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Top 1% Control 39% of World's Wealth

cnbc.com

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Re: Top 1% Control 39% of World's Wealth

#4
post #2

I hate headlines like this. Wealth is not finite.

No, but it is bounded by how much exists at given time. Further, had you bothered to read the article, they explicitly talk about the growth of wealth in the word. I hate commenters like this - don't read the article, think they know something about what it says.

Re: Top 1% Control 39% of World's Wealth

#5
post #2

I hate headlines like this. Wealth is not finite.

The sensationalism surrounding this is really kind of sad. It also drives a knife through the intellectual aptitudes of my circle of friends. People don't really understand game theory or sociological models well enough to understand that this sort of wealth distribution makes sense, when you look at data.

The biggest impediment to this, in my experience, is that people expect reality to intuitively make sense, and operate according to their intuitive ideals of what's correct. Nature has no reason to do this, and is often...very unintuitive.

Re: Top 1% Control 39% of World's Wealth

#6
post #2

I hate headlines like this. Wealth is not finite.

No, but it is bounded by how much exists at given time. Further, had you bothered to read the article, they explicitly talk about the growth of wealth in the word. I hate commenters like this - don't read the article, think they know something about what it says.

He commented specifically on the headline, not on the article itself.

Re: Top 1% Control 39% of World's Wealth

#7
If you work hard, and become successful, it does not necessarily mean you are successful because you worked hard, just as if you are tall with long hair it doesn’t mean you would be a midget if you were bald.

Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.

99 percent is a very large percentage. For instance, easily 99 percent of people want a roof over their heads, food on their tables, and the occasional slice of cake for dessert. Surely an arrangement can be made with that niggling 1 percent who disagree.

source of quotes: http://occupywriters.com/works/by-lemony-snicket

Re: Top 1% Control 39% of World's Wealth

#8
And yet they only have 24 hours in the day to live their life like everybody else. I only envy people's wealth up to a point, after which having more money doesn't really do a whole lot for you because enjoyment of that wealth just doesn't scale. And if everybody's wealth is increasing worldwide, what good does it do us to point out that it's increasing faster for some than others? After all, their wealth is increasing faster because their risking it in the stock market, which drives the growth of the economy. Doesn't bother me in the least.

Re: Top 1% Control 39% of World's Wealth

#10
post #2

I hate headlines like this. Wealth is not finite.

No, but it is bounded by how much exists at given time. Further, had you bothered to read the article, they explicitly talk about the growth of wealth in the word. I hate commenters like this - don't read the article, think they know something about what it says.

It's true that the tone of the article wasn't stabbing at the rich and wealthy, but I think the commenter's point is still valid.

The headline utilizes a highly politically charged statement model - "The top 1% control $LIMITED_COMMODITY"

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