The below video makes a comparison between what almost all U.S. citizens believe is a fair distribution
of wealth in American, what these same citizens believe the actual distribution is, and what the actual distribution of wealth
in America is.
Wealth is defined as the net worth total
for everyone in America.
There are no arguments advanced
for what the author believes the distribution should be or why it might be preferable to have a certain distribution.
The presentation simply presents the facts, comparing the consensus of what would be a fair distribution to the perceived
distribution to the actual distribution of wealth.
If
you go to the posting of the below video on youtube.com you can read the comments viewers made after seeing the video.
Presumably none of these commenters are in the upper 1% on the U.S. wealth distribution.
I was amazed at some of the comments. Some called it a slick socialist sales pitch. Some reckoned that
the presentation didn't take into account age demographics. Some dismissed it as unimportant. Some said "Duh".
What was lacking is any sort of reaction from viewers to talk about the consequences of such vast inequality
or any stated desire to change it.
As I've written before, most cities, even
those governed by very conservative leaders, offer rent subsidies to enable waiters and other service people
to live in the city so that these vital service jobs won't go unfilled.
Los
Angeles and Detroit understand what happens when a large segment of the population feels helpless and forgotten by those in
charge. Riots, looting, and arson are the result.
Any society depends
on an educated work force with a strong work ethic to fuel the economic engines that drive the economy. It
also depends on a broad base of people who have the cash to purchase the goods and services produced by the economy.
Uneducated poor people with no clear opportunities in front of them provide
fodder for our prison system which holds one of the highest percentages of prisoners as a percent of the population
of any country in the world.
There is simply no reason why the current
distribution of wealth makes any sense. It is not self sustaining and will inevitably lead to a decline in the gross
national product which makes up the total wealth that is shared by our citizens.
Watch the video below and rather than cast it aside as just another liberal effort to divide the fiscal pie rather
than go out and create more pie for everyone, think about all the policies, laws, taxes, cartels, monopolies, politicians,
lobbyists, etc. that together result in our present distribution of wealth in America.