Utopia Talk / Politics / Top 1%’s Share of U.S. Wealth

murder Member	Sat Feb 08 21:03:32 1989 22.8% 1994 25.7% 1999 27.5% 2004 26.9% 2009 28.1% 2014 30.4% 2019 30.4% 2024 30.8% http://www...-s-wealth-over-time-1989-2024/
murder Member	Sat Feb 08 21:04:22 A deeper look into the data reveals that the top 0.1%—the ultra-wealthy segment—accounts for 13.8% of the total net worth. The remaining 0.9% within the top 1% holds 17%. In dollar amounts, the top 1% held a staggering $49.2 trillion of wealth in 2024.
murder Member	Sat Feb 08 21:05:06 While the top 1% has expanded its grip on wealth, the bottom 50% (1st to 50th wealth percentiles) has seen its share shrink. In 1989, the bottom 50% held 3.5% of total U.S. net worth. Today, that figure has dropped to just 2.8%, reflecting widening wealth inequality within the country. -
Sam Adams Member	Sat Feb 08 22:39:06 Interesting, and i would suspect a bit too high but i dont know the ideal economic breakdown(some inequality is necessary) I wonder what yearly spending or income % would be. Thats probably a better economic indicator.
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 04:17:41 "a bit too high" lol. Based on what criteria? Zero thought about what constitutes an acceptable bar other than comparing to how much money-fixated people have grabbed in the past. This is how much feudal lords used to grab until very recently, so that should be the bar for the correct level. Idiot's comeback: "Cos that represents the highest IQs". No it doesnt, you fucking horribly superficial, utterly materialistic moron, none of the people generally seen as geniuses, from Newton to Einstein, had any interest at all in becoming billionaires, because devoting your life to that, from their perspective, is a miserable waste of the few micromoments we get to glimpse eternity. Statistically, you are far more likely to find psychopaths than geniuses among the very rich.
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 04:24:48 "“Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? ...University of San Diego School of Business, 12 percent of corporate senior leaders display a range of psychopathic traits. This “means psychopathy is up to 12 times more common among senior management than among the general population,” Croom wrote. That’s in line with the 15 percent rate of psychopathy found in prisons. However, more recent data found it’s now a much higher figure: 20 percent"
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 04:32:24 But you are a person who exhibits a lot of psychopathic tendencies and very little capacity for empathy, youve been diagnosed with a mental illness that is closely associated with psychopathy, and you were brought up and conditioned in a culture where fame and money is next to godliness, so, yeah, not much to add to that
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 04:41:54 I strongly suspect I earn more than you. I average between 50 and 100 dollars an hour, and up to 150 dollars an hour for one or two jobs each month. And I have zero interest in money. And you probably have money as one of your top priorities, but probably earn less than me. That is a big failure.
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 05:16:49 I.e., around 4-6k euro a month. Thats because I tend to work around 2-3 weeks a month. After I reach my monthly budget including savings, I take the rest of the month off, because I dont care about more money than I need. Because no way is caring about what the Joneses say is going to dictate a second of my life. I bet you can't. "The estimated total pay range for a Translator at European Union is €54K–€90K per year,"
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Sun Feb 09 12:11:01 lol wtb is as clueless as he is confident. As a reference, a prison guard in California makes 100k.
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Sun Feb 09 12:14:07 In Texas he would make 60k. So congrats wtb, you make US prison guard salary.
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 12:24:09 Im so sorry, little one, but you cannot ever be regarded as a serious person with a single serious view, exemplified, for example, by the fact that you see ElRon lying, you see the proof it it regularly, you know its true that he spreads falsehoods, but you dont care for a second. You are a political flatearther.
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 12:26:46 But a political flatearther who doesnt just spread harmless flatearth nonsene, but the dangerous and violent hatred of the religious war you brought with you as an immigrant from Iran. You poison the society that gave you shelter with hatred
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 12:33:07 Scientific rigour, honesty, rational facts weighed against proven falsehoods, none of these most fundamental qualities to being a serious adult exist at all for you. You are empty and stupid.
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Sun Feb 09 12:34:55 Lot of words for a man who is making prison guard salary. And you were so confident and everything. What happened?
jergul large member	Sun Feb 09 12:44:13 Cutie, wtb said that once comfortable, he prefers free time ahead of more money. I think we can conclude he is happy with a prison guard income and a lot more leisure time than a prison guard. I expect also a lot more pleasant working conditions <3.
