Top 1% Holds More Wealth Than Entire Middle Class

[applegrove]

Top 1% Holds More Wealth Than Entire Middle Class

October 15, 2021 at 4:17 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 286 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2021/10/15/top-1-holds-more-wealth-than-entire-middle-class/

"SNIP.....



The U.S. middle class — defined as the middle 60% of households — now holds a smaller share of wealth than top 1%, according to Schwab.

Jonathan Last: “This is bad. But it’s important to state why it’s bad. I would argue that it’s bad morally, in that increasing the leverage of capital relative to labor is unfair. But let’s leave morality aside.”

“It’s bad practically. Because the stress this disequilibrium puts on a society is significant. It contributes to social conflict, which then translates into political conflict.”

......SNIP"

[a kennedy]

1. AND WHY ISN'T THIS THE DEMOCRATS MAIN TALKING POINT???

Hello??? Why can’t this be the main talking point of all people on the Democratic ticket running for office??? MAKE THEM PAY TAXES……..Seriously……I can’t believe we see all this wealth, 3 gazillionairs going into space with their friends, Captain Kirk, and just think cool. MAKE THAM ALL PAY THEIR DAMN SHARE OF TAXES.

[applegrove]

3. Biden was all about growing the middle class in yesterday's speech. N/T

[jimfields33]

5. I wonder if Bezos and zuckerberg will sell stock to pay the tax

I think I’d go that route. I don’t know what they have in discretionary income. I hear it’s mostly loans on their stocks. Definitely the Democratic Party should insist they sell their shares to pay the tax and not get a stock loan to pay them.

[appalachiablue]

6. +++

[a kennedy]

2. Kicking this....

[Celerity]

4. K & R

[ProfessorGAC]

7. In 1970, The Middle Class Held...

...62% of the total wealth of the US. (Middle class defined as the middle 60% around the median household income.)
In 2020, it was 43%.
In 50 years, the middle class lost 19% of their share of total wealth.
Per the report issued by The Fed last month, the accumulated wealth of the US is $143.7 trillion. The 19% loss computes to around $27 trillion. For around 200 million people.
If the middle class had retained that share, each middle class person would have another $135,000 in assets.
That's huge!

[applegrove]

8. Thanks for flushing that out.

[Wounded Bear]

9. The economy depends on money IN MOTION...

The real economy depends on people earning and spending money. If much of the money supply is siphoned off to the very wealthy, things stagnate among the middle and lower classes. Retail slowly dies off, local businesses especially start to wither.

And money swirling around on Wall Street doesn't really count, if it doesn't stimulate anything in the Main Street economy.

[applegrove]

11. Right, and rich money is so desperate for places to invest the hedge funds are

getting in to residential real estate and making homes unaffordable for the middle class too.

[JHB]

10. It's never called "redistribution of wealth" when wealth is redistributed upward