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Liberals keep parroting meaningless statistics like "The X richest people own Y% of the wealth". My question is, why do you consider this an issue?
Are you saying that you're poor because someone else is rich? Did you ever consider that all the extra wealth they have is wealth that was produced by them or their company? Them generating wealth doesn't somehow make you less wealthy.
Maybe it's time to get over your envy of others' success. It sounds like babies crying about how other children have more toys than them.
People on the left like using the phrase "wealth distribution". Wealth is not distributed, you get what you work for. Income inequality sustains this country. Whenever I hear a liberal whining about income inequality (not to mention most of them have a 120,000 dollar education), I ask them "so you went to college to get a better job and make more money right? You're telling me you'd be fine with making the same amount of money as someone who DIDN'T go to college?"
I don't suggest it's black and white or that the money is sitting three Scrooge McDuck style. We're having a fairly shallow discussion on a very heavy topic here, all nuances can't be addressed in one post. Someone wanting that level of explanation should read the works of the Austrian school and Wealth of Nations.
The things you list are investments meant to increase profits (not a bad thing) but that money, or at least some of it, used to be used for labor and is taken out of middle class salaries
Yes, but they also increase jobs which is... labor. Research and development, corporate expansions, municipal capital improvement projects, etc., all consist of jobs people get paid to do.
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This is reflected by the shift to a two working person family. Unheard of 70 years ago and now the norm. Did we become less productive during that time and does this lack of productivity explain the change?
No, we're more productive now. The shift to the two working person family is an artifact of Americans wanting to buy and own more consumer goods.
Investors get the profits. Guess who that is? Everyone with a pension plan or retirement account. This figure is from 2012. The total is $24.7 Trillion now.
There is no connection between inequality and opportunity. Those are two unrelated topics. You could have total equality and no opportunity or vice versa.
So, a poor kid in the ghetto has exactly the same opportunity of success as a rich kid whose father donated $2 million to Harvard so his son would be admitted?
So, a poor kid in the ghetto has exactly the same opportunity of success as a rich kid whose father donated $2 million to Harvard so his son would be admitted?
40% of the individuals who appeared on the 2011 Forbes [Top 400] list received a "significant economic advantage in their lives by inheriting a sizeable asset from a spouse or family member."
Which means that most didn't. Many of us have been saying that for years.
So, a poor kid in the ghetto has exactly the same opportunity of success as a rich kid whose father donated $2 million to Harvard so his son would be admitted?
Your words, not mine. Poverty is a problem. Single parent households is a problem. Inequality of wealth is not.
If both kids in your example had two parents at home and one kid's dad donated $2 million and the other kid's dad donated $4 million, they would have pretty equal opportunity. Poverty is a problem, not wealth distribution.
But I guess your solution is to take the rich kids money away and also one of his parents so he would be equal to the poor kid.
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The research shows that a predictor of success is zipcode.
That's called correlation. Not causation.
Zip code is also a predictor of cold winter weather. That's correlation, not causation.
Which means that most didn't. Many of us have been saying that for years.
Considering that these are 400 individuals out of 320 million who made the list, and of those 400, 40% had significant wealth before, the evidence that opportunity isn't equal is clear.
This data also doesn't say of the remaining 60% still had advantages. Yes, they weren't born on home plate or 3rd base but they might have been born on 1st base -- while the rest of us are in the stands.
They work at Walmart.....how exactly do you think they live? Well?
Most of the people I know who work at Wal-Mart live in decent houses, have cars, phones, internet, and so on. Since they get an employee discount on their purchases, most aren't wondering where their next meal is coming from. Some may have tight budgets, but I have a tight budget, too.
Crony capitalism is endemic and both democrats and republicans facilitate that.
Yep. Both Dems and Reps are tools of Wall Street and Big Business. Look at the donors for each party, look at the legislation they both pass, and there is little difference in the outcome.
The Democrats talk a more populist talk, but don't change anything anymore than the Republicans. Both parties have their "propaganda" bills to try to appear different to the electorate. These are largely concerned with the "culture wars", which just serve to distract people from the larger economic issues that plague the country.
Considering that these are 400 individuals out of 320 million who made the list, and of those 400, 40% had significant wealth before, the evidence that opportunity isn't equal is clear.
I disagree. Most on that Top 400 list DIDN'T inherit their wealth.
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This data also doesn't say of the remaining 60% still had advantages. Yes, they weren't born on home plate or 3rd base but they might have been born on 1st base -- while the rest of us are in the stands.
The pdf you linked ("Born on Third Base") quite clearly says otherwise. The largest percentage of the Top 400, came from the "Batter's Box" category, "individuals who came from a lower- or middle class background," not even on First Base
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