Are income and wealth accumulating in proportionally fewer hands?

[Ted King]

I am curious, is there a consensus in the forum for the truth of that claim?

[Dennis S]

It doesn't matter what the forum thinks. It's obviously and provably true. Just Google it and the answer is everywhere.

[Ted King]

Dennis S wrote:
It doesn't matter what the forum thinks. It's obviously and provably true. Just Google it and the answer is everywhere.

I was thinking about building an argument for a rethinking about income and wealth distribution and this claim stands right at the beginning of the argument. That got me curious about how strong the consensus is about this essentially factual issue.

[Dennis S]

OK. I gotcha. I don't think the forum is a good cross-section, though. Go stand in front of a Walmart with a clipboard and see what you get.

[max]

Dennis S wrote:
OK. I gotcha. I don't think the forum is a good cross-section, though. Go stand in front of a Walmart with a clipboard and see what you get.

No worry, Walmart denizens will agree 200% with most of the views on this forum....

[Ted King]

Dennis S wrote:
OK. I gotcha. I don't think the forum is a good cross-section, though. Go stand in front of a Walmart with a clipboard and see what you get.

I was assuming that the people of this forum would be who the argument was directed to. I imagine there are decent polls on the matter somewhere I could look up, but I wanted to see if there was enough consensus in the forum for me to feel comfortable with going ahead and making that assumption in framing the argument.

And if someone did disagree, then maybe I could engage them a discussion of the reasons for disagreement. Through that process I might come upon something that would change the argument I had in mind.

[davester]

It's interesting that you are asking for an opinion about a fact. For people like me, if asked a question like that I always check the available data and then provide an answer based on those. If I can't get at data then I would generally not offer an opinion. If everybody did that then there would be no debate I suppose. However, it sounds as though you are expecting that many people would just render an opinion without even looking for any data for back up. Sadly, I think that a lot of people in the US do just this because they have never been taught critical thinking skills.

Some data:

Income inequality went way down with the New Deal, the rise of unions and better labor laws in the 1930s and 1940s. Things were good until the mid 1970s, and the rot and rise of the plutocrats really set in badly when Ronald Reagan was elected and has continued to the present.


Family income went to hell at the same time that the plutocrats started their takeover.


This is an interesting one. The Gini coefficient summarizes income inequality in a single number and is one of the most commonly used measures of income inequality. The southern red states seem to have the highest inequality (still left over from the days of slavery?) but always vote for the folks who support policies that increase that inequality. Go figure.

[August West]

[Bill in NC]

Increased labor productivity means employers need fewer and fewer employees (i.e., all recoveries will be 'jobless')

With U.S. workers competing against workers in every other nation in the world I don't see anything changing...just a long slow slide down in their compensation to the world average.

Capital is so fluid I don't see any legislative solution - try and restrict its use here and it easily flows overseas.

[Dennis S]

Also, as long as the unemployment rate stays where it is, companies will hire Americans for reduced wages.