[davep]

The latest report from the UN states that the richest 1% own 40% of global wealth

http://money.guardian.co.uk/news_/story ... 33,00.html

[jupiters_release]

The latest report from the UN states that the richest 1% own 40% of global wealth

http://money.guardian.co.uk/news_/story ... 33,00.html

And think about how much the top 100 wealthiest central bankers or 0.0000001% of the population own, probably a good majority of that 40%, and imagine how much more after the global economy collapses.

[mmasters]

NPR said yesterday regarding this story that anyone with $6,100 in assets is in the top 10%

Wow, I think statistic is one of the more telling. $6,100 is nothing.

Someone should chart the wealth distribution.

Seems about 80% is in debt and 10% neutral. Then 2% have enough to buy a nice watch, 3% enough to buy a nice car, 2% enough to buy a small house, 1% a big house, 0.1% a golf course, 0.01% a small community, .001% a skyscraper, .0001% partial ownership stake in a small country, etc...

[rogerhb]

NPR said yesterday regarding this story that anyone with $6,100 in assets is in the top 10%

Wow, I think statistic is one of the more telling. $6,100 is nothing.

If you have a mortgage that is subtracted from your assets to come up with your net wealth. So if you have a house but are mortgaged up to the eyeballs then you don't come out on top.

Then don't forget that the house "asset" worth is a hallucination.

[dissimulo]

For goodness sake - as has been pointed out before, if you were to take all that wealth and redistribute it evenly, it would all be back in the hands of roughly the same 2% in a relatively short period of time. No matter what economic system you pick, a motivated elite will rise to the top and eventually gather up all the wealth. Meanwhile, the shiftless, ignorant, unmotivated, uninterested, hopeless masses will hand over whatever they have to satisfy their short-term goals. With so many years of human civilization behind us, it should be obvious that it is in our nature to organize in this fashion.

Better to spend your time joining the top 2% than trying to figure out whether or not it is fair. There is no fair.

[TheDude]

"Suck it, peasants!"
I was listening to Thom Hartmann talk on the radio about wealth inequity - he mentioned this analogy, which is from this website. Thom also has a new book called "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class and What We Can Do About It."

The Income Disparity:
Income and Wealth in the United States is not a
Bell Curve it is an L Curve*

If the population of the United States were represented along the length of the football field, arranged in order of income the median US family income (the family at the 50 yard line) has an income of $40,000 (visualize this as a stack of $100 bills 1.6 inches high.)

A family on the 95 yard line earns about $100,000 per year, this is a stack of $100 bills about 4 inches high.

At the 99 yard line the income is about $300,000, a stack of $100 bills about a foot high.

One foot from the 100 yard line the curve reaches $1 million (a 40 inch high stack of $100 bills).

From there it keeps going dramatically up with the stack of $100 bills reaching 30 miles for the 370 billionaires in the United States (one billion is one thousand millions!).

[NEOPO]

Nice - I envision a green stairway to heaven

[Bas]

Do you know what this statistically abnormal distribution of wealth indicates?

Here is a clue: The distribution of wealth on a pre US Civil War southern plantation; the master and his family with the majority of the wealth, a few middle class hired overseers, and the majority of the people being slaves with almost no wealth.

I say the world maldistribution of wealth is an indication of slavery, otherwise we would have a normal distribution of wealth.

This slavery is created and enforced by the masters in power. The only difference between slavery on a southern plantation and the worldwide plantation we live on now is the chains are now invisible; the chains are embodied in the laws that grant privilege to the few at the expense of the many. The chains are so much a part of everyday life that nobody sees them; they are just hiding in plain sight, so ordinary and usual.

And the absolutely most absurd part is that in the "democratic" nations we actually willingly vote for the master class who then enforce this system of plunder upon us.

You're spreading dangerous Ideas here, gego....... I like it

[Bas]

For goodness sake - as has been pointed out before, if you were to take all that wealth and redistribute it evenly, it would all be back in the hands of roughly the same 2% in a relatively short period of time. No matter what economic system you pick, a motivated elite will rise to the top and eventually gather up all the wealth. Meanwhile, the shiftless, ignorant, unmotivated, uninterested, hopeless masses will hand over whatever they have to satisfy their short-term goals. With so many years of human civilization behind us, it should be obvious that it is in our nature to organize in this fashion.

Better to spend your time joining the top 2% than trying to figure out whether or not it is fair. There is no fair.

I like that too, but I don't think anybody is suggesting that we should take the wealth and redistribute it...they could however take some money and spend it on trying to...

SAVE THE DAMN PLANET!





heh...

[mmasters]

For goodness sake - as has been pointed out before, if you were to take all that wealth and redistribute it evenly, it would all be back in the hands of roughly the same 2% in a relatively short period of time. No matter what economic system you pick, a motivated elite will rise to the top and eventually gather up all the wealth. Meanwhile, the shiftless, ignorant, unmotivated, uninterested, hopeless masses will hand over whatever they have to satisfy their short-term goals. With so many years of human civilization behind us, it should be obvious that it is in our nature to organize in this fashion.

