Writing for the outlet, Andrew Lisa explained that Americans hold a combined $160.35 trillion in wealth. To the average person, that sounds like quite the payday, but someone in the top 1% probably wouldn’t see it that way. According to Lisa, “The bottom 50% of the country shares less than 3% of that enormous pie, while the most fortunate 10% gorge on nearly all of it.”
There are approximately 340.11 million people in the U.S. If they all shared that $160.35 trillion, each person would come away with $471,465. Not only is that more than the average person could even imagine, but it only compounds when you consider how it would add up for families. For example, a couple would hold a combined $942,930, and a family of four would have $1.89 million. Because, of course, in an ideal world, wealth would be distributed evenly regardless of age.
The author makes solid points as to just exactly how fucked up our wealth distribution is, but smearing it around evenly would be a disaster.
Had this conversation with a friend in the early 90s:
Mike was really upset when he found out that the government burned and shredded worn currency.
“They could just give that to the people!”
“Well, yeah, and it’s well within the government’s power to give us $1M each. Want them to do that?”
“Hell yeah!”
“OK, you know I have a one-man lawn service and charge $20 a lawn, right? If I had one million dollars, how much do you think I would start charging? Hell, I wouldn’t consider anything less than $10,000, if that, because I already have a million dollars.”
“Yeah, but you could still get a righteous meal at McDonald’s for $20!”
🤦🏻♂️
We’re not going to get anywhere talking about wealth redistribution because American’s interpret that as the undeserving taking their hard earned money. We need to make the wealthy, not the merely rich, our enemies. We need to talk about how they are already taking our hard earned money.
With enough money, you could work less, and mow your own lawn. Cook your own food. If you had a million dollars, in most regions you could afford to live sustainably with very little income. Conveniences like lawn care and fast food would cost more because less people would be desperate to work long hours for minimal pay… but you would have more money to pay them.
If you want the luxury of having others do these things for you, you would probably keep working to make more money anyway. The same applies to the people who cook food and mow lawns - if they want luxuries, they would work for them. They would probably just work a bit less and charge a bit more. Like, say, 32 hours a week, and $30 an hour.
Wrong. You would charge nothing because at such an unreasonable rate no one would pay you for lawn service. You would have a lawn service in name only and certainly not a “business”.
Except if everyone had that kind of money who is really out the mowing lawns for $40?
Considering the cost of housing, healthcare, food etc intelligent people who realize ~$400k to ~$1.80m isn’t “fuck you” money.
Those things should be nationalized, anyway.
I don’t disagree with that sentiment.
I agree, but it’s enough to set you up for a better job. If you were living off like 60k a year you could invest that and be set for a while too.
Exactly! You could invest it, take some time off, go back to school, learn that skill, or skills, you always wanted but never had time for but ultimately you’ll end up working again, maybe for yourself. Sure its possible you make some amazing investment(s) and never have to work again but in all likelihood you end up back in the grind.
Really my point was that the person I was replying to made a bad argument. $400k and $1.80m sound like astounding quantities of money but reality says they are not.
I agree, but back to the point, when you get back in the work force it won’t be mowing lawns. All the low level, unskilled labor would go away and throw the economy into chaos.
That’s a really bad example of what wealth redistribution actually entails. It’s not Robin hood giving the money off the rich to the poor, but rather the govt taxing the rich more, investing that in infrastructure, where Jim Bob can earn a paycheck and use it to buy a house.
That way people get infrastructure and housing, wist the rich have slightly less money sitting idle on a bank account. That way the money gets invested in the county and for the people and everybody benefits.
Jim Bob loves his country more as it provided the means for him to buy his home and make some kids, he enjoys the benefits of healthcare, so he in unafraid to go to the doctor, he lives longer so he can see his grandchildren growing up.
unifying against a common enemy is easy as long as that enemy is easily identified. i propose the top 1% wealth-hoarders the target.
fun fact: in the US, the top 1% each have $10 million or more. that makes it easy to remember, and easy to point to.
This is fucking stupid. If everyone had a million dollars to start people would still want their lawns mowed. And other people would still want more than a million dollars. So your neighbours arent going to pay $10000 dollars to not have to mow their lawn but they still would pay 20. Or maybe up to 100. Starting everyone off on an equal footing wouldnt just magically rause the value of everything, theres plenty of small business owners that make a million dollars and they don’t just stop working.
People would want their lawns mowed but who would mow it? I mean if my family was suddenly millionaires why would I kill myself in the heat for a few bucks a mow. There might be a big landscaping company that makes millions, but the people pushing the mower don’t see that. I think you’d see a mass exit of low level workers which would cripple the economy.
Anybody who likes mowing lawns and is happy to get paid for it.
The thing about having that financial stability behind you means you wouldn’t have to work a job you hate to survive. People could pursue the things they enjoy to earn money because they wouldn’t be dependent on just that income.
I work for a tech company in Property Preservation, this is my bread and butter. Mowing lawns is not glamorous. There are often issues, pay is often changing and has to be negotiated, having a reliable crew is hard, handling equipment issues with a schedule is a nightmare, it’s not a fun happy job. There are people who enjoy it, but it’s hard work. With that kind of money you can get skilled up to a job that is less hard on your body, not exposed to the elements, and pays better.
And I’m telling you that no one enjoys mowing lawns for 8 hours in the Arizona heat or dealing with traffic to drive around urban areas with your equipment, it won’t happen.
Then expand this to other jobs. Who is working the drive thru at Wendys for fun? Who is getting yelled at as Walmart Customer Service for fun? These jobs aren’t fun, people do them because it’s the best way they can survive in their current situation.
Ok, I disagree.
It’s cool, you can be wrong, people are wrong all the time.
But I’m sure you’re right, people would for sure work at McDonald’s for fun. Lol. So obvious you’ve never had that kind of job.
When not necessarily being forced to do a thing, people may actually choose to do a thing, because it’s no longer survival/crises dependent. And McDonald’s is garbage fill-up with no nutritional value being kcal anyway.
What? Why is the nutritional value of McDonald’s even coming up. It seems like you’re missing the point entirely.
Everyone seems to be ignoring reality. They’re are rough, shitty, low paying jobs. No one will do those for fun, but they are needed. If all those workers were gone one day, the economy would plummet.
You think someone wants to work the front desk at a motel for fun? You think someone is going to load and unload boxes for a supermsrket for fun? Do you think someone is cleaning toilets for fun? Wake up, this is a fantasy.
Ok, whatever you say. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Well I mean you never once came up with a valid counter point, so I guess we agree there lol
You’re gonna love it when you try to loop in the age-old tradition of wage theft to the conversation. It’s currently topping the charts in the US for another year, folks! (That’s what. Two centuries or something now?) Above on-site theft like shoplifting, etc., and even employee theft — despite what the news tells us. Every minute shorted from your break, every tipped manager, etc.