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%.
Load More Replies...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.
Le last bit on this video is where the problem really is, he says the American are optimistics, they overestimate their capacity to get rich, so they tend to be against taxes for the rich on case they get rich.
As a European, I always wondered about that! I'd wager the inequality is still huge here in Germany, but still. From over here, it's really weird how US Americans seem to vote based on where they MIGHT be financially, one day, if they're lucky - very VERY lucky... instead of, y'know, voting based on where they actually are. It's mind-boggling.
Load More Replies...This is not about hard work. You don't understand hard work until you see a single mother trying to raise her child while working two jobs to make ends meet. The idea that some investment banker thinks he works harder than people struggling to survive on minimum wage is laughable. America's labor laws and social safety net are among the worst of all advanced nations, and it shows in the level of wealth inequality. Taxes are higher elsewhere? Perhaps... but why does having low taxes matter when giving birth can cost your entire life savings? The US is going down a very dark path... and they don't even realize it... or care.
Some of us do realize it, mainly the younger generation. But we're too young, what can we do about it? We have little to no choice but to just sit back as adults drive into hell and complain we "Don't know what we're talking about."
Load More Replies...This is the inevitable consequence of the endlessly repeated lie called 'the American Dream'. The nonsense that everyone can succeed if only they try hard enough leads inexorably to those few ruthless and greedy People amassing a vast share. Truly loathsome.
Let's bring back those 90% taxes for the disgustingly wealthy. Like Eisenhower enacted. The economy thrived, the average person had enough money to actually live comfortably, buy a house, a car, go on vacation... The ultra-rich do NOT need the amounts of money that they're hoarding. That money should go back into the economy, not sit in off-shore, tax-free savings accounts.
Exactly. No one NEEDS 200 million at their disposal.
Load More Replies...The wealthiest one percent control the flow of money to political campaigns thereby insuring that there never will be any real efforts on the part of state or federal legislators to address the problem of economic inequality. A problem that defines who we are as a nation!
I like how that one rich dude says the only alternative to stopping people from being able to hoard absurd amounts of money they don't need and will never spend is "everyone gets the same amount". Nice brainwashing there.
It always annoys me when the super rich make it seem like there's only two options: the status quo or you have to divide everything equally. No, sis, my Nordic country has an accumulative tax rate (the more you earn the more tax you pay) but that doesn't mean we don't have poor people and rich people. What we do have is you get free healthcare (paid by said taxes), free education including kindergarten and university (also paid by said taxes) and other social benefits. We are a socialist country but we're not a communist country. There's a difference. At least the poor have a chance to have an education without killing themselves with dept. And then people (mostly from the States) rag on about how we give up half of our income away to the taxman (inaccurate, my rate is about 13%). The whole thing is infuriating. Rant over.
It doesn't bother me if someone has a lot more pie than me. It's when they want my pie too that pisses me off.
The wealthiest got their wealth from the systems in place whereby all citizenry support their wealth stream. So it makes PERFECT sense for there to be a redistribution as it is completely unsustainable and patently unfair. There IS white privilege, I have benefitted from it - and I recognize that I would not have the comfortable life I lead were it not for the opportunities available to me and NOT available to many others. I am no socialist, I just recognize that the current tax system and all the great loopholes (which I have benefitted from) are so wrong for the good of our entire society. A rising tide lifts all boats.
Americans need an inverted lotto. In stead of the poor buying lottery tickets and 1 person winning 500 million. They need to tax the top 1% and give it to the poor
We dont need a wealth tax. Just a way to make wealthy people pay taxes like regular folks, not squirrel it away with special loopholes and exemptions.
Yep and yet Trump is going to go on for four more years because the Republicans/Conservative party is united behind him voting against their own best interest. Because taxes and abortions. >sigh< Whelp we'd have to pay a lot less in tax if we just get rid of those socialist practices, like the POLICE, AND FIREMEN, AND PUBLIC EDUCATION, AND INFRASTRUCTURE. Meanwhile let's just not tax any of these corporations and then pretend like both republican and democrat representatives aren't lobbying for these monstrosities and it's bleeding us all F*****G DRY.
