Wealth Inequality in America

I even skipped my workout today and I never do that. But I just can’t stay focused on anything but Obama leaving office and getting out of my life.

You see he was a disaster…did I ever mention that?

My ideology is still being formed and re-formed daily…otherwise I wouldn’t even talk to you. Further, I neither agreed nor disagreed that Obama was a disaster, I asked if there were factors that could be attributed to the job environment during his presidency.

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Help me, oh wise one, why should I be worried about the “problem” of how much wealth somebody else has? Specifically, if they earned it providing value to me and the rest of society.

top 5% of what? $350k is the top ~2% in the USA. 5% is usually more around $215k/yr

I’m both interested in attending that shindig and seem to be able to tolerate, er agree with most of your positions.

edit - Do you mind spotting me the fare out to there?
:blush:

Yes, he was:

  1. Inexperienced as an executive as he had ZIP for experience. That’s why we usually elect Governors or VP’s.

  2. The experience that he did have was shaped around community organizing and rabble rousing.

  3. He never really believed in American exceptionalism. If I cared enough I might be able to google where he said that.

  4. He came in with an agenda to “fundamentally change” our way of life. And that was in his campaign rhetoric.

You know stuff like the above made him suck

Ha ha…NOPE!

You’ve already talked about these factors…I asked you specifically about these ones and their effects on the job environment.

And you chose to focus on George Bush…there is much more to that post than George Bush…I’m not sure why you’re dodging today…we already know you hated Obama’s presidency. Why not answer in good faith today? I guess it’s the alcohol.

Anyways…I’ll still come to your party. Plus I should continue to surround myself with successful businessmen if I want to be one :slight_smile:

It is actually location dependent, first of all, and second of all Im sick of trying to convey my point on these forums only to be met with stupid ignorant comments like yours.

Here is an idea, you put the time in like I did and read hundreds of pages of information, comprising several peer reviewed articles and other reputable sources. Additionally, I obtained tax bracket dated for the 2010 census year and plotted income bracket (x axis) versus percent of those in the income bracket (y axis). I found that even using semilog plots, you still cannot represent the data in such a way that it is easily readable on the computer screen. Why is this? Because the distribution of the data is highly skewed. So get off your ass, and maybe if you put the work in like I do, you, 1, wont be a poor loser in the bottom 80%, and 2, will learn something useful.

You are correct you deserve a good answer. Let me compose myself and try to give you one. And I think you are a good poster and always have since the first day you posted here on T Nation.

Lol, I love these threads. I read some articles, I know what I’m talking about, damn it!

This is a real problem. What do you think should be done? Is it possible that someone who finds themselves among the working poor could learn a trade? Then they could leave McDonalds or Walmart or wherever they are working and earn better money.

I’m still not seeing where it is my responsibility to either pay someone’s student loans or give the government more money so that they can hand these working poor folks said money. Don’t get me wrong I have empathy for these folks but how did my wealth get attached to their problems?

Here is a paper that studies extreme wealth (not income) inequality to slowing of economic growth. Income inequality and poverty are also discussed.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=19&ved=0ahUKEwjexI6Tks_RAhUK-mMKHVRSCj84ChAWCFIwCA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fftp.iza.org%2Fdp7733.pdf&usg=AFQjCNF5xZF1d7Sk77KyhTqaCtMTKQ3YAQ&bvm=bv.144224172,d.cGc&cad=rja

This is a theory I have read about before, but would be interested in the time between paper (2013) and now to see if data still confirms.

Right, so you don’t have an answer. Go huff and cry about not having a private plane.

Projecting much?

I didn’t realize you had to be in the top 20% to consider yourself a success.

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From the abstract (related to economic growth):

“We find that wealth inequality reduces economic growth, but when we control for the
fact that some billionaires acquired wealth through political connections, the effect of
politically connected wealth inequality is negative, while politically unconnected wealth inequality, income inequality, and initial poverty have no significant effect” (emphasis mine)

I can agree with that, but my understanding was that the inequality in question was related to business owners and billionaires, not politics. Although that could be a misunderstanding on my part.

Again, I don’t see a qualitative difference between “people who work hard and succeed in a big way are entitled to live in any sort of home that they want” and “wealthy individuals should pay the lion’s share of Fed income taxes.” Both are assertions concerning personal beliefs; neither one has a claim to being capital-T True.

And I showed that the actual (not just Fed income tax) tax burden is borne by the middle/working class to a much greater degree than that stat would suggest. How about we both agree to stop repeating ourselves? It’s tedious.

You mean, other than a doubling of the Dow and halving of the unemployment rate?

I haven’t read through the paper yet, just skimmed. Only wanted to bring some studied research to the table.

Off the top of my head, the politically connected would be laws tailored to prevent competition, pay taxes, incentivize activities that offshore employment, and the like. Just guessing without reading further.

What the hell are you all arguing about?

IT’S PARTY TIME FOR ZEB!

IT’S TIME TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

It’s Trump’s fault income inequality exists in America :grin:

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Nope…!

Obama created it about the same time he created racism.

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