an Academic insight to the wealth distribution in the United States

[manihatethis]

You guys discuss a lot about wealth and the politics of it so this 1 hour documentary would be an interest to you. If you live in New York City, the vast differences from one part of the city to another is undeniable and growing in terms of income inequality and the possibility of coming out of poverty zones for those who were born in them. It's creeping into other towns and cities as the situation worsens. There is no stopping it with current economic policies. The video is from PBS and they are good broadcasters with regards to some neutrality in journalism.

Video: Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream | Watch Why Poverty? Online | PBS Video

 

[cheshire]

The middle class in this country is dead. That is why you see countries like China and others desperately trying to build a middle class in their own country.

Get rich boys or die trying because the door is slowly closing on opportunity here.

 

[erect]

I've always been gay for Stanley Tucci








... and Christopher Walken

 

[blogginginc]

Trailer

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgiW6EzKWDA]Park Avenue: money, power and the American dream - Why Poverty? Trailer - YouTube[/ame]

 

[erect]

meh.

 

[4HardSale]

PBS and they are good broadcasters with regards to some neutrality in journalism.

 

[BluAffiliate]

What these liberals don't get or appreciate is hard work. You often see them asking "how should we distribute wealth in this country" as if wealth is just an arbitrary quantity and it's completely random as to who has it and who doesn't; why should people feel bad if we move it around some to make things more fair?

The problem with this line of thinking you eventually run out of other people's money.

We're still a largely middle class country.

 

[rockstar45177]

The middle class in this country is dead. That is why you see countries like China and others desperately trying to build a middle class in their own country.

Get rich boys or die trying because the door is slowly closing on opportunity here.

fucking A this^^^^ all the way

the party won't last forever

 

[Fiver]

fucking A this^^^^ all the way

the party won't last forever

The party ended in the 80s.

 

[ly2 from WF]

The party ended in the 80s.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfNluQ888g4]Dirt Nasty - "1980" - YouTube[/ame]

 

[cassius]

What these liberals don't get or appreciate is hard work. You often see them asking "how should we distribute wealth in this country" as if wealth is just an arbitrary quantity and it's completely random as to who has it and who doesn't; why should people feel bad if we move it around some to make things more fair?

The problem with this line of thinking you eventually run out of other people's money.

We're still a largely middle class country.

Here's the article to go along with that figure so you aren't just posting a meanigless chart with no defined values.

The middle class falls further behind | syracuse.com

 

[samgeneric]

This is the stupidest, most biased documentary I've ever seen.

That segment on Ayn Rand is completely dishonest. The idea that Paul Ryan has somehow embraced Randianism is hilarious and stupid. The section on the Koch brothers is completely dishonest. And they present it as some sort of neutral, default position that because people with less money pay more in taxes politicians are leaving them in the dust by not taking more money from the millionaires and billionaires (to borrow a phrase created by marketing geniuses).

The only thing this documentary points out that is actually a problem is the collusion between government and private business.

Also, this wasn't an academic perspective on income inequality. This was a bit of propaganda. If you think this is academic, I can only assume you probably have no understanding of what it means for something to be academic.

 

[Instrumentalist]

What these liberals don't get or appreciate is hard work. You often see them asking "how should we distribute wealth in this country" as if wealth is just an arbitrary quantity and it's completely random as to who has it and who doesn't; why should people feel bad if we move it around some to make things more fair?

The problem with this line of thinking you eventually run out of other people's money.

We're still a largely middle class country.

If hard work was really a determining factor for wealth, then the people that blow my leaves for a living would be richer than I am.

It's not about hard work, it's about education, and leverage.

 

[samgeneric]

If hard work was really a determining factor for wealth, then the people that blow my leaves for a living would be richer than I am.

It's not about hard work, it's about education, and leverage.

This might be the stupidest argument in the history of economics. I'm so sick of hearing it employed.

It's such a non Sequitor. How does it have anything to do with the argument?

