Economy Income inequality and wasteful spending

[wufabufa]

As a former poor who grew up around other poors, it's pretty common knowledge that a large percentage of poor people are more concerned with not looking poor, than actually being poor. The amount of people in my trailer park wearing new Nikes or leasing expensive new cars while barely being able to afford the lot rent on a shitty single wide trailer was pretty crazy.

 

[LeonardoBjj]

I see a lot of posts on here about income inequality and it's always blamed on billionaires.

What I'm noticing now as a 40 year old man with investments is poor people are often dressed in more expensive clothes than me and driving a fancier, newer car than me.

I have to think a big part (probably the biggest part) of income inequality is that poor people just make dumb fucking decisions with their limited funds.

I drive a 15 year old van I bought on auction for $3k. I wear plain old jeans and a plain t shirt most days and shoes I got on sale at Mark's.

- It's the same here. I've got well off friends that still drive the same cars years after years. But the most broken ones, trade cars every year. Cars are like a status symbol here. About investiments, Brazil is a paradies for scammers, looks like six in every ten brazilian wantrs to get rich fast. THey all know someone who has a plan. @TheMoa can confirm that.

 

[KeepingItReal]

Dude you really need to go do some reading with an open mind. You fundamentally don’t understand the concept of wealth inequality. The idea is billionaires probably shouldn’t exist in the first, let alone hold over 90% of all the wealth in the country.

If you think that is an anti capitalist position, then you are still wrong. I am actually pro capitalist for the most part, even though you think I’m a communist. I can’t speak to Canada, but America is really a Croney capitalist country. We aren’t capitalist anymore. It’s bad for the country and it’s bad for society.

Edit: here’s a good introduction to the problem. It’s an old video that predates Trump and the current shitosphere of politics. It wasn’t made with Trump and Elon in mind.

Brother, they don't. You could just go to the Federal Reserve website and look at the latest data on wealth distribution and know this. The top 0.1% of household wealth was $22.14 Trillion in the last quarter of 2024. The total wealth held by all households was $160.35 Trillion. That's about 13.8% of wealth being held by the 0.1% of households. Keep in mind billionaires aren't even 0.01% of households in American.

Brother, that video talks about the top 20% of Americans, those are not billionaires, and billionaires are a tiny fraction of that 20%.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/chart/

 

[nostradumbass]

Brother, they don't. You could just go to the Federal Reserve website and look at the latest data on wealth distribution and know this. The top 0.1% of household wealth was $22.14 Trillion in the last quarter of 2024. The total wealth held by all households was $160.35 Trillion. That's about 13.8% of wealth being held by the 0.1% of households. Keep in mind billionaires aren't even 0.01% of households in American.

Brother, that video talks about the top 20% of Americans, those are not billionaires, and billionaires are a tiny fraction of that 20%.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/chart/

You think that guy's going to let facts get in the way of his feelings? 0.1% is still 350,000 people, and there are only like 810 billionaires in the country, and they heavily fluctuate between like $5-7 trillion, which is fluctuating closer to 3-4%, and nowhere close to "90% of all the wealth in the country". It was completely preposterous statement, and was likely him completely butchering the shit Bernie always says, which is "the top 1% own more wealth than the bottom 90%", not that "billionaires own 90% of the weath". WTF?

The real problem for them is that you could completely clean out every billionaire, confiscate everything they own, which you could only do once, and it wouldn't even cover 1 year of the current federal budget, let alone all the state and local, let alone all the additional shit they want paid for them.

 

[nhbbear]

I disagree. While many poor people are poor because they a. Refuse to work b. Make really shitty financial decisions c. Have no education d. Blame everyone else for their issues.
There is severe wealth disparity in this country even between the middle class and the wealthy. There shouldn’t be billionaires while we have people living on 20k/year. We shouldn’t have people with hundreds of millions of dollars while the middle class(educated and working) struggle monthly. Blame extreme capitalism, lack of taxes on the rich companies and people that skirt the tax laws, etc.

 

[Blayt7hh]

Brother, they don't. You could just go to the Federal Reserve website and look at the latest data on wealth distribution and know this. The top 0.1% of household wealth was $22.14 Trillion in the last quarter of 2024. The total wealth held by all households was $160.35 Trillion. That's about 13.8% of wealth being held by the 0.1% of households. Keep in mind billionaires aren't even 0.01% of households in American.

