Even if we expected him to be like this, that doesn’t change that it’s a gross abuse of power and authority and should NOT be an acceptable standard. There needs to be accountability.
They dont care about how many people get hurt. American or not. They only get mad when it's gas prices and local grocery prices. Or whatever personal thing finally hits them
I would argue that a HUGE part of current inequality is in how the LAW is applied to us versus the Investment/Epstein Class and their puppets in government.
Trump committed an unprecedented number of crimes during his first term - culminating in a literal coup on January 6th.
If there were ever a time when an incoming President would have been clear to lead federal law enforcement in arresting and prosecuting his predecessor and their co-conspirators, that would have been it.
Instead, the opposite happened. Biden made it abundantly clear over four years that no laws will be enforced on the ruling class while they will continue to be harshly enforced on the rest of us.
Biden's dereliction of office on law enforcement following January 6th proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that it is a big club. They're in it, and we aren't.
There's no excuse for it. And because of Biden's inaction, we now have Trump's Federal thugs murdering American citizens unprovoked in the street in broad daylight on video and in front of witnesses without consequences.
Trump illegally steals thousands of classified documents. Biden's FBI whines 'pretty please give them back' for months before finally going themselves to recover them. Is there an arrest of Trump? Nope. But Reality Winner sent one classified article to the Intercept and was speed-run to prison. Did Biden pardon her? No.
Republicans commit high crimes and engage in widespread corruption and Democrats let them.
Tens of millions of Americans are beyond sick of the inequality posed by our two-tiered injustice system. And this is a both-sides issue.
Good thing Biden did the unprecedented thing of pardoning his son for 'whatever' on his way out to clear the way for Trump doing that for his cronies as well
There need to be guillotines, but let's start with the cons ruining everyone's day
This is not exclusively a Trump problem. It's a global phenomenon, and it's driven by fundamental mechanisms of the global economy. We've internationalized finance without properly internationalizing the institutions that are supposed to ensure democratic control and fair distribution.
No country (except perhaps the US) can implement meaningful financial and economic reform alone. They'd be punished immediately by investors who would make more money elsewhere.
We need to solve this internationally, but this is practically impossible with all the far-right governments popping up everywhere. I don't know what the solution is. The general population being more knowledgeable about economics has to be part of it, but that's practically utopia at this point.
The solution will occur when those far right governments do what far right governments do, which is to start conflicts with one another and destroy the international systems that bind the world together. The solution is to destroy these ideologies root and stem or face economic destruction greater than the Great Depression.
> We've internationalized finance without properly internationalizing the institutions that are supposed to ensure democratic control and fair distribution.
When will Americans learn that it’s up to them as citizens of their own country to keep their governments accountable?
If you just sit and whine on Reddit about the current state of your government, do you really expect a change?
Other countries have literally overthrown entire dictatorships using nothing but general strikes and peaceful protests. Meanwhile, Americans citizens hoard a literal cache of firearms and ammunition that it accounts for almost half of the entire global market share
Then they whole look at their government, and decide that it’s fine and better to just endure actual systemic overreach on a daily basis because stepping outside to protest might disrupt their ubereats delivery
So they just make an angry Reddit post and then get confused as to why there hasn’t been any change
I think we all expected this when Trump became president for the second time and he treated the billionaires at the WH after his win, focused on vanity projects like the renaming the Kennedy center after him, building himself a ballroom, building a golden arch in his honor, complained about not getting the Nobel Peace Prize, and now he wants to renovate a golf course?
They've already cut down a ton of 50+-year-old trees on that course; the judge had to stop him -- they basically broke the law, again, just like the East Wing... he also ripped up Jackie's rose garden and cemented over it in his first term. Americans might be the dumbest large population in the world.
the thing with the vanity projects is I wonder if he could have actually been a competent mayor of a city. Reminds me of when republicans said Obama was not qualified because he was just 'a community organizer' meanwhile the 'business man' shows up and he must be qualified.
Sort of a good parable to how nurses and teachers are not paid or respected enough
The problem is they are removing a public park to expand the golf course and possibly making it private/raising the cost to play over $100. That course in DC was set up by the federal government for the people to be an affordable accessible option for the public.
And they chopped down over 140 trees including the historical cherry trees that made the island so beautiful.
Normally yes, but this specific golf course is in a public park and considered part of it. East Potomac Park is a man made island in the Potomac and was designated as such by congress in 1897 when it was made.
The first half of the park is a public golf course (that is part of the park), the second part near the end is a public park with a playground and picnic areas and trees called Hains Point. The island is surrounded by a road, bike path and running path.
The golf course costs money but was designed to be at a low cost so everyone could golf. It has been this way since 1919. Hains Point was free.
The problem is that the president has now torn down Hains Point to expand the golf course and will likely raise the cost after the new construction. He has purposely gone against what this park was constructed to do and removed a free park from the residents of DC.
This is a really good article that goes into the history of the park and its relationship to golf: https://www.tclf.org/washington-dcs-historic-east-potomac-park-crosshairs
My favorite fact about U.S. wealth inequality is that the average American wealth per adult is $696k USD, but the median American wealth is only $69k. In contrast, the average Canadian adult wealth is $399k while the median Canadian wealth is $147k.
It's just a given that Americans are wealthier than all their developed nation peers but it's not true because the extreme wealth inequality drives that number to an absurd level. Using median wealth, the U.S. is actually one of the poorest developed countries in the world, just above Greece.
Yep. The vast majority of Americans are exceedingly poor compared to their developed nation peers. A lot of Americans are doing pretty well. A very small number of Americans are doing staggeringly well, so well in fact they're distorting the national wealth figures.
And most of us are afraid to protest like in France because the opposing side has all the weaponry and have proven they'll use it against their own citizens while their supports love it.
Plus, we don’t get days off in order to protest, unions are almost outlawed, and monopolies have such a stranglehold on the economy that pissing off one’s employer can be a literal death sentence.
Then to tie healthcare to employment with little to no unions, make the employees pay an insane premium before insurance even kicks in is diabolical. But slander Medicare and Social Security.