The percentage of tax you pay increases as income decreases. The people who decide this are getting donations from the people with all the money, not a coincidence. Low unemployment doesn't mean that workers are paid fairly either. I can't imagine having to live on 'tips' because my hourly rate is lowered to take account of said tips. With this and no access to free (at the point of use) healthcare the US system seems to uniquely single out and punish those who are poor. But argue against it and you're a 'commie'??
I can hear my aunt already: But if it isn't this way, it'd be socialism!! Needless to say, she has no idea what socialism is.
What I find most amusing is a lot of people feel this way about CEOs etc. But they fail to realize this is also their favorite singer or sports figure. And when you say this to them they get upset saying th ese people should not be taxed because "they earned it" almost like it is different.
This article was brought to you by someone who doesn't know how to buy the ingredients, make the pie and/or sell the pie. Instead, he just wants to eat it and is pissed because the baker wouldn't share.
"But..but...but..watch out for those immigrants! They're gonna take your pie...sliver" /s
To start with, f**k every word that spews from trumps mouth. He is a complete liar and utter waste of morbidly obese skin. Secondly, three words... Eat the rich.
You don’t have to become a socialist country to treat all citizens fairly. A countrys greatness doesn’t come from politics or use of force but from compassion and human decency.
Interesting that every time fairer distribution is brought up, the old bogey of "socialism" is waved in front of our eyes. Is it "socialism" to ensure that people aren't starving to death, or dying of preventable diseases, or be worn out like old toys from overwork? All in a hugely wealthy economy? The top 1% of the world could solve poverty with a few days worth of their income, and not even notice the loss, and not suffer cut backs in their lifestyle. Unfortunately, those at the top control the lives of everyone else. For myself, I'm too busy working hard to stay afloat, feed and educate my family and keep a roof over our heads to even think about accumulating wealth.
Be careful what you believe. If you think it's right to take away from the rich and give it out to the poor to make us all even... you are talking communism. If you have 3 cars the Government will take two and give it to someone who didn't work for it.
Americans have trade schools people can go to after highschool, but they keep going to college, so they can get all sorts of useless degrees. PS: I had a short internet conversation with a guy who was an avionics repairman in the US Air Force. When he left, he had a job that pays 70 thousand dollars to entry level employees. People like him never get shot at, because they are very far from the enemy.
Yeah but those richies are f- Ed up in the head. Wackos! they can keep their yachts and plastic surgery I rather have character and dignity.
The rich don't care. They wont be happy until they have all the pie and they will care even less then.
Now show the pie on who pays taxes in the US. Funny how the pie is shaped the same way. Poor people aren’t poor bc of the wealthy.
Conventional mathematics do not apply logically to an economy. In economics when you divide the "pie" equally it shrinks. The more equal you try to make the slices the faster the pie vanishes.
Well, there's a lot of money out there, and if you want some you gotta work smarter not harder to get your slice of pie.
We're talking about the owners of American companies. Their products/services are used by most of the world's population.
LOL, jknbt gets downvoted for simply writing common sense, hard working approaches to success. Welcome to BP!, where the most important thing is to be a worthy victim.
Load More Replies...Well, it all depends on how you choose to distribute the wealth. You can put it towards a higher minimum wage, free education, the health care system, tax benefits for working people. All things that will better the individual and the country as a hole, whilst reducing inequality.
Load More Replies...Well, it actually does work. Everywhere. Look at Scandinavia, look at Europe. Even just look at the US in the fifties! Top incomes paid over 50% in taxes so that everyone could go to college, afford a home and a car. Learn from your history. You want to make America great again? Go back to those economical policies. By cutting out taxes, you really screwed up your country. Also, the idea of taxes is to cheapen your life in the long haul. No additional costs if you or your wife get ill, government funded retirementhomes etc. Lastly, kudos to you for making your fortune, but not everyone can. The American dream is out of reach to so many. You can work your hands to the bone in retail, as a teacher, a nurse, etcetera, and never even be able to buy a house. That's the problem. Why worry about contributing a few percent of your wealth, that you clearly don't need (7 figures, I mean, that's just not necessary), to better your country?
Load More Replies...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%.