You're not defining your terms. What is "hard work"? Because their work certainly isn't intellectual. It isn't much of a risk to spend $300 to buy two leaf blowers. It isn't really all that hard to wake up early and work an eight hour day. What is hard is coming up with a really good idea, risking everything, mortgaging your home, getting a second mortgage on your home, working behind a desk 18 hours a day, making hundreds of phone calls a week, all the while your children and wife are wondering if they will be out on the street next week. Sweat doesn't mean difficulty.

 

[Moxie]

This might be the stupidest argument in the history of economics. I'm so sick of hearing it employed.

It's such a non Sequitor. How does it have anything to do with the argument?

You're not defining your terms. What is "hard work"? Because their work certainly isn't intellectual.

"Hard work" is a common phrase that usually refers to the "fatiguing" definition of "hard."

You'll frequently hear what Alaskan crab fisherman do referred to as "hard work", whereas not so much for what Steven Hawking does.

 

[samgeneric]

"Hard work" is a common phrase that usually refers to the "fatiguing" definition of "hard."

You'll frequently hear what Alaskan crab fisherman do referred to as "hard work", whereas not so much for what Steven Hawking does.

Which is why it's a non sequitor. I bet you are 100% capable of doing what Alaskan crab fisherman do. But I bet you're not at all capable of doing what Steven Hawking does. His skill is valuable and scarce, so he makes more. That's how this works. Discussing whether or not work is fatiguing is one of the most idiotic, silencing ways to approach this debate. I'm sorry, to use inflamatory and derogatorive words to describe the position. But believing that that sort of argument has any place in this debate is dishonest and unthoughtful.

If your leafblowing employees (which is what they are - the fact that they don't make that much is actually your fault so shut up about it) want to build a space ship and enter it the X-Prize, they too can make a million dollars. The reason they don't is because they aren't rocket scientists and they don't have the knowledge necessary to send men to space. That's not inequality, that's choice. They could have gone to MIT and acquired that skill. They didn't because they chose not to.

 

[Moxie]

Discussing whether or not work is fatiguing is one of the most idiotic, silencing ways to approach this debate.

What debate? I thought Instrumentalist was talking about hard work in relation to the "American dream", which is a concept that came about before he was born, one which has always been defined that anyone can succeed if they work hard enough, no matter what their IQ is. If you don't agree with that concept, then you are basically agreeing with what Instrumentalist said.

 

[BluAffiliate]

If hard work was really a determining factor for wealth, then the people that blow my leaves for a living would be richer than I am.

It's not about hard work, it's about education, and leverage.

Hard work = toiling? Just because someone spends a lot of their day doing a low skill task (let's face it, worse come to worse, you can get leaves off your own lawn, whereas the the leafblower dude would not be able to start his own business) doesn't make him a harder worker.

 

[guerilla]

I've stopped watching documentaries. It feels like they are all grinding one POV really hard, and they are able to do it by putting it in a format that makes people feel like they are being informed, rather than propagandized.

I am not saying that these documentaries don't have some truths, but when it comes to stuff like this, analyzing society, which is incredibly complicated, and I would argue almost impossible to do comprehensively, maybe it's better to be a little ignorant than very wrong.

There is a great line from Mark Twain

"If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed."

 

[REIMktg]

I just finished reading the source report referred to in the above link by cassius.
Pew source report

This too seems biased, as with everything as G said above.

The American Dream? Middle Class lifestyle? What are these, how are they defined?
Looking at the chart of Middle class and the loss to the lowest classification, imagine what it would be if those households were working? What if the housing/construction industry, mostly made up of those that would fall from middle class to lower without work would change the numbers.

These days two minimum wage earners can purchase the median priced home in the US with no money or 3% at most down.
Maybe people cannot maintain their perception of a middle class lifestyle which now includes $200/month cell bill, $200/month cable bill, $80/Internet, eating out everyday, etc.