That's only part of it. From what I've noticed, the populace has a hard time rising up, thanks to years of having our agency stripped away under the guise of convenience, efficiency, connectivity, and progress, by a class that only wanted to divide and conquer for increased wealth and power. We're now under a spell of learned helplessness and resort to consumerism to cope.
If we hope to make any meaningful changes, people need their sense of agency returned, and with it a sense of self-worth and communality. That comes when people know there exists something worth fighting for; something tangible at the community level that personal investment of one's time and resources can be seen and experienced beneficially; something that people can fall back on; something that can provide relative protection against the whims of bosses and landlords demanding fealty; something people know they can rely on, instead of the impersonal promises of for-profit entities and their lapdog governments.
In fact, collecting a bunch of valuable information on organizing and action from different redditors over time, I created a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting it started ASAP.
Those differences disappear if you control by race
In the US, median wealth for white households is $332,000. Much higher than France.
In the US, median wealth for black households is $36,800. There are also many more non-white households in the US compared to France, which drags down the median.
That is why so many Americans insist that "people like them" would be much poorer if they lived in Europe, even though the numbers seem to suggest otherwise. It's because the numbers lump everyone together.
Sad that the US government and white Americans still deny the context for why black Americans live the way they do. Never did anything to redistribute all that wealth stolen during slavery and segregation.
there are so many forward facing black millionaires, that everyone thinks we are all Beyonce, Kanye, and the Real Housewives of Potomac...
meanwhile, despite the rise of all these black millionaires, the average black household has actually barely budged...
in fact, the black community owns fewer homes and businesses per captia today, than we did during the height of the CRM in 1969.
so the reality is that the black community is the poorest it's been in generations, but people (including a lot of black people themselves) THINK we are the richest we've ever been... because we are also so addicted to a media landscape full of black millionaires.
I call them the black "representation" class. They not only exist to skew the publics view of black wealth, they're also a buffer class utilized to talk down to poor black people in a "you can do it too" way. People aren't comfortable with the fact that bootstraps don't work, it deceives the illusion of a meritocracy.
Even though you cited household wealth whereas I'm looking at individual, I'd wager its pretty stratified if you broke it out by race. Minority Americans, and especially African Americans, get the short end of the stick.
This is why I tell people to take a nice long trip that goes cross country and back a different route. See the national parks. The US is crazy poor in places but even in places that are perceived as ok the difference between them and places like LA and San Diego is enormous. The stats are telling. No college? Median net worth of $100,000. College? $500,000. A typical American family has a median net worth around $200,000. It's twice that in Canada and almost twice in the UK and Australia. Basically if you own a home on the coasts or in a place like Sydney or London you're doing great. Arkansas has a median household net worth of about $60,000.
If you go look at that report and the top ten list of median wealth you can see it's a function of job housing costs. Not sure it makes sense to conclude much more than that. Certainly not any conclusions on the overall health of a nation.
In the mid seventies in the US wages stopped keeping pace with GDP, but assets like the S&P, gold and housing kept pace with GDP. The whole system is tilted against working and in favor of owning.
Mid 70s is also when union membership starts its steep decline, alongside a half a century of tax cuts.
If you notice, you are on the economics subreddit, not the personal finance subreddit. So we are discussing the system itself, not how best to navigate the system as an individual.
Ya no nothing to be derived from knowing that a handful of uberwealthy have so much money they skew the entire picture of Americans' wealth making them think they're actually far better of than they actually are. Nothing at all.
And I'm pointing out that the connection your trying to make is nonsense. Housing costs dont indicate Canadians are better off than Americans due to repressive billionaires in the us. Which was what you were trying to imply
It indicates they have more wealth. Houses can be bought and sold. This is a wealth report and we're discussing wealth. Only nonsense here is you trying to poke holes in a rock solid analysis that shows Americans are, comparatively, quite poor.
US is the place to be if you are way above average and excel in your field. It is a rough place if you are average. It is a horrible place if you are below average.
A household with kids making that while paying for private health insurance and America's prices for services and housing in my opinion will have to be budgeting heavily to survive and hoping not to run into any emergency. I won't call that pretty good.
No, household simply refers to the combined resources of everyone living together. If you don't pool your resources, you could simply not count yourself as part of a "household."
You also have to consider what that net wealth standard means when literally half the households are 3 or 4 roommates, who are not familial, working full time.
These are counted in household statistics but have dire effects: they won't benefit from sharing food like a family or a 'conventional' household might. Nor bills; each will pay insurance separately. Car insurance separately. Bills separately.
So in point of fact, not only are we talking about 3+ roommates having a net wealth TOGETHER fitting into that Fed reserve data, but that number is misleading because their marginal costs are higher than the so-called conventional household.
I've looked up the wealth stats in the US. The top 50% is doing rather well. It's the bottom 50 that hasn't grown with the economy. And a lot of that comes down to the loss of low skill but higher paying jobs like manufacturing.
I guess you'd have to define rather well here. Regardless, wealth inequality in the U.S. is a HUGE problem. The New Deal averted a likely second revolution. Let's see if the robber barons can figure out that people need to eat before that risk rears it's head any further.
How does this square with the fact that the US has a higher median income? Is it excess Canadian debt, ballooning housing costs, heavier saving, all of the above?
I dont follow. The U.S. has a lower median income than Canada? The American average number is skewed by a small % of Americans that have ungodly amounts of money while Canada's is less so. That's the story.
No, OP was posting wealth, not income. The median Canadian is much wealthier than the median American, but if you compare median incomes, Americans come out slightly ahead.
Americans make more money on average, not just because of the wealthy.
Why wuld you expect the median person to have any net worth at all? If you rent and have any debt your worth will be negative. Doesn't mean you're not living well.
The median of $69k still tells you half of the people in the US are under that number. That is staggering when the average is $696k. 170 million people have less than ten percent of the average. Basically saying half the country don’t have homes.
I think you are confusing wealth with annual income. Although annual income impacts wealth, it’s not the same. Wealth is the total value of everything you own minus debts.
Also politicians: Here's another tax on your detergent and socks. Since they're imported, we add tariffs on top of sales taxes. Why are we worried about inflation again?