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 13:02:21 He doesnt care, which is why he cannot be approached as a serious adult. He has the quasi-religious thinking of someone who discards the scientific facts that disprove him and instead creates a fictional fantasy by omitting them to suit the fake world he would prefer existed, even though he knows it doesnt. A political flatearther.
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 13:04:41 As he so fittingly proved once again here
Sam Adams Member	Sun Feb 09 15:01:06 Wtb please leave your blabbering mental illness out of this thread. Adults are trying to have a reasoned discussion.
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 16:49:05 " As a reference, a prison guard in California makes 100k." As of February 01, 2025, a Corrections Officer in California earns an average salary of $57,857 per year. http://www.../corrections-officer-salary/ca
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 16:53:18 No, the average prison officer in california does not make över a million sek a year lol, you little fibber
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 16:56:32 "The average prison officer salary in the USA is $41,829 per year or $20.11 per hour. Entry level positions start at $36,975 per year while the most experienced workers make up to $53,353 per year."
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 17:00:47 and apart from being a job that involves preparedness for violence and other unpleasantries, that probably includes night shifts, etc. You live in such a lalaland if you think working 9-5 as a prison guard pays 1,100,000 sek a year lol
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 17:04:24 "Correctional officers are often required to work overnight, at weekends and during holidays"
williamthebastard Member	Sun Feb 09 17:30:41 Lol Cost of Living in Los Angeles, CA is 21.4% higher than in Stockholm (without rent) Cost of Living Including Rent in Los Angeles, CA is 42.9% higher than in Stockholm Rent Prices in Los Angeles, CA are 96.0% higher than in Stockholm Restaurant Prices in Los Angeles, CA are 34.0% higher than in Stockholm Groceries Prices in Los Angeles, CA are 37.9% higher than in Stockholm >>>Local Purchasing Power in Los Angeles, CA is 2.7% higher than in Stockholm<<<
Forwyn Member	Sun Feb 09 21:44:21 Gee, we should import ten million more third-worlders who work below minimum wage, who does that benefit, at whose detriment again?
murder Member	Mon Feb 10 00:37:00 I'm sure you pay your cleaning lady $25 an hour. -
Forwyn Member	Mon Feb 10 09:21:59 Why would I need a cleaning lady? My wife stays at home.
Sam Adams Member	Mon Feb 10 17:35:38 A trustworthy cleaning lady is worth extra. Your trusting this lady in your house. A man who pays his cleaning lady minimum wage is a fool.
murder Member	Tue Feb 11 07:56:02 "My wife stays at home." I was pretty sure that was the case. And that was my point. You exploit the cheapest of labor. You are depressing wages for American workers.
Forwyn Member	Tue Feb 11 09:18:11 On the contrary, by allowing a potential worker to stay out of the labor force, demand is boosted for a role she might fulfill. This outweighs any loss of gig work.
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Tue Feb 11 17:01:22 William the turd presented us with a range of income for translators, then he conviently puts himself in the higher end and cites the average prison guard salary. Which, btw, I cited as a reference, because william the turd was confidently comparing himself with sam adams, not prison guards. Basic thing that william the turd and gheygul failed, which is ironic given that they are *both* translators and supposedly get paid to read and understand text. Hence why ghegul instantly went into pre-meltdown mode, it was a matter of professional pride. Gay pride. And this is assuming, however unlikely that the figures WTB report are net. I know what translating services in-voice, 50-150 euros are invoice numbers, not what william nets. Assuming he isn't still dodging taxes from the Swedish state. He totally does not care about money though and thinks the state (he refuses to pay to) should make sure everyone has what they need. Anyway: https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/por/ "Officers enjoy competitive pay starting at $5,350 up to $8,936." That is between 60k to 100k And some of you may wonder, why I know the salary of a prison guard in California, because I talked to one in November outside Folsom prison. I was in the US for work/business and had a week end to kill in Norther California, besides Tahoe, I visited Folsom prison, they have a Museum there. The outside guard lamented being tired of the "politics in California", but said that there was no way he would make as much money outside California. I was a bit shocked, because the QM manager I had taking me around to the sites I need to visit, who lives in Texas, makes 100k.
