1
0

All About Wealth Disparity


 invite response                
2007 Apr 21, 8:43am   30,233 views  234 comments

by HARM   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

One of the topics that has kept coming up over the 2 years of this blog's existence is wealth and income disparity. It's pretty obvious from a number of different sources and metrics that --after heading down for several generations-- it's been going up over the past 35 years or so in the U.S. In fact the U.S. is now closer to China or Iran in terms of wealth distribution (as measured by the Gini Coefficient) than Canada or Western Europe.

Some of the regulars here (myself included) view this as an alarming trend, with some disturbing implications, such as:
  • A gradually shrinking middle class (however one chooses to define that), and increasingly bifurcated economy/society.

  • Less overall economic/social mobility (fewer opportunities for ambitious, intelligent poor people to join the ranks of the middle class, or move from middle to wealthy class).

  • Potential for greater social/political unrest, as wealth disparity approaches Third-world levels (What good is it to be "middle class" or wealthy, if it means having to live in a heavily fortified compound that you cannot leave without bringing along a small private army to protect you, a-la Mexico or Colombia?).

  • The devolution of our economy, from "free market" capitalism, based (at least somewhat) on the concepts of rule-of-law, meritocracy, competition and personal responsibility, to one based more on kleptocracy, plutocracy, corruption, and political connections.

  • The growing phenomenon of "Privatize Profits, Socialize Risks", where politically well connected big businesses and de-facto cartels attempt to insulate themselves from competition, and seek to transfer the consequences of their own bad financial decisions to taxpayers, via federal laws, subsidies and bailouts.


  • Some of our Patrick.net regulars appear to think this may be a symptom of an inevitable mega-trend that no amount of social engineering or tax redistribution can stop. Some even consider the emergence of a large, prosperous middle class as a historical aberration, that we are now in the process of "correcting". Peter P has often commented that, "no matter how you redistribute wealth, it always ends up in the same hands". And there may be validity to this view: consider the spectacular rise and fall of Communism in the Twentieth Century. There is also the notion that our economy has progressed to the point where wealth disparity is unlikely to lead to the kinds of social/political unrest it has in the past (French, Russian Revolutions, etc.), because for the most part, citizens' basic physical needs are still being met. A.k.a., the "bread and circuses" argument (see Maslow's hierarchy of needs).

    The big questions for me are:

    1) Is the decline of the middle class and bifurcation of the U.S. economy an inevitable result of macro-economic and historical forces beyond our ability to influence (such as global wage arbitrage and the transition from being an industrial power to a primarily service-based economy)?

    2) Is it theoretically possible to reverse this trend through social/economic policies, and if so, how? Is Different Sean-style socialism the only way? (see "How does one regulate 'well'?")

    3) If such reforms are theoretically possible, are they practically feasible? (i.e., is it realistic to assume political opposition from entrenched special interests can ever be overcome?)

    Discuss, enjoy...

    HARM

    « First        Comments 220 - 234 of 234        Search these comments

    220   Patrick   2024 May 22, 2:55pm  

    HARM says

    There is also the notion that our economy has progressed to the point where wealth disparity is unlikely to lead to the kinds of social/political unrest it has in the past (French, Russian Revolutions, etc.), because for the most part, citizens' basic physical needs are still being met. A.k.a., the "bread and circuses" argument




    221   AmericanKulak   2024 May 22, 4:52pm  

    I have a feeling that Sportsball is really on the decline, esp. with the younger generations.
    224   GNL   2024 Sep 3, 9:18pm  

    Patrick says





    Only 447,000?
    225   DOGEWontAmountToShit   2024 Sep 3, 9:29pm  

    It's the Cantillon Effect, pure and simple. And it has been going on since we left the gold standard:

    https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
    226   WookieMan   2024 Sep 3, 9:35pm  

    AmericanKulak says

    I have a feeling that Sportsball is really on the decline, esp. with the younger generations.

    Too much to do. All you have is the the NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL and throw in Tennis and golf I guess? Everyone knows they aren't gonna make it statistically, so less interest. My kids are done with baseball. My oldest would rather play volleyball. Golf. The others are good with golf, track, soccer, etc.

    Football is going away. Too much brain damage. The leagues are just bad now. They'll claim the talent is better. There's no best ever coming up in any of the major professional sports right now. Sports betting also tainted the waters. That's why individual sports are going to beat out team sports. Easy as can be for one person to throw a team game. Even collegiate level. Kickers, goalies, pitchers, quarterback, etc. You can have an off day/night and make $100k or whatever you wanted to bet. Just have someone else make the bet and you give them a 20% cut.

    There's no point in golf or tennis. They were smart in those leagues. You make massive money when you win that it's not worth throwing a match or tournament. You get to choose your sponsors.