This administration is abhorrent for wealth equality and the irony is the people who are most vulnerable to wealth disparity are the ones who voted for him
It means the problem existed before Trump and will not change after Trump is gone. While Trump is accelerating the problems, him going away will not magically fix things.
They may see other issues as the core problem, but for me it's that Americans in general just do not care about governance or Democracy any more. Far too many people want a king like figure to fix everything for em. And what we have now is just the expansion of the corruption that brings.
Another angle of the irony is that the administration generally looks down on those vulnerable people. We see it in different places like when Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, talks about how the economy is booming because some people are taking nice trips and buying cars without for a second acknowledging that some people are struggling to put food on the table. Or when trump jokes, as he did when the Dells were in the Oval Office for the most recent trump Account photo op, that 'some people think $200k is a lot of money.' You couldn't assemble a group that is more out of touch than this administration about the every day finances of anyone other than the top few percent.
One of the ways you wouldn't expect huh? Really Austerity isn't one of the ways neoliberalism has fucked the working class? Bro its a cornerstone of it.
Austerity is a natural consequence of a shrinking labour share and a political and economic system that makes taxing capital to any significant extent practically impossible. We need fundamental economic reform globally, but people are too busy hating immigrants to realize who their real enemy is.
Tax the loans taken out against unrealized gains and inherited unrealized gains and you target the two things ultra wealthy depend on to maintain their ill-gotten advantages, and bring capital gains tax rates up to income tax rates. This would be a good starting point for a framework that hopes to offset market failures that continue to concentrate wealth and stymie competition.
> Tax the loans taken out against unrealized gains and inherited unrealized gains and you target the two things ultra wealthy depend on to maintain their ill-gotten advantages, and bring capital gains tax rates up to income tax rates.
Neither of those are bad ideas but reddit overestimates how much revenue they will actually bring in and how much they will actually lower inequality.
I think they could make a decent dent over several generations of plutocrats dying off, and if paired with reforms in redistributive policies it would be more sustainable than the en vogue wealth tax proposals. LVT would be nice but would probably require a constitutional amendment (read: not possible)
This won’t work because rich people will incorporate as a business and say they sell lifestyle videos where the loan is used to pay for assets to the media production. Then you have to tax all business loans and you’ve entered into a mess for no value returned to the government
IRS rules on pass-through entities, constructive dividends, hobby losses, and look-through provisions prevent individuals from turning personal leverage into tax-exempt corporate operations.
Yes, there are rules, but it’s not cut and dry like a “tax on loans” is. The IRS wants business and pleasure to be separate, but it’s not easy when every friend is a business dinner.
The classic American dream: multi-billionaires with the GDP of small nations gather round to keep their bank accounts completely insulated from the rest of society. Why fund public programs or pay into Social Security when you can buy a few VIP passes to the Oval Office and secure tailor-made tax breaks? Democracy is truly thriving—as long as your check clears first." These are truly malevolent people who are destroying the American dream, especially for the middle class.
It is distressing that this article did not emphasize the role of excessive government spending and inflationary monetary policy in redistributing income from lower to upper income groups and from the private to the public sector. In fact, it could be argued that since the demise of the gold standard following the failure of the Bretton Woods and Smithsonian Agreements that exploding federal government deficits and national debt, financed in large measure by printing-press money, are primarily responsible for the increasing maldistribution of real income and purchasing power. Certainly the factors mentioned in the article are important, but profligate government spending financed with printing-press money are the main drivers of inflation and the consequent redistribution of income in the U.S. That neither the U.S. Congress nor the Federal Reserve have acknowledged their culpability suggests that the affordability crisis is likely to get worse before it gets better.
Well the two last Republican presidents both started forever wars in the Middle East that cost a trillions of dollars. They also gave tax breaks to the wealthiest Individuals and corporations. The party of Christian values is just as hateful ignorant as it’s ever been.
For Democrats, they have an uphill battle. You can’t just print money. They will have to shift funding away from war towards social programs. But all it takes is a false flag to undermine anything. The Democratic Party proposes. Even though Democrats are the lesser of the two evils, they are in a no win situation.
Must I also provide a lecture in basic monetary theory? There are several reasons why inflation redistributes income, such as the fact that upper income groups own real assets (such as real estate, corporate equities, etc. that appreciate in value during inflation) and are less likely to be affected by the rising prices of necessities that comprise a smaller proportion of their budget compared with lower-income households (many of whom are on fixed incomes). But, let me at least refer you to perhaps the most classic explanation--the Cantillon Effect.
Wealth inequality lowers inflation as the marginal propensity to consume is lower for high wealth individuals than for low wealth individuals. Inflation is demand increase and/or supply decrease such that lowering inequality will cause inflation.
I think the wealth tax is silly for lots of reasons. But if you increase the corporate tax rate, it would encourage companies to pay employees more. At that point why not pay employees more when you just lose the money to taxes.
Wealth taxes on fungible assets are the only real corrective action we have for labor’s share of productivity gains being siphoned away for decades by neoliberal policies.
No one wants to listen to your Karl Marx word salad BS. We all know all you jokers just want is a handout. Not to actually work. Well maybe 15 hours a week knitting mittens for a "livable wage."
Wage stagnation is a real, documented problem. Why would anybody argue against fewer hours and better wages? That's like saying the point of life is to increase shareholder value. It goes against common sense and all self-interest.
And coops come close. But even there, people complain and don’t want to work. Inherently, no one really wants to work for the time they need to or do repetitive things. They just have to do it.
And no one ever refuses a handout. Even our political system is now interested in giving handouts.
I feel like there's either a word or some grammar missing from that sentence...
The only thing that increasing corporation tax does is to reduce investment and discourage businesses. It doesn't result in CEOs going "you know what, lets pay the workers more to avoid tax" instead they'll start looking at what prices they can raise, which workers they can cut, and/or how they can slow their hiring in order to maintain post-tax earnings for their shareholders, as per their fiduciary duty.
This has been studied both in Europe and the USA and is a well understood phenomenon.
