Exactly, and the term "needier" conveys an extra piece of the puzzle that these data do not support. Steve Jobs is poorer than Bill Gates by an order of magnitude, but he's hardly needy.

Re: Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money

#96

Post by jonhendry »

lnguyen wrote: post #83
jonhendry wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"But people like Meg Whitman and Mitt Romney have tried to buy elections with their personal fortunes and it didn't work (and self-funded candidates do worse, on average, than other candidates)." Seeking office is probably the least effective way for wealth to exercise its power. They do a lot better from behind the scenes, giving smaller sums to many politicians (or threatening to withhold it) to buy influence. Jami…

They're after the public recognition and acknowledgement of their status. Satisfying their ego is what's important, not how much money they've spent or whether it could've been used in better ways.

True. That's why they aren't good examples for a limited influence and power of concentrated wealth.

Re: Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money

#97

Post by jshen »

redwood wrote: post #82
jshen wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the distribution in QUALITY OF LIFE is less extreme" You're kidding right? Ever have someone in your family get an unexpected major medical problem while their young and either have no insurance or have the insurance refuse to cover care? That is a quality of life killer! Or the simple fact that wages for the average person are stagnant or slightly down in the past few decades while healthcare costs are rising as we…

My point was that it's a lot less bad than it was 100 years ago. Today even the poor will get antibiotics at the ER when dying of infection.

"Today even the poor will get antibiotics at the ER when dying of infection"

You're moving the goal posts a bit aren't you? For starters, those antibiotics will be followed by bankruptcy for the poor person in most cases. And most importantly, that alone isn't convincing me that quality of life for the poor is better than ever. I also didn't mention in my last comment that who is really seeing their quality of life decrease is the blue collar middle class, not the poor.

Re: Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money

#98

Post by jshen »

ipince wrote: post #71
jshen wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the distribution in QUALITY OF LIFE is less extreme" You're kidding right? Ever have someone in your family get an unexpected major medical problem while their young and either have no insurance or have the insurance refuse to cover care? That is a quality of life killer! Or the simple fact that wages for the average person are stagnant or slightly down in the past few decades while healthcare costs are rising as we…

Well... on his/her defense, the quality of life might still suck for some people, as you aptly pointed out, but that doesn't contradict the original statement..

and there was no evidence given to support the original statement. How is quality of life for the middle class better now even though the disparity between them and the rich is far larger than before. I think I gave concrete examples of how it's worse, which is more than the OP.

Re: Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money

#99

Post by jonhendry »

colanderman wrote: post #50
pg wrote: post #6

I wouldn't be surprised if most respondents are answering as if the question were about income rather than wealth.

Agreed. I would think that most of those same people have no wealth; only income.

Probably negative wealth, actually.

Re: Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money

#100

Post by m_myers »

vacri wrote: post #76
TGJ wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it lopsided? If you look at 10 of your friends, is everyone one of them extremely well off? Is everyone of them extremely talented? There is no getting around the fact that there are gifted people and not so gifted people. To say that it is lopsided would almost imply that everyone deserves equal shares. 20% seems about right. 20% of the people are entrepreneurs and are smart, gifted, talented people that empl…

Ah, the good ol' "if you're poor it must be your fault" reasoning, wearing yet another dress today.

More like "if you stay poor it's probably your fault".
Post reply on HN