Load More Replies...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.
Le last bit on this video is where the problem really is, he says the American are optimistics, they overestimate their capacity to get rich, so they tend to be against taxes for the rich on case they get rich.
As a European, I always wondered about that! I'd wager the inequality is still huge here in Germany, but still. From over here, it's really weird how US Americans seem to vote based on where they MIGHT be financially, one day, if they're lucky - very VERY lucky... instead of, y'know, voting based on where they actually are. It's mind-boggling.
Load More Replies...This is not about hard work. You don't understand hard work until you see a single mother trying to raise her child while working two jobs to make ends meet. The idea that some investment banker thinks he works harder than people struggling to survive on minimum wage is laughable. America's labor laws and social safety net are among the worst of all advanced nations, and it shows in the level of wealth inequality. Taxes are higher elsewhere? Perhaps... but why does having low taxes matter when giving birth can cost your entire life savings? The US is going down a very dark path... and they don't even realize it... or care.
Some of us do realize it, mainly the younger generation. But we're too young, what can we do about it? We have little to no choice but to just sit back as adults drive into hell and complain we "Don't know what we're talking about."
Load More Replies...This is the inevitable consequence of the endlessly repeated lie called 'the American Dream'. The nonsense that everyone can succeed if only they try hard enough leads inexorably to those few ruthless and greedy People amassing a vast share. Truly loathsome.
Let's bring back those 90% taxes for the disgustingly wealthy. Like Eisenhower enacted. The economy thrived, the average person had enough money to actually live comfortably, buy a house, a car, go on vacation... The ultra-rich do NOT need the amounts of money that they're hoarding. That money should go back into the economy, not sit in off-shore, tax-free savings accounts.
Exactly. No one NEEDS 200 million at their disposal.
Load More Replies...The wealthiest one percent control the flow of money to political campaigns thereby insuring that there never will be any real efforts on the part of state or federal legislators to address the problem of economic inequality. A problem that defines who we are as a nation!
I like how that one rich dude says the only alternative to stopping people from being able to hoard absurd amounts of money they don't need and will never spend is "everyone gets the same amount". Nice brainwashing there.
It always annoys me when the super rich make it seem like there's only two options: the status quo or you have to divide everything equally. No, sis, my Nordic country has an accumulative tax rate (the more you earn the more tax you pay) but that doesn't mean we don't have poor people and rich people. What we do have is you get free healthcare (paid by said taxes), free education including kindergarten and university (also paid by said taxes) and other social benefits. We are a socialist country but we're not a communist country. There's a difference. At least the poor have a chance to have an education without killing themselves with dept. And then people (mostly from the States) rag on about how we give up half of our income away to the taxman (inaccurate, my rate is about 13%). The whole thing is infuriating. Rant over.
It doesn't bother me if someone has a lot more pie than me. It's when they want my pie too that pisses me off.
The wealthiest got their wealth from the systems in place whereby all citizenry support their wealth stream. So it makes PERFECT sense for there to be a redistribution as it is completely unsustainable and patently unfair. There IS white privilege, I have benefitted from it - and I recognize that I would not have the comfortable life I lead were it not for the opportunities available to me and NOT available to many others. I am no socialist, I just recognize that the current tax system and all the great loopholes (which I have benefitted from) are so wrong for the good of our entire society. A rising tide lifts all boats.
Americans need an inverted lotto. In stead of the poor buying lottery tickets and 1 person winning 500 million. They need to tax the top 1% and give it to the poor
We dont need a wealth tax. Just a way to make wealthy people pay taxes like regular folks, not squirrel it away with special loopholes and exemptions.
Yep and yet Trump is going to go on for four more years because the Republicans/Conservative party is united behind him voting against their own best interest. Because taxes and abortions. >sigh< Whelp we'd have to pay a lot less in tax if we just get rid of those socialist practices, like the POLICE, AND FIREMEN, AND PUBLIC EDUCATION, AND INFRASTRUCTURE. Meanwhile let's just not tax any of these corporations and then pretend like both republican and democrat representatives aren't lobbying for these monstrosities and it's bleeding us all F*****G DRY.