Mysterious-Oil-7094 | 6 hours ago
Even if we expected him to be like this, that doesn’t change that it’s a gross abuse of power and authority and should NOT be an acceptable standard. There needs to be accountability.
Cptfrankthetank | 5 hours ago
I wished more people see it this way.
They dont care about how many people get hurt. American or not. They only get mad when it's gas prices and local grocery prices. Or whatever personal thing finally hits them
zxc123zxc123 | 52 minutes ago
"Fake news", "Lib stats", and "Woke Agenda"
"Joe Biden's fault", "Thanks Obama", and "Kamala would have been worse"
The same folks who voted Trump/GOP will vote them again in 2026 & 2028 even if they are angry about higher prices.
Don't rely on others. Be the change you want to see. Be politically active, change your local community, and go out to vote.
Cptfrankthetank | 17 minutes ago
Apparently, you cant fix stupid or cult.
Convincing independents are hard enough.
Constant-Plant-9378 | an hour ago
I would argue that a HUGE part of current inequality is in how the LAW is applied to us versus the Investment/Epstein Class and their puppets in government.
Trump committed an unprecedented number of crimes during his first term - culminating in a literal coup on January 6th.
If there were ever a time when an incoming President would have been clear to lead federal law enforcement in arresting and prosecuting his predecessor and their co-conspirators, that would have been it.
Instead, the opposite happened. Biden made it abundantly clear over four years that no laws will be enforced on the ruling class while they will continue to be harshly enforced on the rest of us.
Biden's dereliction of office on law enforcement following January 6th proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that it is a big club. They're in it, and we aren't.
There's no excuse for it. And because of Biden's inaction, we now have Trump's Federal thugs murdering American citizens unprovoked in the street in broad daylight on video and in front of witnesses without consequences.
Trump illegally steals thousands of classified documents. Biden's FBI whines 'pretty please give them back' for months before finally going themselves to recover them. Is there an arrest of Trump? Nope. But Reality Winner sent one classified article to the Intercept and was speed-run to prison. Did Biden pardon her? No.
Republicans commit high crimes and engage in widespread corruption and Democrats let them.
Tens of millions of Americans are beyond sick of the inequality posed by our two-tiered injustice system. And this is a both-sides issue.
xinorez1 | 7 minutes ago
Good thing Biden did the unprecedented thing of pardoning his son for 'whatever' on his way out to clear the way for Trump doing that for his cronies as well
There need to be guillotines, but let's start with the cons ruining everyone's day
PedanticSatiation | 2 hours ago
This is not exclusively a Trump problem. It's a global phenomenon, and it's driven by fundamental mechanisms of the global economy. We've internationalized finance without properly internationalizing the institutions that are supposed to ensure democratic control and fair distribution.
No country (except perhaps the US) can implement meaningful financial and economic reform alone. They'd be punished immediately by investors who would make more money elsewhere.
We need to solve this internationally, but this is practically impossible with all the far-right governments popping up everywhere. I don't know what the solution is. The general population being more knowledgeable about economics has to be part of it, but that's practically utopia at this point.
Gvillegator | 2 hours ago
The solution will occur when those far right governments do what far right governments do, which is to start conflicts with one another and destroy the international systems that bind the world together. The solution is to destroy these ideologies root and stem or face economic destruction greater than the Great Depression.
dust4ngel | an hour ago
> We've internationalized finance without properly internationalizing the institutions that are supposed to ensure democratic control and fair distribution.
we've exported capitalism, in short.
Gvillegator | 2 hours ago
Income inequality was accelerating in America long before Trump was elected. Sad but true.
Not_FinancialAdvice | 7 minutes ago
There's an argument that Trump was a consequence of this (and the lack of prosecution after 2008).
Jbull136 | 2 hours ago
When will Americans learn that it’s up to them as citizens of their own country to keep their governments accountable?
If you just sit and whine on Reddit about the current state of your government, do you really expect a change?
Other countries have literally overthrown entire dictatorships using nothing but general strikes and peaceful protests. Meanwhile, Americans citizens hoard a literal cache of firearms and ammunition that it accounts for almost half of the entire global market share
Then they whole look at their government, and decide that it’s fine and better to just endure actual systemic overreach on a daily basis because stepping outside to protest might disrupt their ubereats delivery
So they just make an angry Reddit post and then get confused as to why there hasn’t been any change
SunshineBear100 | 6 hours ago
I think we all expected this when Trump became president for the second time and he treated the billionaires at the WH after his win, focused on vanity projects like the renaming the Kennedy center after him, building himself a ballroom, building a golden arch in his honor, complained about not getting the Nobel Peace Prize, and now he wants to renovate a golf course?
0o0o0o0o0o0z | 3 hours ago
They've already cut down a ton of 50+-year-old trees on that course; the judge had to stop him -- they basically broke the law, again, just like the East Wing... he also ripped up Jackie's rose garden and cemented over it in his first term. Americans might be the dumbest large population in the world.
Capable_Swordfish701 | an hour ago
Cut down all the beautiful Sakura trees Japan gifted us.
0o0o0o0o0o0z | 10 minutes ago
"Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out"
pushaper | an hour ago
the thing with the vanity projects is I wonder if he could have actually been a competent mayor of a city. Reminds me of when republicans said Obama was not qualified because he was just 'a community organizer' meanwhile the 'business man' shows up and he must be qualified.
Sort of a good parable to how nurses and teachers are not paid or respected enough
Clear_Command_8925 | 6 hours ago
Renovating the golf course might be a good thing tho. Renovated golf course -> Trump spends more time golfing = less time spent ruining shit
Painted_Mushr00m | 5 hours ago
The problem is they are removing a public park to expand the golf course and possibly making it private/raising the cost to play over $100. That course in DC was set up by the federal government for the people to be an affordable accessible option for the public.
And they chopped down over 140 trees including the historical cherry trees that made the island so beautiful.
Cuckipede | 5 hours ago
Yep, I live in 10 mins away. I haven’t played there in a couple years because it’s so busy, but it was only $45 to play IIRC
fathed | 4 hours ago
Socialism for golfers!
