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US Income Inequality: All for the Top 1%

nytimes.com

51–60 of 106 posts

Re: US Income Inequality: All for the Top 1%

#51
post #40

It is difficult for American workers to compete with Chinese or Indian people wages. The good thing is that the global inequality is declining.[0] My guess is that when the incomes in low-wage exporter countries get closer to the developed countries, then we may see a wage increase again. [0] - https://ourworldindata.org/global-economic-inequality

This has been predicted: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factor_price_equalization. Under this model, incomes (especially those of lower-skilled workers) in developing and developed countries will eventually meet somewhere in the middle. Once all countries are equally developed, this downwards pressure on low-skilled wages in developed countries will abate. Restrictions on outsourcing and trade would prevent this to a degree, but doing so would slow down the income increases in developing countries, hence many economists do not support such restrictions, as it's hard to make an economic argument that developed countries' citizens should be privileged over those of developing countries (although a political argument can certainly be made), and more trade is generally seen as increasing the overall size of the pie.

Re: US Income Inequality: All for the Top 1%

#53

"Most Americans would look at these charts and conclude that inequality is out of control. The president, on the other hand, seems to think that inequality isn’t big enough." Would nobody else reading this want some further information to back up this statement? Its a shame it wasn't nearer the beginning of the article as I could have stopped reading earlier.

It's literally in the preceding paragraph. Notes about how the proposed healthcare law was essentially a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich, how the proposed tax cuts mainly benefit the richest Americans, and plans to cut school funding.

[deleted]

Re: US Income Inequality: All for the Top 1%

#54
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I think it is blatantly unfair. It's like if we had a big bad of skittles and every time I took 1 skittle, you took 10 skittles.

Except when it comes to wealth there is no limit. Ones success does not mean another's demise. If I mine for Bitcoin and make millions, who did I steal wealth from to get mine? Your Skittles analogy does not work.

That's not true at all.

For one, you're talking about a digit currency derived from a (currently) finite resource: electricity. While you suck up electricity mining BTC, you add to the demand for said electricity. Higher demand means higher prices, meaning those with money can afford more electricity and mine more BTC, while those who can't afford more electricity to mine cannot. Additionally, those who could afford just enough power for non-BTC mining now struggle to afford power at all; and even if they do, they now must save less, growing the gap.

I didn't say the word "steal"; that's something you derived from my analogy because my analogy is obvious. Resources, and wealth, are all finite; so more for one literally means less or none for another if that one takes as much as they please. Otherwise, I could walk into any bank in the world and just take out as much money as I wanted to.

I was once told that if I were in the middle of a discussion with my wife and she completely refocused the discussion onto something else, I should be happy internally that I was right, but externally I should take the loss.

You're talking about BTC now, so I guess I'll take that L.

Re: US Income Inequality: All for the Top 1%

#55
post #2

Real title was, 'Our Broken Economy, in One Simple Chart'. Despite some of the recent coverage, this chart indicates that gains are not going to the top 20%: they are going to top 1%, and particularly To be clear, this is not many programmers: "In 1980, the top 1% of adult earners in the U.S. made $420,000 a year, on average (before taxes and measured in 2014 dollars) — 27 times as much as the average for the bottom…

I'm not sure we can just blame this on the tiny minority of mega-rich at the top. The whole inversion of the curve is cause for alarm. The chart is great but it seems like everyone's eye is catching on that crazy portion on the far right. Not only do we have to bring that down, we need to grab the line at 5% and start yanking it up. That's probably going to require policies and taxes that not just the 1% but the 20%…

If the inequality is artificial, it might be that an artificial intervention will reverse it. If it's not, than so God help us. A democratically "elected" Robin Hood will probably just take a lot from the rich and give a little to the poor to keep being "elected" democratically.

On another side of life, the moment people have enough to pay the bill, anything more will not make them any happier. Leveling the income or the wealth is not doing anything effective to increasing happiness. What's and where's the problem of inequity? The fact that I can't afford a luxurious yacht trip?

Re: US Income Inequality: All for the Top 1%

#56

"Most Americans would look at these charts and conclude that inequality is out of control. The president, on the other hand, seems to think that inequality isn’t big enough." Would nobody else reading this want some further information to back up this statement? Its a shame it wasn't nearer the beginning of the article as I could have stopped reading earlier.

You do not agree with the conclusion / opinion so therefore you will not consider the facts?

Re: US Income Inequality: All for the Top 1%

#57

If everyone gets 2x as much tomorrow as today, income inequality rises. Ask people if they would support everyone getting 2x their income tomorrow.

I you apply a scaling factor 𝒌 to everything, nothing changes between the incomes in relative terms and that relative change is what matters and is shown in the chart.

Re: US Income Inequality: All for the Top 1%

#58
post #14

It looks to me that QE3 was a huge part of that later uptick. its no surprise to me that if you juice the markets and inflate asset prices (mostly stock), that the richest benefit most. what was surprising to me is how bad actually making stuff did. I understand that juicing the markets might not benefit that, but it seemed as though QE3 actually hurt producing tangible things.

The chart is measuring income growth not wealth growth so I would imagine QE probably isn't that large of a factor actually.

Re: US Income Inequality: All for the Top 1%

#60
post #40

It is difficult for American workers to compete with Chinese or Indian people wages. The good thing is that the global inequality is declining.[0] My guess is that when the incomes in low-wage exporter countries get closer to the developed countries, then we may see a wage increase again. [0] - https://ourworldindata.org/global-economic-inequality

I am not sure how can you blame inequality to other nations. Why American workers cannot complete with other nationals, while it seems American elites are still winning?

The truth is that the elites in any nations are gaining from the poor.

The idea is to blame one nation's inequality on another nation is like blaming one poor man's tragedy on another poor man's being more tragic; while ignore the ones who causes the tragedy...

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