Inequality in the US is the worst it’s ever been, but it looks like people are still unaware of just how bad it really is. However, it’s understandable. The human brain has a hard time putting billions and trillions into perspective. We need comprehensive references to fully grasp such high numbers. Luckily, CBS This Morning decided to do this for us. A couple of days ago, they aired a segment that illustrated American inequality by using slices of pie. And it went viral.
The creative approach, presented by the show’s co-host Tony Dokoupil, allowed people to visualize how Americans are sharing $98 trillion of wealth they collectively possess.
Image credits: AnandWrites
Image credits: CBS This Morning
Image credits: AnandWrites
Nine pieces (90% of the pie) went to the wealthiest 20% in the country, according to a National Bureau Of Economic Research study of household wealth trends in States from 1962 to 2016. What makes it sound even worse, four of those nine slices belong to just the top 1%.
The upper-middle-class and the middle class shared one piece (about 10%), and the lower middle class got a few crumbs (.3%). The poorest people, Americans in the bottom 20%, didn’t even get anything since on average, they are more than $6,000 in debt.
The sad news is that America’s humongous wealth gap keeps widening. And while a steady economic expansion and historically low jobless rate masks problems in income and wealth, in reality, families live in very different financial situations.
Image credits: AnandWrites
Image credits: tonydokoupil
People were shocked to see how bad inequality has gotten after visualizing it
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If wealth is the result of hard work, how come a single mom working three jobs is still poor?
Easy, the main point everybody seems to miss is that it gets easier to amass money the more you have. Companies like Amazon pay little taxes and can borrow money at prime or less. The average person is lucky if they can get a loan at 10%.
The two absolute morons defending these huge, greedy companies are a large part of the problem. Get your heads out of your asses, you simpletons. Sorry Thomas, I couldn't respond to them directly.
Don't believe the liberal mainstream media! #DontBeASimpleton
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The top 1% pay 90% of all taxes! Don't believe the liberal mainstream media. #FactsMatter #TruthMatters
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Amazon paid billions in local and sales tax. Just because they used the tax laws enacted by Clinton to bypass federal taxes via R&D and community charity, doesnt mean they are evil. I would say that Amazon would do a better job spending a billion dollars than the govt
Be wealth It is mostly the result of being born in the right family.
The vast majority of children born in to wealthy families end up less wealthy because they lack the real world experience to make sound decisions.
To become wealthy does take hard work. Honestly. But hard work doesn't equal high pay. It's supply vs demand. How many people can do this job vs. how many jobs do we actually have for those people? Not everybody can be an accountant. Takes special knowledge and skills. Washing dishes is hard work, but anybody can wash a dish. Some can do it better than others, but anybody can learn it. No special licenses or education required. If I have unskilled labor positions for a 10 people, and 150 people apply, I've got low demand and high supply. Low wage. If I have skilled labor positions for 5 people and maybe 5 people apply, but I'm competing with three other agencies for those people, then we've got low supply and high demand, and consequently high cost.
In a nutshell: because single moms pay more taxes than multibillion companies while single moms need to rely on the foodstamps that their taxmoney pays for because the multibillion companies refuse to pay a decent wage. Instead Jeff Bezos pays the 19K parking tickets the contractors working on his X-million house got, deducting them as unforseen refurbishment costs.
Wealth is the result of manipulate poor people for their benefit and politicians have huge influence to make it worse.. That's how capitalism works.. You may see it obviously when you analyse the Hong Kong community..
Whereas some percentage of wealth may come from luck, hardwork and heritage.
This comment has been deleted.
it's all that about your are the culmination of your choices and all that b******t.
Absolutely - I should have had the brains as a zygote to be born into a wealthy family, and compounded my wealth with "a small loan" to start with.
Hard work is not the only factor... not even close. If it was, single mothers would be near the top. Personal decisions is a bigger factor.
Luck is de biggest. Even if you're the smartest person on Earth, even that is luck in genes and upbringing.
Personal decisions and lots of luck.
Most wealthy people don't have children until much later in life.
wealth is result of smart work sometimes, poor people do the majority of hard work.
because working harder is foolish. You need to work smarter, get an education to achieve a job of good pay instead of running yourself ragged at 3 c**p jobs
KT, but somebody still has to do those low skilled jobs - wash the dishes at restaurants, stock the shelves at grocery stores, clean offices and the mansions of wealthy people, they don't want to do that themselves. And these jobs should pay living wages, right?
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What virtue signaling b******t. I hope your upvotes keep you warm at night lmfao
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And what most people fail to realize is even those moms working 3 jobs in America are still wealthier than the vast majority of people in the world. Doesn't mean there isn't a problem, just mean we need more perspective.