    I'd rather play frisbee golf, float a river, ice fish, go to a concert, barbecue, trivia at a bar, ping pong, hike, camp, have a fire, shoot, yard games, sand volley ball, watch stuff and learn new skills (on a pickling binge now), vacation, on and on and on. I have lost all interest in watching sports or TV in general. They had to legalize the gambling and make fantasy a big thing. I don't have time for that shit and I don't work many hours. I let my buddies know my take on 5 hour fantasy drafts. You're a loser, go work or do something fun.

    Marriage isn't all it's cracked up to be, but I'm also not a loser that no one would settle down with. Work together and create a team. Not sure I fall in the "younger" element. I was extremely athletic. All state twice. I'm just done having an interest in the major sport leagues. It's all fixed.
    227   AD   2024 Sep 3, 10:47pm  

    WookieMan says

    AmericanKulak says

    I have a feeling that Sportsball is really on the decline, esp. with the younger generations.

    Too much to do. All you have is the the NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL and throw in Tennis and golf I guess? Everyone knows they aren't gonna make it statistically, so less interest. My kids are done with baseball. My oldest would rather play volleyball. Golf. The others are good with golf, track, soccer, etc.

    Football is going away. Too much brain damage.


    Sports tourism (softball, soccer, baseball and lacrosse tournaments) is becoming the rage in Panama City Beach, especially at the newly built Panama City Beach Sports Complex.

    Its a tourism magnet from Tennessee and Georgia rich white suburbs as they come down for the sports tournament and then spend a few days on the beach after it.

    Now the county's tourist development council is building an indoor arena next to the sports complex for multi use including volleyball and basketball tournaments, trade shows / conventions, indoor flea market and emergency operations center usage rated for at least 200 mile per hour winds.

    https://www.mypanhandle.com/news/local-news/bay-county/panama-city-beach/bay-co-tdc-pitches-new-41-million-indoor-sports-center/

    .
    228   WookieMan   2024 Sep 3, 11:04pm  

    AD says

    Sports tourism (softball, soccer, baseball and lacrosse tournaments) is becoming the rage in Panama City Beach, especially at the newly built Panama City Beach Sports Complex.

    Its a tourism magnet from Tennessee and Georgia rich white suburbs as they come down for the sports tournament and then spend a few days on the beach after it.

    Travel league shit from crazy parents. My SIL was just in Mobile, AL for football. From IL.... You're right though. These sport complexes are taking advantage of the morons that do travel leagues. If it wasn't for travel leagues, no one is going to Mobile, AL.

    Whole other thread should be made for it if you have kids. Short rant. Complete. Bull. Shit. NEVER put your kids in this stuff or spend the money. I can take all 5 of our family members to the Caribbean, Europe, etc. for the price and travel of these fucking leagues for children that aren't even that good.

    I'd rather take the kids to PCB and just enjoy the beach and do some local activities. Again, I'm athletic, still kind of am, but at some point experiences are better than sports. I hate the jock mentality. I was smoking pot, drinking and almost winning state championships in high school. These parents pay $4-6k for these travel leagues. I don't need to see them play. I can just look at them and tell the parent to not waste the time and money. I know a loser athletically when I see them. They don't even have to be playing. Hence why I don't coach. Macho dads that thought they were good as a kid get in may face, guess what. They might die. So I don't coach.
    231   GNL   2024 Sep 7, 6:36pm  

    The bottom 50% don’t own squat.
    232   WookieMan   2024 Sep 7, 7:01pm  

    GNL says

    The bottom 50% don’t own squat.

    Own or pay. Getting into tax prep mode already. We'll be $40k deep this year I think. Withdrawn as a W-2 employee so we usually never owe and don't take all our exemptions. Loan to the cock sucking government. I don't want to owe though, especially right now. Need to be $150-200k liquid cash.

    The bottom 50% is true. It grinds my nutts when people talk about taxes. I know their pay. I'm nice about it. But I know you paid nothing into the system, yet bitch about paying no taxes. We need better high school education on economics. People that think they're paying taxes have no clue they're not.
    234   WookieMan   2024 Dec 12, 2:17pm  

    zzyzzx says





    My fucking sister brought dad out during Thanksgiving. I got her joke it was just awkward. Really didn't need to eat knowing my fathers remains were sitting right there. 90% sure she was trolling me. Bitch. I called her that too. It wasn't about the ashes, she knew I hated him.

    It's just like, we gotta being doing this now? He's the last person I had any thanks for.

    « First        Comments 220 - 234 of 234        Search these comments

    Please register to comment:

    api   best comments   contact   latest images   memes   one year ago   random   suggestions   gaiste