Brother, that video talks about the top 20% of Americans, those are not billionaires, and billionaires are a tiny fraction of that 20%.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/chart/

Yes I will admit I have a bit of a flair for the dramatic. Truly I couldn’t remember off the top of my head when I was typing and just threw out a big number. Admittedly I thought it was worse than the 33% that the top 1% holds but that is still very very bad.

The last paragraph I’m not sure what you’re getting at. It does cover billionaires separately in the video. This video is also over a decade old now and the gap has only accelerated in growth since then.

 

[Deleted member 592570]

You should give me money then, right? I'm entitled to it because you have more than me.

And just like that, he was gone.

 

[lowlife]

Damn bro this is a new low. smh

 

[Possum Jenkins]

Because all the budgeting and frugality in the world isn't gonna change this:

Capitalism is built on the fact that the ones in red and yellow have to far, far outnumber the ones in blue.

And their salaries HAVE to be much lower than everyone else's, it's part of the system. If everyone in the red and yellow go to school and become software engineers, the system would fall apart.

 

[Richmma80]

Generally, the low IQ instant gratification people will always be poor. High IQ delayed gratification people will always be rich.

If we pool up all the money in the world, and divide equally to everyone right now

In 10 years,

The poor people now will be poor

The rich people now will be rich

 

[sickc0d3r]

Generally, the low IQ instant gratification people will always be poor. High IQ delayed gratification people will always be rich.

If we pool up all the money in the world, and divide equally to everyone right now

In 10 years,

The poor people now will be poor

The rich people now will be rich

You got a link to back this up? From memory, as I've discussed this topic here in the past, roughly half of people who become poor (below the poverty line) in a given year are out of poverty a year later (that's because biggest driver of poverty for the working poor is job loss). 75 percent experience poverty for less than four years.
About a third of people in poverty are between 20 - 40 years old, and a fifth or so between 40 - 60. So, take away people who can't earn money, like children, the elderly, and the disabled, and people generally do improve their financial situation.

However, it's also true that the longer a person remains poor, the less likely he or she is to ever escape poverty.

 

[helltoupee]

A major problem here is that people don't understand how much a billion dollars actually is.

If you had 1 million slices of bread, you could eat one slice every single second of the day for 11.5 days.

If you had 1 billion slices of bread, you could eat 1 slice every single second, continuously, for 31 years,

 

[lowlife]

A major problem here is that people don't understand how much a billion dollars actually is.

If you had 1 million slices of bread, you could eat one slice every single second of the day for 11.5 days.

If you had 1 billion slices of bread, you could eat 1 slice every single second, continuously, for 31 years,

The amount of concentrated wealth in this country is obscene.

 

[Belaya Smert]

Yeah, but the guy on the left has a plat account.

 

[lweiberg]

Shocked that race hasn't been brought into this thread, so allow me -

Understanding Conspicuous Consumption (Via Race) Deeper understandings about highly visible luxury items

"Specifically, it was found that Blacks and Hispanics tended to spend more on more visible goods (like clothing, cars, and jewelry) than Whites by about 20-30%, depending on the estimate, while consuming relatively less in other categories like healthcare and education."

That figure apparently comes from CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION AND RACE.

 

[HomeCheese]

I see a lot of posts on here about income inequality and it's always blamed on billionaires.

What I'm noticing now as a 40 year old man with investments is poor people are often dressed in more expensive clothes than me and driving a fancier, newer car than me.

I have to think a big part (probably the biggest part) of income inequality is that poor people just make dumb fucking decisions with their limited funds.

I drive a 15 year old van I bought on auction for $3k. I wear plain old jeans and a plain t shirt most days and shoes I got on sale at Mark's.

But I also have over $100k in an investment portfolio with my bank.

I often see young people wearing fancy clothes and driving expensive cars that they can't possibly afford and must be financing.

The number of people you see with iPhones with shattered screens because they can't afford to get it fixed is staggering.

These same people are constantly complaining about capitalism and income inequality.

Can anyone in the capitalism = bad camp explain why you guys buy such expensive consumer goods?

Luxury Brands Are Status Symbols Only If You Can’t Afford Them

Why rich people are embracing minimalism, and the rest of us are Googling "Ralph Lauren" and "David Yurman."

newrepublic.com

How The Psychology Of Income Inequality Benefits Luxury Brands

The more extreme income inequality becomes, the more pressure people feel to create the impression that they’ve climbed up the social ladder.

www.forbes.com

I'll ignore this is one of those thinly vailed brag threads.

At some point a 40 year old man needs to look right. I hope you got a couple of fly outfits in your closet. You can't be looking like you work at the dollar tree all the time. Gotta head to the Banana Republic outlet at least.