Hrothgar Member	Wed Feb 12 22:47:20 One thing worth considering with talk of "uneven wealth". Covid stimulus proved that there are not enough resources/manufacturing/product for everyone to have extra money to spend. When a big chunk of the world got extra cash from governments to keep the economy afloat, inflation got ugly. So, while we can probably work for moving those percentages around a bit, like trying to get it back to 1980s or 1960s wealth gaps, the idea of every single family having an American middle-class/upper middle-class lifestyle is just ridiculously infeasible. The world can't manufacture enough "stuff" for that level of consumption.
williamthebastard Member	Wed Feb 12 22:53:40 Nonsense. Sweden had a very large middle class for decades until rightwing politics took over. http://www.../article/pii/S0014498323000621
williamthebastard Member	Wed Feb 12 23:13:31 Key findings are that "households in the lowest income bracket paid 10 percent in tax, while the top marginal rate was 70 percent" and that Sweden went from "high levels of inequality in Sweden around 1900, since it was a country with deep political inequality (Bengtsson 2019)" due to unions and "important pro-labour reforms in the 1920s, such as the eight-hour working day in 1920".
williamthebastard Member	Wed Feb 12 23:18:55 The size of the middle class is simply a matter of where the entry level barriers for belonging to the middle class are placed in the construction of that particular society. They will be placed very high if the wealthiest have massive power to construct the society and lower if ordinary people have more power in deciding the design of their society
williamthebastard Member	Wed Feb 12 23:27:39 And, of course, society was in every respect much healthier during those decades of much lower income inequality. Very low crime rates, very low infant mortality, a highly educated general populace emerged giving Sweden very modern technology etc etc etc. The only people it sucked for were the Elon Musks who had to participate through taxes in maintaining this society that was good for everyone, not just them.
williamthebastard Member	Wed Feb 12 23:38:17 My Swedish side of the family belonged to the petite noblesse and they grew up in mansions until around the 1940s. Then they become merely upper middle class with a fancy surname and a comfortable bank account. I would guess that in line with Althusserian theory and my memory of my grandfather who grew up in a mansion and was an aristocratic battalion commander, explorer and author, the upper classes and middle classes were more respectful of each other as a result of coming more into contact with each other and sharing similar social spaces. I would think everything in society was better then, except for the top elite who couldnt amass quite as huge amounts of society's resources to rot away in bank vaults.
williamthebastard Member	Wed Feb 12 23:52:44 I would imagine that something similar can be seen in that short period in the 50s and 60s in the USA when the wealthy had to pay substantial taxes, known as the Golden Age. I would suspect you'd find concurrent low crime rates, higher levels of education among ordinary people leading to vast technological improvements, higher levels of happiness in society, stronger civil rights etc etc etc.
williamthebastard Member	Thu Feb 13 00:17:40 If a species of bird arrived that began hoarding food and resources that would last them thousands or tens of thousands of years to the detriment of the other birds in the region, we would brand them a harmful invasive species, an invasive parasite, that needs to be stamped out.
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Thu Feb 13 00:53:41 You’re family were trash. Everything you say is trash. Your morals are trash. You are garbage.
Forwyn Member	Thu Feb 13 09:27:05 Did right-wing politics take over in Sweden (lol), or did income equality trend negatively with market globalism?
Sam Adams Member	Thu Feb 13 09:51:57 Dont forget sweden imported an entire armada of criminals.
williamthebastard Member	Thu Feb 13 11:25:55 Sweden began slowly leaving its social democratic traditions in the 80s. It was really only from the early 1900s and progressively more toward the 70s that it was a social democratic country. By the 2000s it was a fully market liberal rather than a social liberal country, with some social democratic traditions remaining that have since then further eroded.
williamthebastard Member	Thu Feb 13 11:28:48 And since the 2000s, all classic social democratic markers have pointed downwards, quality of education, healthcare, public transport, wage equality etc., while crime, class inequality, etc have all increased.
williamthebastard Member	Thu Feb 13 11:41:53 And by around 2010, rightwing politics transformed into the usual rightwing culture war and racism, imported from mainly the USA via social media.
	show deleted posts

Your Name:
Your Password:
Your Message: