Wealth inequality in America: beliefs, perceptions and reality.

[u/ProgressiveSpark]

What do Americans think good wealth distribution looks like; what they think actual American wealth inequality looks like; and what American wealth inequality actually is like.

[u/The_Jump_Humpers]

Not sure what world you live in. Scientists and healthcare workers aren't making nearly as much as finance and tech bros.

[u/cherry_chocolate_ → u/The_Jump_Humpers]

You're conflating the best paid workers with the wealthiest people overall. But the top 10% of that graph don't make their money at a job, they make it through holding capital. People who own stocks, someone else does the work and they collect dividends. People who own rental properties, someone else manages it and they collect the rent. There are of course exceptions, but googling the average salary of investment bankers and tech workers shows that they fall right around the 90th percentile, which on that graph shows them being barely above the "ideal" distribution.

As a tech worker myself I would gladly give up that bit of additional income to know that the 270 million Americans in the 90% all have their needs met. Hell, even out of selfish reasons, that would mean securing the quality of life for all of my family members and friends, less crime, meeting less stressed people day-to-day, etc.

So going back to /u/wrbear's comment - it's not the workers in science/education/munitions/medical who are wealthy. Rather, it's the owner of the pharma company, the owner of the private school, the owner of the weapons company, and the owner of the private hospital. And then they lobby the government with that money to make them even more money.

[u/wrbear → u/cherry_chocolate_]

Thanks so much for understanding my point. Taking politics (any side) out of it, a lot of money was made with the vaccine mandate. That's a current example of my point. Taxes shifted from us to BIG pharma. A lot of top dogs made money on that one, we paid for it and the workers got a basic salary. Now, the recovery is going to be long and difficult for many. Not even a finger was pointed.

[u/The_Jump_Humpers → u/wrbear]

The vaccine is projected to have decreased healthcare expenditure by $1.5 trillion. That's where your taxes would have gone if not for the mandate. I'm not going to defend big pharma - their price gouging is sickening. That's something we can all get behind. But again - I think you're blaming the wrong thing here. That vaccine saved a bunch of lives and saved US taxpayers money. 3000-5000 americans were dying every day at the height of the pandemic. I had to decide who did and did not get a ventilator. That shit sucked.

[u/wrbear → u/The_Jump_Humpers]

Do you actually think peons rub shoulders with politicians? I posted the top 10% but more like 5% or so.

[u/The_Jump_Humpers → u/wrbear]

I honestly don't really know what you're talking about. Government contracts? Those aren't going to scientists or healthcare workers. The issue this video points out is how CEO pay is fucking ridiculous. Those aren't scientists or educators (i've never heard of a teacher or professor making bank) or doctors. From my understanding the big problem with wealth inequality isn't wage earners - it's people making money from capital gains from hoarding wealth. It seems like you have a problem with maybe the lobbying industry and people making money from 'rubbing shoulders with politicians'. I agree - that's a huge problem - buy doesn't have much to do with this video, and you're blaming the wrong people. I'm curious as to how you think people in science or education or the medical field are benefitting so much from the government?

[u/MandrakeRootes → u/[deleted]]

You most certainly can go to school to become a CEO. Go to Eton College, Harvard, Princeton, etc...

Most of the political class in western countries meet at their elite universities, build connections there, and go on to use the connections from the previous generation (mom dad, and so on) to basically perpetuate this cycle.

In 2019, 57% of the UK house of Lords were educated in private schools, most of which in a select few like Eton.

[u/wrbear → u/[deleted]]

Yes, Hunter. It loops back to my point.

[u/wrbear → u/The_Jump_Humpers]

The National Science Foundation gets 11 billion yearly. Colleges get billions in government grants. That doesn't go to the hourly workers. My point is that maybe the institutions are part of the 1% tied to government waste and cronies.

[u/DxLaughRiot → u/wrbear]

You know you can literally look up the pay employees get at public colleges and any other government position. There's no big mystery around it and they're absolutely NOT the 1%.

[u/wrbear → u/DxLaughRiot]

Why do people think I'm posting about "employees"? Colleges are owned by wealthy groups. They have a board of trusties. They are charging more than what it should take, leaving students with debt that's being paid in tax dollars. The cabal is at full force, and the people are focused on someone like Elon. We'll played cabal." Is a college board rich?

Investments. In the year 2007, the College Board's net assets were worth 565 million dollars. Only twelve years later, in 2019, their net assets were worth 1.56 billion dollars

[u/The_Jump_Humpers → u/wrbear]

The federal budget is over 6 trillion. Your talking about 1.5% of that going to important science endeavors to advance America and the world. Why not talk about the $800 billion in defense?

[u/wrbear → u/The_Jump_Humpers]

What's wrong with you I included "munitions" in my original post. I'm assuming all your doing is trying to win a discussion. As far as 6 TRILLION, you glossed over the 6 TRILLION to post a rebuttal to my example of 1.5%, an example. I'm done here, later.

[u/The_Jump_Humpers → u/wrbear]

Nevermind - just read through your comment history. Fauci for prison and all that. I'm not going to try to convince you of anything different. Media literacy is important and it's important to consider the source of information. Wish you the best of luck in life!

[u/wrbear → u/The_Jump_Humpers]

Yea, staying on topic, politicians are making billionaires. I'm not leaning in either direction. As far as Fauci, he lied based on testimony in Congress this week. Aren't you concerned with the pre-covid results? You can't even buy a house, and you're defending bad government behavior passing it on to media hype.

[u/The_Jump_Humpers → u/wrbear]

I'm not defending government behavior. I will defend Fauci though. The right wing media decided to politicize COVID and he got caught up in it. He didn't make any decision that wasn't also made in every developed country in the world. The CDC and NIH efforts saved a million American lives. I was in the trenches when 3000-5000 americans were dying every day. I had to decide who did and did not get a ventilator. That shit sucked and the vaccine turned it around. Fox News and InfoWars and all the rest decided it was in their interest to be grifters and politicize the issue. It helped their ratings and hurt Americans.

[u/The_Jump_Humpers → u/[deleted]]

I don't know if this is sarcasm or not. Certainly there are a lot of smart people in finance and tech. I think a major issue is that finance bros will fund clubbing baby seals if it earns them a buck. tech bros spend all day trying to figure out how to make an app that 'changes the world' or 'destabilizes an industry' when in reality they just make money off of an app that makes it so that cab drivers can't afford afford health insurance.

[u/Cory123125 → u/[deleted]]

I think you are making a classic mistake.

Theres like 2 classes of each.

The class that is under that label because they like the street cred of "working hard " and "being smart" that it gives them, and the others actually do the grunt work.

Of course some of that will inevitably be that people really can operate in silos and be savants in one area while being brain dead in others. Im sure the mad working hours of the grunts helps this.