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Because you can work hard shoveling s**t your whole life and still just have a pile of s**t to show for it. The wealthy are wealthy because they have figured out how to solve a problem for millions of people at an affordable price.
I always thought that expanding the pie made no sense. An increase of 10% of 0.00001% (of the the pie) is a pittance, whereas a 10% increase in 90% (of the pie) would be an absurd amount. Whenever I raised this point in Economics, I always get manplained the "expand the pie argument" (and I'm a guy). The richest have brained-washed the intelligentsia to keep us peons in line, and they're doing a damned fine job of it.
Damnit now I want pie.
If wealth is the result of hard work, how come a single mom working three jobs is still poor?
Easy, the main point everybody seems to miss is that it gets easier to amass money the more you have. Companies like Amazon pay little taxes and can borrow money at prime or less. The average person is lucky if they can get a loan at 10%.
The two absolute morons defending these huge, greedy companies are a large part of the problem. Get your heads out of your asses, you simpletons. Sorry Thomas, I couldn't respond to them directly.
Don't believe the liberal mainstream media! #DontBeASimpleton
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
The top 1% pay 90% of all taxes! Don't believe the liberal mainstream media. #FactsMatter #TruthMatters
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Amazon paid billions in local and sales tax. Just because they used the tax laws enacted by Clinton to bypass federal taxes via R&D and community charity, doesnt mean they are evil. I would say that Amazon would do a better job spending a billion dollars than the govt
Be wealth It is mostly the result of being born in the right family.
The vast majority of children born in to wealthy families end up less wealthy because they lack the real world experience to make sound decisions.
To become wealthy does take hard work. Honestly. But hard work doesn't equal high pay. It's supply vs demand. How many people can do this job vs. how many jobs do we actually have for those people? Not everybody can be an accountant. Takes special knowledge and skills. Washing dishes is hard work, but anybody can wash a dish. Some can do it better than others, but anybody can learn it. No special licenses or education required. If I have unskilled labor positions for a 10 people, and 150 people apply, I've got low demand and high supply. Low wage. If I have skilled labor positions for 5 people and maybe 5 people apply, but I'm competing with three other agencies for those people, then we've got low supply and high demand, and consequently high cost.
In a nutshell: because single moms pay more taxes than multibillion companies while single moms need to rely on the foodstamps that their taxmoney pays for because the multibillion companies refuse to pay a decent wage. Instead Jeff Bezos pays the 19K parking tickets the contractors working on his X-million house got, deducting them as unforseen refurbishment costs.
Wealth is the result of manipulate poor people for their benefit and politicians have huge influence to make it worse.. That's how capitalism works.. You may see it obviously when you analyse the Hong Kong community..
Whereas some percentage of wealth may come from luck, hardwork and heritage.
This comment has been deleted.
it's all that about your are the culmination of your choices and all that b******t.
Absolutely - I should have had the brains as a zygote to be born into a wealthy family, and compounded my wealth with "a small loan" to start with.
Hard work is not the only factor... not even close. If it was, single mothers would be near the top. Personal decisions is a bigger factor.
Luck is de biggest. Even if you're the smartest person on Earth, even that is luck in genes and upbringing.
Personal decisions and lots of luck.
Most wealthy people don't have children until much later in life.
wealth is result of smart work sometimes, poor people do the majority of hard work.
because working harder is foolish. You need to work smarter, get an education to achieve a job of good pay instead of running yourself ragged at 3 c**p jobs
KT, but somebody still has to do those low skilled jobs - wash the dishes at restaurants, stock the shelves at grocery stores, clean offices and the mansions of wealthy people, they don't want to do that themselves. And these jobs should pay living wages, right?
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
What virtue signaling b******t. I hope your upvotes keep you warm at night lmfao
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
And what most people fail to realize is even those moms working 3 jobs in America are still wealthier than the vast majority of people in the world. Doesn't mean there isn't a problem, just mean we need more perspective.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Because you can work hard shoveling s**t your whole life and still just have a pile of s**t to show for it. The wealthy are wealthy because they have figured out how to solve a problem for millions of people at an affordable price.
I always thought that expanding the pie made no sense. An increase of 10% of 0.00001% (of the the pie) is a pittance, whereas a 10% increase in 90% (of the pie) would be an absurd amount. Whenever I raised this point in Economics, I always get manplained the "expand the pie argument" (and I'm a guy). The richest have brained-washed the intelligentsia to keep us peons in line, and they're doing a damned fine job of it.
Damnit now I want pie.