The percentage of tax you pay increases as income decreases. The people who decide this are getting donations from the people with all the money, not a coincidence. Low unemployment doesn't mean that workers are paid fairly either. I can't imagine having to live on 'tips' because my hourly rate is lowered to take account of said tips. With this and no access to free (at the point of use) healthcare the US system seems to uniquely single out and punish those who are poor. But argue against it and you're a 'commie'??
I can hear my aunt already: But if it isn't this way, it'd be socialism!! Needless to say, she has no idea what socialism is.
What I find most amusing is a lot of people feel this way about CEOs etc. But they fail to realize this is also their favorite singer or sports figure. And when you say this to them they get upset saying th ese people should not be taxed because "they earned it" almost like it is different.
This article was brought to you by someone who doesn't know how to buy the ingredients, make the pie and/or sell the pie. Instead, he just wants to eat it and is pissed because the baker wouldn't share.
"But..but...but..watch out for those immigrants! They're gonna take your pie...sliver" /s
To start with, f**k every word that spews from trumps mouth. He is a complete liar and utter waste of morbidly obese skin. Secondly, three words... Eat the rich.
You don’t have to become a socialist country to treat all citizens fairly. A countrys greatness doesn’t come from politics or use of force but from compassion and human decency.
Interesting that every time fairer distribution is brought up, the old bogey of "socialism" is waved in front of our eyes. Is it "socialism" to ensure that people aren't starving to death, or dying of preventable diseases, or be worn out like old toys from overwork? All in a hugely wealthy economy? The top 1% of the world could solve poverty with a few days worth of their income, and not even notice the loss, and not suffer cut backs in their lifestyle. Unfortunately, those at the top control the lives of everyone else. For myself, I'm too busy working hard to stay afloat, feed and educate my family and keep a roof over our heads to even think about accumulating wealth.
Be careful what you believe. If you think it's right to take away from the rich and give it out to the poor to make us all even... you are talking communism. If you have 3 cars the Government will take two and give it to someone who didn't work for it.
Americans have trade schools people can go to after highschool, but they keep going to college, so they can get all sorts of useless degrees. PS: I had a short internet conversation with a guy who was an avionics repairman in the US Air Force. When he left, he had a job that pays 70 thousand dollars to entry level employees. People like him never get shot at, because they are very far from the enemy.
Yeah but those richies are f- Ed up in the head. Wackos! they can keep their yachts and plastic surgery I rather have character and dignity.
The rich don't care. They wont be happy until they have all the pie and they will care even less then.
Now show the pie on who pays taxes in the US. Funny how the pie is shaped the same way. Poor people aren’t poor bc of the wealthy.
Conventional mathematics do not apply logically to an economy. In economics when you divide the "pie" equally it shrinks. The more equal you try to make the slices the faster the pie vanishes.
Well, there's a lot of money out there, and if you want some you gotta work smarter not harder to get your slice of pie.
We're talking about the owners of American companies. Their products/services are used by most of the world's population.
LOL, jknbt gets downvoted for simply writing common sense, hard working approaches to success. Welcome to BP!, where the most important thing is to be a worthy victim.
Load More Replies...Well, it all depends on how you choose to distribute the wealth. You can put it towards a higher minimum wage, free education, the health care system, tax benefits for working people. All things that will better the individual and the country as a hole, whilst reducing inequality.
Load More Replies...Well, it actually does work. Everywhere. Look at Scandinavia, look at Europe. Even just look at the US in the fifties! Top incomes paid over 50% in taxes so that everyone could go to college, afford a home and a car. Learn from your history. You want to make America great again? Go back to those economical policies. By cutting out taxes, you really screwed up your country. Also, the idea of taxes is to cheapen your life in the long haul. No additional costs if you or your wife get ill, government funded retirementhomes etc. Lastly, kudos to you for making your fortune, but not everyone can. The American dream is out of reach to so many. You can work your hands to the bone in retail, as a teacher, a nurse, etcetera, and never even be able to buy a house. That's the problem. Why worry about contributing a few percent of your wealth, that you clearly don't need (7 figures, I mean, that's just not necessary), to better your country?
Load More Replies...
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