This countries discourse on this topic (the golf course) is hilariously sad.
Painted_Mushr00m | 3 hours ago
Ah yes the worst socialist evil ever created, a public park.
fathed | 3 hours ago
There's a huge difference between a public park and a public golf course...
Aren't people upset that a public park is literally being destroyed for expansions to this public golf course?
Painted_Mushr00m | 3 hours ago
Normally yes, but this specific golf course is in a public park and considered part of it. East Potomac Park is a man made island in the Potomac and was designated as such by congress in 1897 when it was made.
The first half of the park is a public golf course (that is part of the park), the second part near the end is a public park with a playground and picnic areas and trees called Hains Point. The island is surrounded by a road, bike path and running path.
The golf course costs money but was designed to be at a low cost so everyone could golf. It has been this way since 1919. Hains Point was free.
The problem is that the president has now torn down Hains Point to expand the golf course and will likely raise the cost after the new construction. He has purposely gone against what this park was constructed to do and removed a free park from the residents of DC.
This is a really good article that goes into the history of the park and its relationship to golf: https://www.tclf.org/washington-dcs-historic-east-potomac-park-crosshairs
Username_Reported | 5 hours ago
No, he ruins shit and walks away
ForMoreYears | 5 hours ago
My favorite fact about U.S. wealth inequality is that the average American wealth per adult is $696k USD, but the median American wealth is only $69k. In contrast, the average Canadian adult wealth is $399k while the median Canadian wealth is $147k.
It's just a given that Americans are wealthier than all their developed nation peers but it's not true because the extreme wealth inequality drives that number to an absurd level. Using median wealth, the U.S. is actually one of the poorest developed countries in the world, just above Greece.
Source is 2026 UBS Global Wealth Report.
ChipperHippo | 5 hours ago
Look at the protests in France this week. Look at the commentary: France (and Europe's) economic situation is becoming untenable for their youth.
France has nearly double the median per-capita net worth of the U.S.
We are in complete denial about how poor Americans are.
ForMoreYears | 5 hours ago
Yep. The vast majority of Americans are exceedingly poor compared to their developed nation peers. A lot of Americans are doing pretty well. A very small number of Americans are doing staggeringly well, so well in fact they're distorting the national wealth figures.
BornFree2018 | 4 hours ago
And most of us are afraid to protest like in France because the opposing side has all the weaponry and have proven they'll use it against their own citizens while their supports love it.
Lady_Rubberbones | 4 hours ago
Plus, we don’t get days off in order to protest, unions are almost outlawed, and monopolies have such a stranglehold on the economy that pissing off one’s employer can be a literal death sentence.
scarletroyalblue12 | 4 hours ago
Then to tie healthcare to employment with little to no unions, make the employees pay an insane premium before insurance even kicks in is diabolical. But slander Medicare and Social Security.
mindstars | 3 hours ago
Agree, I often feel that health insurance is the collar through which employers keep American employees on a leash.
ZootSuitRiot33801 | 2 hours ago
That's only part of it. From what I've noticed, the populace has a hard time rising up, thanks to years of having our agency stripped away under the guise of convenience, efficiency, connectivity, and progress, by a class that only wanted to divide and conquer for increased wealth and power. We're now under a spell of learned helplessness and resort to consumerism to cope.
If we hope to make any meaningful changes, people need their sense of agency returned, and with it a sense of self-worth and communality. That comes when people know there exists something worth fighting for; something tangible at the community level that personal investment of one's time and resources can be seen and experienced beneficially; something that people can fall back on; something that can provide relative protection against the whims of bosses and landlords demanding fealty; something people know they can rely on, instead of the impersonal promises of for-profit entities and their lapdog governments.
In fact, collecting a bunch of valuable information on organizing and action from different redditors over time, I created a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting it started ASAP.
mindstars | an hour ago
Thanks. Eloquent: "We're now under a spell of learned helplessness and resort to consumerism to cope."
Lady_Rubberbones | 3 hours ago
And drive down wages too. People are forced to work for health insurance alone.
welshwelsh | 4 hours ago
Those differences disappear if you control by race
In the US, median wealth for white households is $332,000. Much higher than France.
In the US, median wealth for black households is $36,800. There are also many more non-white households in the US compared to France, which drags down the median.
That is why so many Americans insist that "people like them" would be much poorer if they lived in Europe, even though the numbers seem to suggest otherwise. It's because the numbers lump everyone together.
Bustan2026 | 3 hours ago
That’s fucking appalling
chrisjinna | an hour ago
It's illegal to collect racial data in France. Their laws are different. They don't have much of a clue about which people are making what.
goldique | 3 hours ago
Sad that the US government and white Americans still deny the context for why black Americans live the way they do. Never did anything to redistribute all that wealth stolen during slavery and segregation.
Intelligent-Owl7974 | 2 hours ago
there are so many forward facing black millionaires, that everyone thinks we are all Beyonce, Kanye, and the Real Housewives of Potomac...
meanwhile, despite the rise of all these black millionaires, the average black household has actually barely budged...
in fact, the black community owns fewer homes and businesses per captia today, than we did during the height of the CRM in 1969.
so the reality is that the black community is the poorest it's been in generations, but people (including a lot of black people themselves) THINK we are the richest we've ever been... because we are also so addicted to a media landscape full of black millionaires.
captilaism is a lot of smoke and mirrors.
LysolSaw | 19 minutes ago
I call them the black "representation" class. They not only exist to skew the publics view of black wealth, they're also a buffer class utilized to talk down to poor black people in a "you can do it too" way. People aren't comfortable with the fact that bootstraps don't work, it deceives the illusion of a meritocracy.
Puzzle-Necked | 3 hours ago
And what's the median wealth for black households in France?
PrestigiousProduce97 | an hour ago
Probably lower than black Americans, many of them are immigrants/ first gen from deeply impoverished African countries.
ForMoreYears | 2 hours ago
Even though you cited household wealth whereas I'm looking at individual, I'd wager its pretty stratified if you broke it out by race. Minority Americans, and especially African Americans, get the short end of the stick.