 

[chardog]

Because when we were poor, we didn’t want to look it too. You have to enjoy life somehow, and at least nice clothes will give the illusion of not hating life.

I don’t get rich people constantly needing to make more and more money either.

they have an incredible drive to be successful

My wife and I run a successful business, and I dont care much for it, make a high income with my primary employment, however my wife wont stop at anything to make money like she's never seen it before....... she doesnt even count the money in our accounts, we withdrew 100K to buy the dip like 3 months ago............. and we've already replenished.......... but planning a trip next year and she's flipping out saying it's too expensive

it's like an obsession, success comes first, the money becomes an afterthought.

 

[chardog]

Dude you really need to go do some reading with an open mind. You fundamentally don’t understand the concept of wealth inequality. The idea is billionaires probably shouldn’t exist in the first, let alone hold over 90% of all the wealth in the country.

If you think that is an anti capitalist position, then you are still wrong. I am actually pro capitalist for the most part, even though you think I’m a communist. I can’t speak to Canada, but America is really a Croney capitalist country. We aren’t capitalist anymore. It’s bad for the country and it’s bad for society.

Edit: here’s a good introduction to the problem. It’s an old video that predates Trump and the current shitosphere of politics. It wasn’t made with Trump and Elon in mind.

this video doesnt show the problem, it shows a disparity, a disparity that is shared by all countries.

Share of Wealth Held by the Top 1% by Country (2023)
The following data comes from the Global Wealth Report 2023, as reported in posts on X:
Brazil: 48.4%

India: 41.0%

United States: 34.3%
Note: Other sources (e.g., Federal Reserve data for 2024) estimate the U.S. top 1% share at 30.8%, slightly lower than the 2023 figure.

China: 31.1%

Germany: 30.0%

South Korea: 23.1%

Italy: 23.1%

Australia: 21.7%

France: 21.2%

United Kingdom: 20.7%

Japan: 18.8%

Switzerland estimate ~40%

Luxembourg estimate ~35-45

South Africa ~45-50%

Canada: 25.7%

Mexico: 36%

Belgium: 20%

Spain: 22%

the video shows that 80 percentile and up is "Rich", that is 150K Household income income............................................................................

 

[sickc0d3r]

Because all the budgeting and frugality in the world isn't gonna change this:

Capitalism is built on the fact that the ones in red and yellow have to far, far outnumber the ones in blue.

And their salaries HAVE to be much lower than everyone else's, it's part of the system. If everyone in the red and yellow go to school and become software engineers, the system would fall apart.

The irony being that those low paid workers get shit on by flat tax, tax is theft types, being called non-contributors, when in fact they are essential to a working economy. Besides being cheap labor, their lack of disposable income means that every dollar they make, they spend. And most of the money goes right back to ownership (banks, land owners, etc), and local businesses.
That picture turned upside down is a funnel, which is a fine example of how the money in circulation actually flows from the poorest to the richest.

 

[helltoupee]

The irony being that those low paid workers get shit on by flat tax, tax is theft types, being called non-contributors, when in fact they are essential to a working economy. Besides being cheap labor, their lack of disposable income means that every dollar they make, they spend. And most of the money goes right back to ownership (banks, land owners, etc), and local businesses.
That picture turned upside down is a funnel, which is a fine example of how the money in circulation actually flows from the poorest to the richest.

The low income worker non contributor thing is bogus as well. They still pay sales taxes, property taxes (indirectly through rent), payroll taxes, gas taxes, etc.

Before Nixon, when virtually the entire country was democrat and republican economic policy was wildly unpopular, the ultra wealthy were looked down upon for being greedy and selfish - the idea being that they belonged to the country club and the rest of us didn't.

Nixon thought there was no way he could win with the current republican platform, when it was suggested to simply appeal to people's emotions - that's what wins elections - theatre - they literally believed that "Americans are stupid, they want their thinking done for them". Taking points from the John Birch society, Nixon's team set out to create boogeymen for middle class white men. Now it wasn't rich people causing their problems, it was the poor, minorities, immigrants, etc.

And ever since, a huge contingent of this country consistently votes against their best interests in favor of policy that only benefits one class. Sure, the democrats do this too, but at the very least the dems throw the middle class a few bones here and there.

Conservatives have had one policy and one policy only for 50 years. Trickle down. And you get threads like this where people defend stagnating wages, growing wealth inequality, etc., because they were sold a lottery ticket that if you just work hard, you too can be the next Donald Trump.