Wealth Inequality in America

[Buffalo Bill]

Interesting video that I've seen around. Interesting to me is the difference between perception and reality.

Wealth Inequality in America - YouTube

[RadicalModerate]

That was amazing. I'd seen something like it before, but this one spells it out even better. Still, I have to admit that it makes my head hurt and gives me a vague sense of nausea. Who is allowing the top executives of various corportations to be so overpaid? The shareholders? The boards of directors? Who has been most instrumental in letting this situation develop? And what can reverse the trend if it is possible to reverse it?

[venture]

Definitely an awesome video. Saw it a few days ago. Pretty powerful message if you aren't going in with a closed mind and apparent bias.

[RadicalModerate]

I just found out that four of the top ten richest people in America have the name "Walton" attached. As in Sam Walton, as in Walmart. So, I suppose that this situation is essentially OUR fault . . . =) I know, I know, the Walmart Empire is only a tiny shard of the !% iceberg but I'd still like to know who let the deck get stacked--or who weighted the wheel of fortune--to allow for this sort of monopolization of wealth . . .

btw: I really do have an open mind on all this. I'm not a materialist (nor a mandatory socialist). It simply seems that a situation such as the one described in the video cannot possibly continue to evolve indefinately. and when "the tipping point occurs" . . . fortunately, it's all imaginary money because if a pile of cash that big fell over someone is liable to get hurt.

[onthestrip]

Saw this yesterday, I hope it gets about 350million views.

This is probably part of the reason Romney didnt win. Imagine how much worse it could get if he had been elected. And this makes me laugh at those that thought it was such a bad idea to raise the top tax rate by a measly 3%. No middle class equals very little to no economic expansion. The rich can only buy so much, you need a big segment of the population to be able to go out to eat, buy Nikes, and take vacations too.

[RadicalModerate]

Didn't even Henry Ford realize that he had to pay his workers at least enough to be able to buy one of the cars they were producing?
And where would that money come from? A little less for him, I suppose.

[Bunty]

I just found out that four of the top ten richest people in America have the name "Walton" attached. As in Sam Walton, as in Walmart. So, I suppose that this situation is essentially OUR fault . . . =) I know, I know, the Walmart Empire is only a tiny shard of the !% iceberg but I'd still like to know who let the deck get stacked--or who weighted the wheel of fortune--to allow for this sort of monoplization of wealth . . .

btw: I really do have an open mind on all this. I'm not a materialist (nor a mandatory socialist). It simply seems that a situation such as the one described in the video cannot possibly continue to evolve indefinately. and when "the tipping point occurs" . . . fortunately, it's all imaginary money because if a pile of cash that big fell over someone is liable to get hurt.

Why is there so huge difference between people who come up with business ideas that work out to mean billion$, while so many people find it a struggle to keep solvent working from paycheck to paycheck. Maybe too many people have lazy minds in this capitalist society we live in. Who hasn't seen a TV info commercial of a clever gadget and thought, "Why didn't I think of that?".

[RadicalModerate]

Good point. Yet you seem to be confusing the inventor of something with the money managers who buy them out. I doubt that there are very many Pet Rock/Pocket Fisherman peeps in that 1% referred to in the video . . . it's analogous to Tesla vs. Edison (and Westinghouse).

[venture]

Didn't even Henry Ford realize that he had to pay his workers at least enough to be able to buy one of the cars they were producing?
And where would that money come from? A little less for him, I suppose.

Not many Henry Fords left today...if any.

[RadicalModerate]

Heck . . . even J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and some others realized they couldn't take it with them and tried to spread around a lot of what they had accumulated while they still had the opportunity to do so. Without being directly forced to. Sort of a "conscience" think I suppose. Implying the possession of a soul. =)

Of course--being as smart and industrious as they were--they may have been trying selfishly to avert a Domestic Bolshevik Revolution that would have made the French Revolution look like a picnic in the park by Monet or Manet or whomever.

ps: rumor has it that Henry Ford was a big fan of Hitler . . . for awhile/to a point.

[flintysooner]

I thought I remembered something similar late last year about China. The article was China's Gini Index at 0.61, University Report Says -
but referenced China's Gini Index at 0.61, University Report Says -

[BoulderSooner]

That was amazing. I'd seen something like it before, but this one spells it out even better. Still, I have to admit that it makes my head hurt and gives me a vague sense of nausea. Who is allowing the top executives of various corportations to be so overpaid? The shareholders? The boards of directors? Who has been most instrumental in letting this situation develop? And what can reverse the trend if it is possible to reverse it?

they are not overpaid general rule (clearly some are) .. ceo's and presidents have an elite skill set and are scarce thus they are highly paid ...

also the more "responsibility" they add the more the pay goes up ...