FocsSus | 37 minutes ago
This is why I tell people to take a nice long trip that goes cross country and back a different route. See the national parks. The US is crazy poor in places but even in places that are perceived as ok the difference between them and places like LA and San Diego is enormous. The stats are telling. No college? Median net worth of $100,000. College? $500,000. A typical American family has a median net worth around $200,000. It's twice that in Canada and almost twice in the UK and Australia. Basically if you own a home on the coasts or in a place like Sydney or London you're doing great. Arkansas has a median household net worth of about $60,000.
scarletroyalblue12 | 4 hours ago
Yeap! As long as we’re doing better than the next person, it’s all good! WTH!
ZongoNuada | 4 hours ago
If Americans had reading comprehension, they would be really mad about your statement.
Skinny-on-the-Inside | 4 hours ago
I wish we tracked wealth gap as en economic health indicator instead of how well Dow jones performs or overall GDP.
Kelsig | 51 minutes ago
when that gap was shrinking at unprecedented margins in the biden years the media was lying that we were doomed to enter a recession because of it lol
Disastrous_Entry_362 | 4 hours ago
If you go look at that report and the top ten list of median wealth you can see it's a function of job housing costs. Not sure it makes sense to conclude much more than that. Certainly not any conclusions on the overall health of a nation.
pluralofjackinthebox | 4 hours ago
In the mid seventies in the US wages stopped keeping pace with GDP, but assets like the S&P, gold and housing kept pace with GDP. The whole system is tilted against working and in favor of owning.
Mid 70s is also when union membership starts its steep decline, alongside a half a century of tax cuts.
USMCActiveToReserve | 3 hours ago
Just buy stocks.
mcbobgorge | an hour ago
If you notice, you are on the economics subreddit, not the personal finance subreddit. So we are discussing the system itself, not how best to navigate the system as an individual.
yes______hornberger | 3 hours ago
As someone who is required to live in a single extremely HCOL area in order to do my job, I think you’re making a good point.
ForMoreYears | 4 hours ago
Ya no nothing to be derived from knowing that a handful of uberwealthy have so much money they skew the entire picture of Americans' wealth making them think they're actually far better of than they actually are. Nothing at all.
Disastrous_Entry_362 | 4 hours ago
I'm not trying to necessarily detract from that, just pointing out that Australia and New Zealand are 3 and 4 on that list.
ForMoreYears | 4 hours ago
Ok, and?
Disastrous_Entry_362 | 4 hours ago
And I'm pointing out that the connection your trying to make is nonsense. Housing costs dont indicate Canadians are better off than Americans due to repressive billionaires in the us. Which was what you were trying to imply
ForMoreYears | 4 hours ago
It indicates they have more wealth. Houses can be bought and sold. This is a wealth report and we're discussing wealth. Only nonsense here is you trying to poke holes in a rock solid analysis that shows Americans are, comparatively, quite poor.
Grouchy_Rule_8935 | 4 hours ago
US is the place to be if you are way above average and excel in your field. It is a rough place if you are average. It is a horrible place if you are below average.
watitdo | an hour ago
lol this guy thinks the US is a meritocracy. Bro, you aren’t above average, you’re lucky
Wide_Lock_Red | 12 minutes ago
I know a lot of people who came from poor beginnings and make good money. Its not that hard to get a job making low six figures with some work.
Johnny_Mneurotic | an hour ago
That's not a description of a healthy society.
Wide_Lock_Red | 17 minutes ago
If you make the median household income, 87.5k, and live in an average city then its pretty good.
I will agree there are better countries if you are say, 20th percentile.
Grouchy_Rule_8935 | 13 minutes ago
A household with kids making that while paying for private health insurance and America's prices for services and housing in my opinion will have to be budgeting heavily to survive and hoping not to run into any emergency. I won't call that pretty good.
Independent-Bag6544 | 5 hours ago
Median American net wealth is 193k based on Fed reserve data, so…
ForMoreYears | 5 hours ago
That's for a household so multiple adults. This is per single adult.
Lady_Rubberbones | 4 hours ago
And, question, do you have to have a house to be counted as a “household”? I’ve never received or seen a census in my life, so I wouldn’t know.
HerroCorumbia | 3 hours ago
No, household simply refers to the combined resources of everyone living together. If you don't pool your resources, you could simply not count yourself as part of a "household."
ForMoreYears | 4 hours ago
They don't ask you for information. Pretty sure they aggregate it from different sources like federal, state and county data.
Independent-Bag6544 | 3 hours ago
No that’s individually per fed
ForMoreYears | 2 hours ago
It's not. Fed reports household.
QaraKha | 4 hours ago
You also have to consider what that net wealth standard means when literally half the households are 3 or 4 roommates, who are not familial, working full time.
These are counted in household statistics but have dire effects: they won't benefit from sharing food like a family or a 'conventional' household might. Nor bills; each will pay insurance separately. Car insurance separately. Bills separately.
So in point of fact, not only are we talking about 3+ roommates having a net wealth TOGETHER fitting into that Fed reserve data, but that number is misleading because their marginal costs are higher than the so-called conventional household.
chrisjinna | an hour ago
I've looked up the wealth stats in the US. The top 50% is doing rather well. It's the bottom 50 that hasn't grown with the economy. And a lot of that comes down to the loss of low skill but higher paying jobs like manufacturing.
ForMoreYears | an hour ago
It's a lot more than 50% that aren't doing well...
No-Big4921 | 58 minutes ago
Not really, but it’s doesn’t need to be the case for it to be a major problem.
50% of a populace being systematically disenfranchised and left empty handed is already a completely unsustainable situation.
ForMoreYears | 55 minutes ago
I guess you'd have to define rather well here. Regardless, wealth inequality in the U.S. is a HUGE problem. The New Deal averted a likely second revolution. Let's see if the robber barons can figure out that people need to eat before that risk rears it's head any further.
Wide_Lock_Red | 11 minutes ago
Median household income is 87.5k. That is comfortable in most of thr country.
GreenWandElf | 20 minutes ago
How does this square with the fact that the US has a higher median income? Is it excess Canadian debt, ballooning housing costs, heavier saving, all of the above?
