The richest 1% took home nearly twice as much wealth as the rest of the world put together over the past two years.

If that doesn’t convince you wealth inequality is out of control, I don’t know what will.

@rbreich You have your priorities mixed up... people making more than everyone else, no matter the extent is **not** the issue. It only detracts from the real issue, which is the quality of living of the poorest people below the poverty line.

Wealth is not a pie, a fixed thing with only so much to go around. One person having more does **not** mean someone else has to have less. Wealth is something constantly being created and destroyed, the real question is why arent the poor able to create wealth.

@freemo @rbreich I'll push back on this one, if only because I don't want to look at my dynamic programming assignment 😂

I agree wealth inequality itself isn't the problem; however, I don't think the market is good at assigning value judgements to things, which leads to a whole bunch of really screwed up stuff, and the subsequent conflation of benefiting from capitalism with worshiping mammon.

For example: the CCP has been torturing religious and ethnic minorities for decades, mass surveilling their people, murdering political dissidents, and *MOST IMPORTANTLY TO INVESTORS* preventing individuals or corporations from withdrawing assets from the country "illegally". Yet, our investors, companies, etc. speculate that China is "the next big thing" and lose their asses while enriching a hostile country. People continue investing in Nestle and Tesla despite the provable child labor in their supply chains, (and of course the rest of the atrocities Nestle got away with). Why? Because making an extra 2% ROI is all that matters.

Meanwhile, private equity firms in the US buy up failing companies for pennies on the dollar, try to squeeze *every* *last* *drop* of capital out of them, and cause lasting damage in the process (see the environmental damage caused by rail issues across the US, alongside the mess of our hospitals, many of which are owned by private equity). Their M.O. is to run things so lean, and to cut so many corners, that the business fails anyway, but at least they didn't let any of that money go to the worke- I mean-down the drain.

The impacts of our modern values in relation to money go on and on, because nearly everyone has a price but not a spine: they'll sell out their employees and the business they built up to get rich, and leave the people they employ in the hands of a board who never sees them, and frankly doesn't care about them at all. For most, it's not about loyalty, purpose, effecting change in the world, and eking out a living (even a good one!) in the process; it's solely about the number of 0s on the check. It's so bad to the point that peoples lives and finances are ruined for "shareholder value", while disregarding the people who actually generated value for the company and the economy.

Finally, the reasons that the poor "cannot create wealth" is that often it is taken from them while the wealthy are given kickbacks in an almost perverse way: banks charge more fees for lower account balances, accessing credit with lower APY is more difficult, etc. Of course much of this boils down to financial literacy, but when a single car accident can bankrupt a family due to exorbitant healthcare coverage, adversarial insurance companies can screw anyone who can't sue them (by not paying out), etc, it's easy to see that there are not enough legal protections for the impoverished when the penalties for victimizing them are a pittance or even nonexistent.

So while I can agree that money *itself* isn't the problem, the modern "idolatry" of it is such a perverting influence that people conflate the two, because frankly it's difficult not to.

@johnabs @freemo @rbreich

Personally, I think the wealth gap is part of the problem.

Only right-wing Americans could possibly think that a vast wealth gap in society is natural, normal and fundamentally right!

@Paulos_the_fog

Of course its natural it follows whats called the natural distribution and the same distribution applies to most everything in nature. It is very natural in a large population for a very small percentage to be vastly outperforming thr majority.

@johnabs @rbreich

@Paulos_the_fog @johnabs @rbreich

What is extrodinary to me is that anyone thinks a wealth gap is an issue at all in its own right.

Iff you have a society where the poor have a good quality of life, and good opportunity for advancement. But there happen to be a few super wealthy people, who cares. Since wealth is not a pie,a nd others being rich doesnt imply others must have less, why do you care if there is a huge wealth gap, all you should care about is the quality of life for the majority of people... To be mad because some people performed really well and did really well is very petty and selfish.

There **is** an issue, and that is that is that the poor dont have good oppertunities, fulls top.

@freemo @Paulos_the_fog @johnabs @rbreich But don't you think when the wealth gap becomes very large, the wealthy has too much power to rewrite the rules so that it benefits themselves? And it will not be because the wealthy have worse morals. It is human nature to want to do better for themselves compared to the baseline that they are used to - and the baseline is simply higher for the wealthy. Wealth gap also creates invisible culture gaps because of the difference in education, work environment, etc., making it more difficult for people across classes to agree on policies. I agree that the existence of wealth gap is a natural phenomenon, but the size of the wealth gap matters, and the existence of all the other issues cannot be divorced from the size of the wealth gap.