[jerrywall]

That was amazing. I'd seen something like it before, but this one spells it out even better. Still, I have to admit that it makes my head hurt and gives me a vague sense of nausea. Who is allowing the top executives of various corportations to be so overpaid? The shareholders? The boards of directors? Who has been most instrumental in letting this situation develop? And what can reverse the trend if it is possible to reverse it?

Why should it be reversed? How does it affect you in any way if someone is overpaid? And do folks think that people pull Scrooge McDucks and just swim in their money bins full of cash? Most wealth is either spent, invested, or put into banks (where it is spent or invested). There are always exceptions, of course.

If the Wal-Mart CEO worked for free, and put all his salary into employee wages, the average Wal-Mart employee would make just under 1 cent an hour more.

In truth, the only ones helped when CEOs make less, and the only ones who'd stand to make more money by paying CEOs less, are the money managers and investors who are so "evil", since the companies would be able to pay bigger dividends.

[onthestrip]

they are not overpaid general rule (clearly some are) .. ceo's and presidents have an elite skill set and are scarce thus they are highly paid ...

This is certainly what the CEOs and board members of the world all say but I dont buy it. I dont buy that there are so few good CEOs out there that they should be paid 380x what the average worker makes. I just dont buy. If this is the case why does it seem so many CEOs are hired and fired so frequently? If they were so scarce I would think more CEOs would be keeping their job longer.

[Bunty]

Good point. Yet you seem to be confusing the inventor of something with the money managers who buy them out. I doubt that there are very many Pet Rock/Pocket Fisherman peeps in that 1% referred to in the video . . . it's analogous to Tesla vs. Edison (and Westinghouse).

One exception to the rule. Mark Zuckerberg did not sell out his idea for Facebook.

[RadicalModerate]

Why should it be reversed? How does it affect you in any way if someone is overpaid? And do folks think that people pull Scrooge McDucks and just swim in their money bins full of cash? Most wealth is either spent, invested, or put into banks (where it is spent or invested). There are always exceptions, of course.

If the Wal-Mart CEO worked for free, and put all his salary into employee wages, the average Wal-Mart employee would make just under 1 cent an hour more.

In truth, the only ones helped when CEOs make less, and the only ones who'd stand to make more money by paying CEOs less, are the money managers and investors who are so "evil", since the companies would be able to pay bigger dividends.

(ayn rand is buried in that little one to the lower left)

[jerrywall]

Think of the sense of accomplishment all those Egyptian slaves had once they were done... :P

[RadicalModerate]

=) I'll bet the Pharoah made MORE than 350 times than they did.
(so i guess his "pyramid scheme" actually worked!)

[flintysooner]

Think of the sense of accomplishment all those Egyptian slaves had once they were done... :P

I think I recall reading that evidence indicates the builders were largely not slaves. I kind of prefer the ancient astronaut theory myself but I am a romantic at heart.

[jerrywall]

I bet those aliens weren't paid enough though.

[RadicalModerate]

IlluminatiBilderburgers . . .
but seriously . . . couldn't/shouldn't/wouldn't ANY "reasonable" person see something "wrong" with the "metrics" in the OP's vid?
(and, by extension, the "reality" it purports to quantify? that is, the fact that Human Greed has reached an all-time high?)

excuse me: IlluminatiBuilderBetterBurgers.
(bunty!: wanna back me on this concept? Maybe you could get Facebook Mark Z to kick a few bucks this way . . .?)

[flintysooner]

I bet those aliens weren't paid enough though.

I am certain that's true but given their not so legal status and absence of credentials they probably had to make do.

[jerrywall]

You'd have to identify a harm, to describe it as "wrong". Otherwise, it's just based on a feeling. What's the harm when someone makes a lot, or is rich. And are there benefits of super-rich to society?

If harm is done in attaining the wealth, then that should be addressed, and often is. The wealth and high pay in and of itself isn't inherently wrong, IMO.

[RadicalModerate]

I am certain that's true but given their not so legal status and absence of credentials they probably had to make do.

At least they didn't have to deal with all of those pesky OSHA regulations serving only to drive up the cost of the project.
They had much pesky-er regulations . . . plus foremenforcers who couldn't speak English, Swahili, Spanish, Irish, Chinese or Babylonian.

(Yet . . . The scene, in the vid, at the top of the thread, just will not stand. It will not stand. Man.~Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski)

[sacolton]

The problem I see to what is happening and will only get worse is corporations are merging and becoming a monopoly. Big companies buying out small companies and either absorbing their patents or just to kill the competition. The small business owners are being weeded out and can't compete. It's all big business and it's going to keep get worse. The money is staying at the top. The almighty dollar, mainly yours, ends up going to the wealthy. Blame it on Capitalism. It's only going to get worse and someday there won't be a middle-class. Just poor and rich. Corporations will own everything.