ForMoreYears | 18 minutes ago
I dont follow. The U.S. has a lower median income than Canada? The American average number is skewed by a small % of Americans that have ungodly amounts of money while Canada's is less so. That's the story.
GreenWandElf | 8 minutes ago
No, OP was posting wealth, not income. The median Canadian is much wealthier than the median American, but if you compare median incomes, Americans come out slightly ahead.
Americans make more money on average, not just because of the wealthy.
gohblu | 7 minutes ago
Their point is that it’s surprising that the US has a higher median income yet a lower median accumulated wealth.
xzvc873 | 3 hours ago
Why wuld you expect the median person to have any net worth at all? If you rent and have any debt your worth will be negative. Doesn't mean you're not living well.
harmothoe_ | 3 hours ago
They probably have retirement accounts.
xzvc873 | 3 hours ago
maybe the median net worth at a specific age would be more relevant. the average age in greece is 8 years older than the US btw.
Ok_Primary_1075 | 3 hours ago
Yeah, Elmo pulling up the numbers”
ForMoreYears | 2 hours ago
Literally.
SiegfriedVK | 5 hours ago
The median is just the middle. What's the mode? What amount of wealth is most common?
okiedokie1183 | 5 hours ago
The median of $69k still tells you half of the people in the US are under that number. That is staggering when the average is $696k. 170 million people have less than ten percent of the average. Basically saying half the country don’t have homes.
SiegfriedVK | 4 hours ago
Yeah, what I'm getting at is that this is probably even worse. Median is 69k but I'm betting most people are making nowhere near that much.
-Rush2112 | 4 hours ago
I think you are confusing wealth with annual income. Although annual income impacts wealth, it’s not the same. Wealth is the total value of everything you own minus debts.
SardScroll | 37 minutes ago
Net worth is the total value of your assets, minus debt. (Hence the "net" part).
ForMoreYears | 4 hours ago
It's wealth, not income, so includes everything like savings, home etc.
Kelsig | 50 minutes ago
asskicker1762 | 4 hours ago
Lol
SiegfriedVK | 4 hours ago
Skibidy
TGAILA | 6 hours ago
Politicians: Let's talk about affordability.
Also politicians: Here's another tax on your detergent and socks. Since they're imported, we add tariffs on top of sales taxes. Why are we worried about inflation again?
tombrady011235 | 5 hours ago
This administration is abhorrent for wealth equality and the irony is the people who are most vulnerable to wealth disparity are the ones who voted for him
Gvillegator | 2 hours ago
Income inequality has been accelerating in America for years dude. Trump is a symptom of the problem, not the cause.
tombrady011235 | an hour ago
Trump is the accelerant
pushaper | an hour ago
> Trump is a symptom of the problem, not the cause.
I still don't understand what people mean by this and am wondering if when people say it they are agreeing but referring to very different things.
Kabouki | 37 minutes ago
It means the problem existed before Trump and will not change after Trump is gone. While Trump is accelerating the problems, him going away will not magically fix things.
They may see other issues as the core problem, but for me it's that Americans in general just do not care about governance or Democracy any more. Far too many people want a king like figure to fix everything for em. And what we have now is just the expansion of the corruption that brings.
pushaper | 15 minutes ago
thanks for the explanation.
yrotsihfoedisgnorw | 31 minutes ago
Another angle of the irony is that the administration generally looks down on those vulnerable people. We see it in different places like when Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, talks about how the economy is booming because some people are taking nice trips and buying cars without for a second acknowledging that some people are struggling to put food on the table. Or when trump jokes, as he did when the Dells were in the Oval Office for the most recent trump Account photo op, that 'some people think $200k is a lot of money.' You couldn't assemble a group that is more out of touch than this administration about the every day finances of anyone other than the top few percent.
WAGE_SLAVERY | 3 hours ago
all US presidents have been servants of the ruling billionaire class for the past 75 years.
tombrady011235 | 2 hours ago
Not Obama. I love Obama
WAGE_SLAVERY | 2 hours ago
Good one
CautiousOptimism09 | 5 hours ago
One of the ways you wouldn't expect huh? Really Austerity isn't one of the ways neoliberalism has fucked the working class? Bro its a cornerstone of it.
PedanticSatiation | 2 hours ago
Austerity is a natural consequence of a shrinking labour share and a political and economic system that makes taxing capital to any significant extent practically impossible. We need fundamental economic reform globally, but people are too busy hating immigrants to realize who their real enemy is.
CautiousOptimism09 | 2 hours ago
Is so much easier to scapegoat a group of people as opposed to explaining the detail and nuance of why left populist messaging works.
BourgeoisAngst | 6 hours ago
Tax the loans taken out against unrealized gains and inherited unrealized gains and you target the two things ultra wealthy depend on to maintain their ill-gotten advantages, and bring capital gains tax rates up to income tax rates. This would be a good starting point for a framework that hopes to offset market failures that continue to concentrate wealth and stymie competition.
morbie5 | 4 hours ago
> Tax the loans taken out against unrealized gains and inherited unrealized gains and you target the two things ultra wealthy depend on to maintain their ill-gotten advantages, and bring capital gains tax rates up to income tax rates.
Neither of those are bad ideas but reddit overestimates how much revenue they will actually bring in and how much they will actually lower inequality.
BourgeoisAngst | 4 hours ago
I think they could make a decent dent over several generations of plutocrats dying off, and if paired with reforms in redistributive policies it would be more sustainable than the en vogue wealth tax proposals. LVT would be nice but would probably require a constitutional amendment (read: not possible)
morbie5 | 3 hours ago
> and if paired with reforms in redistributive policies
That is the meat and potatoes
> LVT would be nice but would probably require a constitutional amendment (read: not possible)
Or 5 of 9 agreeable justices on the supreme court (read: not possible) lol
DeathMetal007 | 5 hours ago
This won’t work because rich people will incorporate as a business and say they sell lifestyle videos where the loan is used to pay for assets to the media production. Then you have to tax all business loans and you’ve entered into a mess for no value returned to the government
BourgeoisAngst | 5 hours ago
IRS rules on pass-through entities, constructive dividends, hobby losses, and look-through provisions prevent individuals from turning personal leverage into tax-exempt corporate operations.