Generally true, but there is an economic system which prevents this sheer upward distribution and that's a credit based money system. This is what many of the founding fathers wanted for our country but it has only seen the light of day for brief periods in our country's history.

It's also worth mentioning that the credit based system is such a huge threat to the elite that they will do anything in their power to thwart it. Even right now there is a bill on the floor of the house to give control of the US Mint and Bureau of Engraving and Printing to the FED away from the Treasury. The biggest modivation for this action could only be to block any future attempts by Congress to create a credit based currency.

Better to spend your time joining the top 2% than trying to figure out whether or not it is fair. There is no fair.

Totally agree.

[Bas]

I don't know about that creditbased system you're talking about MMasters but I do know that once you pass a certain wealth level, you can earn enough through stock and bonds to give you a good living and still be building up wealth.

oh and on the fair issue, the world is not fair but we have a system of law to correct that.

[firestarter]

dissimul:

For goodness sake - as has been pointed out before, if you were to take all that wealth and redistribute it evenly, it would all be back in the hands of roughly the same 2% in a relatively short period of time.

Only if they're positioned to benefit from their corrupt banker/politico buddies at the front end of the jig. Otherwise, your statement is nonsense.

No matter what economic system you pick, a motivated elite will rise to the top and eventually gather up all the wealth.

Not without the force mechanism of the corrupt state.

Meanwhile, the shiftless, ignorant, unmotivated, uninterested, hopeless masses will hand over whatever they have to satisfy their short-term goals.

As a misanthrope I must inform you that all mankind, including me and you and Kafka too, are more or less as you described above.

With so many years of human civilization behind us, it should be obvious that it is in our nature to organize in this fashion.

The strong (corrupt) have always preyed on the weak (exploited), albeit with a great deal of external --unnatural --force

There is no fair.

There's justice though.

[Hawkcreek]

--

[Zardoz]

Has this been posted before? Seems like it has.

If not, here it is:

The Rich Vs. The Filthy Rich

The New York Times is doing a terrific job covering the brewing economic civil war in this country between the "haves and the have mores," as one of its recent headlines put it. It appears that American Midas has struck twice in a row, via the Internet Boom and the Hedge Fund Boom. The combined effect has been historically large gaps between the fortunes of the rich and the filthy rich. And the merely rich aren't happy about it.

[EnergyUnlimited]

Richest 2% own half the world's wealth

For all, who are seeing any injustice here I would say that:
If we decided tommorow to divide equally all the wealth on the Earth between all the people, than 1 day later we would have today's situation again
Well known phrase and often forgotten yet.

All those "equality seeking do-gooders" should realise that 90% of peoples are not fit to own any wealth at all (albeit many of those are fit to own huge credit card bill...), 8% are fit to own some wealth and last 2% are fit to own more wealth.
Soory folks, but this is how life stands and nothing to moun about (or tear your beards) here.

[NEOPO]

Total bullshit.

When was the last time you had a little science experiment and redistributed the wealth to see wether or not it would fall back into the hands of the current elite??

Thats right - NEVER.
Say it again - NEVER...
You simply do not know that to be true yet you state it as if it was one of your scientific laws.....

Fucking elitist.......

[EnergyUnlimited]

Total bullshit.

When was the last time you had a little science experiment and redistributed the wealth to see wether or not it would fall back into the hands of the current elite??

Thats right - NEVER.
Say it again - NEVER...
You simply do not know that to be true yet you state it as if it was one of your scientific laws.....

Fucking elitist.......

You do not need science experiment to demonstrate it.
It is enough that you observe actual life and historical outcomes.
After any revolution, which I ever heard about all the wealth was quickly falling into hands of very few. This includes Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Cambodia and plenty of revolutions in Africa or South America.
Did Mugabe bring any equality or social justice or prosperity btw?
Do you have any example of argument to contrary?
I contend, that there is nothing elitist in my statement. It is just observation, how humanity works.

[Zardoz]

...Cuba...

All your other examples are completely valid, but I wonder about Cuba. How much do we know about the distribution of wealth on that little island? If there is any place on the planet where things might be a little different, perhaps that's it.

Maybe not, though. I really don't know.

[Bas]

Total bullshit.

When was the last time you had a little science experiment and redistributed the wealth to see wether or not it would fall back into the hands of the current elite??

Thats right - NEVER.
Say it again - NEVER...
You simply do not know that to be true yet you state it as if it was one of your scientific laws.....

Fucking elitist.......

I would actually say the rich would stay poor because they wouldn't know how to get around with so little money on their hands...But true, only the smart poor would be the new rich in a generation or so.