DeathMetal007 | 4 hours ago
Yes, there are rules, but it’s not cut and dry like a “tax on loans” is. The IRS wants business and pleasure to be separate, but it’s not easy when every friend is a business dinner.
radium1234 | 15 minutes ago
The classic American dream: multi-billionaires with the GDP of small nations gather round to keep their bank accounts completely insulated from the rest of society. Why fund public programs or pay into Social Security when you can buy a few VIP passes to the Oval Office and secure tailor-made tax breaks? Democracy is truly thriving—as long as your check clears first." These are truly malevolent people who are destroying the American dream, especially for the middle class.
tjwebecon | 5 hours ago
It is distressing that this article did not emphasize the role of excessive government spending and inflationary monetary policy in redistributing income from lower to upper income groups and from the private to the public sector. In fact, it could be argued that since the demise of the gold standard following the failure of the Bretton Woods and Smithsonian Agreements that exploding federal government deficits and national debt, financed in large measure by printing-press money, are primarily responsible for the increasing maldistribution of real income and purchasing power. Certainly the factors mentioned in the article are important, but profligate government spending financed with printing-press money are the main drivers of inflation and the consequent redistribution of income in the U.S. That neither the U.S. Congress nor the Federal Reserve have acknowledged their culpability suggests that the affordability crisis is likely to get worse before it gets better.
BourgeoisAngst | 5 hours ago
Yeah because wealth equality was such a historical norm before the advent of fiat currency /s
bsfurr | 5 hours ago
Well the two last Republican presidents both started forever wars in the Middle East that cost a trillions of dollars. They also gave tax breaks to the wealthiest Individuals and corporations. The party of Christian values is just as hateful ignorant as it’s ever been.
For Democrats, they have an uphill battle. You can’t just print money. They will have to shift funding away from war towards social programs. But all it takes is a false flag to undermine anything. The Democratic Party proposes. Even though Democrats are the lesser of the two evils, they are in a no win situation.
WoadRaidur | 5 hours ago
Sounds like your solution is to end fiat. Not that you proposed a solution, but it sounds like that's where you're going.
Good fucking luck with that lmao!
MrYdobon | 5 hours ago
Or reducing the deficit through a combination of reduced spending and a return to an honestly progressive tax policy.
DeathMetal007 | 5 hours ago
How was income redistributed from lower to upper income groups? Income has risen for all groups?
tjwebecon | 5 hours ago
Must I also provide a lecture in basic monetary theory? There are several reasons why inflation redistributes income, such as the fact that upper income groups own real assets (such as real estate, corporate equities, etc. that appreciate in value during inflation) and are less likely to be affected by the rising prices of necessities that comprise a smaller proportion of their budget compared with lower-income households (many of whom are on fixed incomes). But, let me at least refer you to perhaps the most classic explanation--the Cantillon Effect.
DeathMetal007 | 4 hours ago
Wealth inequality lowers inflation as the marginal propensity to consume is lower for high wealth individuals than for low wealth individuals. Inflation is demand increase and/or supply decrease such that lowering inequality will cause inflation.
Massive-Grocery7152 | 5 hours ago
Risen more for some than others
DeathMetal007 | 4 hours ago
Sure, but that’s not a bad thing against a good thing. That’s a good thing and a meh thing that are deeply linked.
chrisjinna | 6 hours ago
I think the wealth tax is silly for lots of reasons. But if you increase the corporate tax rate, it would encourage companies to pay employees more. At that point why not pay employees more when you just lose the money to taxes.
pewpewtopeepee | 6 hours ago
Wealth taxes on fungible assets are the only real corrective action we have for labor’s share of productivity gains being siphoned away for decades by neoliberal policies.
mcbobgorge | an hour ago
What about a land value tax?
chrisjinna | 6 hours ago
No one wants to listen to your Karl Marx word salad BS. We all know all you jokers just want is a handout. Not to actually work. Well maybe 15 hours a week knitting mittens for a "livable wage."
jobmarketsucks | 6 hours ago
Wage stagnation is a real, documented problem. Why would anybody argue against fewer hours and better wages? That's like saying the point of life is to increase shareholder value. It goes against common sense and all self-interest.
Username_Reported | 5 hours ago
Idk man, I fought in a war and came home fucked up. All I get is a "you want a fucking handout?!"
Nah man. Some of us just werent dealt the Trump card or rich daddy card.
12-34 | 6 hours ago
This went to silly invective quickly.
DeArgonaut | 6 hours ago
Marx advocated for the workers owning the means of production, a wealth tax is still under capitalism
Randomdumpling | 5 hours ago
And coops come close. But even there, people complain and don’t want to work. Inherently, no one really wants to work for the time they need to or do repetitive things. They just have to do it.
And no one ever refuses a handout. Even our political system is now interested in giving handouts.
DeArgonaut | 3 hours ago
Okay, then make everywhere a co-op since it doesn’t matter and then they all have higher standards of living having extra equity
pewpewtopeepee | 6 hours ago
I make double the household median income as an individual and I am not a Marxist.
Due-Freedom-5968 | 6 hours ago
Hehe, oh sweet summer child.
chrisjinna | 6 hours ago
I know. I forgot reddit is nothing but communist a factory pumping out adjectives.
Due-Freedom-5968 | 5 hours ago
I feel like there's either a word or some grammar missing from that sentence...
The only thing that increasing corporation tax does is to reduce investment and discourage businesses. It doesn't result in CEOs going "you know what, lets pay the workers more to avoid tax" instead they'll start looking at what prices they can raise, which workers they can cut, and/or how they can slow their hiring in order to maintain post-tax earnings for their shareholders, as per their fiduciary duty.
This has been studied both in Europe and the USA and is a well understood phenomenon.
rhino369 | 5 hours ago
>But if you increase the corporate tax rate, it would encourage companies to pay employees more.
Why do you think that? Why would taxing share holders make them decrease profits even more?