2023 1% vs 80% Wealth Inequality Green Zones MAP - vs USA China Russia etc.

[LVZ]

People seem to be misinterpreting this map. So, to simplify:

1. In Canada, Australia, the U.K, Norway, Finland, Italy, Spain, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, countries in southeast South America and most of northern Africa there is a more fair distribution of wealth. The top 1% do NOT have more total wealth than the bottom 80% of their citizens.

2. In contrast, in the USA, Mexico, China, Russia, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Chile, Israel, most Arab countries, most of Europe, and most of the southern part of Africa, wealth distribution is more extreme: the top 1% have more total wealth than the bottom 80%.

3. Just because a nation in green has a less extreme wealth distribution does not mean that the government is necessarily more democratic or less corrupt or that its citizens are wealthier/poorer, etc.

Adorn Mapper's source: https://wid.world/

[SoFlaBro]

1. The distribution of wealth in the US is fucked. Pay your middle class income earners fucking more for starters and we'll

[brooklynite]

2. Most of the social democracy States in Western Europe that everyone lives...

…seem to be there with the US.

[Las Vegas Mixx]

3. Europe seems kind of split but a pattern may be emerging ...

Spain, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Finland and the U.K. are all marked in green. They also seem less affected by the recent rise of far right domestic extremists currently common in much of the remainder of Europe (with exceptions, of course).

[brooklynite]

4. Italy isn't governed by "far right extremists"?

[Las Vegas Mixx]

5. So far, Meloni seems to be a mixed bag ...

Last edited Sun Dec 31, 2023, 08:08 AM - Edit history (1)

For example, she has been supportive of Ukraine, unlike Orban.

https://www.dw.com/en/italys-giorgia-meloni-not-so-radical-after-all/a-66901456

[Celerity]

6. We (Sweden) used to be the greeniest of green, but 2 things (the rise of tech billioniares and

then (not related) the creation of a new apprently permanent underclass via far too much refugee intake (US equivalent of 50 or so million in the last 25, 30 years) plus a shit job of integration with them) have combined to toss us down the wealth equality rankings, where we were always in the top 3 or 4 (often first or second) for decades and decades.

[Elessar Zappa]

7. Doesn't really matter.

It’s wrong and I don’t care which countries it applies to.

[brooklynite]

8. Nor am I saying that the way to go is income redistribution

Case in point. How many of those 80-% bought a Taylor Swift record or Apple computer or iPhone?

We should tax progressively to pay for the social programs that are necessary. Not to make rich people poorer or poor people richer. Just like the social democratic countries do.

[Elessar Zappa]

9. Sorry but I think the huge amounts of wealth we're seeing now,

(I’m talking multi-billionaires) is very dangerous and hurts democracy. I fall short of calling for wealth confiscation but I’m for a very steep tax on assets and income (including capital gains) over a billion, or, if that’s too little, five billion.

[jimfields33]

10. Maybe but the United States is still attractive to

many people wanting to come here. In fact, I’d say we are the number one country of people coming here whether for safety, economic advancement or a variety of reasons. No other country has people begging to come and risking their lives. A little in Italy but nothing like us.

[Elessar Zappa]

11. Not disagreeing with you but that doesn't mean we couldn't do better.

If we taxed fairly, we could have things like nationalized healthcare, free tuition, and much better public transportation, among other things.

[Igel]

12. It wouldn't matter for this map.

It's income before taxes.

It's also income without including "social contributions" such as UBI or health benefits or housing or SNAP or OASI or SSA.

In other words, all the usual "tricks" to redistribute income are ruled out, at least for some countries, from this analysis. (Haven't chewed on the report itself so I can't say it's for all countries--which matters, see below.) What's left are countries that are fairly homogenously well off or poor. At least that's what I conclude, assuming a consistent methodology.

One year I spent a long weekend afternoon/evening on a report on inequality in the OECD countries. France was equitable the US wasn't--sometimes you'd nod and think "yeah", sometimes you might be surprised at what countries were unequal or not. Footnotes and endnotes to pages of tables explained what was going on. For some countries--like France--the producers of the report included social payments and subsidies, public pensions, even college grants but didn't count reduction in income from taxation. Other countries--like the US--they didn't include social payments and subsidies and didn't remove taxation from income. The methodology was screwed, the results predictable from the methodology, but the report was widely reported on for months as--you guessed it--evidence for the need for increased taxation and increased social payments in the US. (This would have made precisely no difference in the report because of the methodology. I like looking at original sources when I can, but it's hard to find the time and parse the cant and jargon sometimes. Sometimes the original sources make you shake your head.)

[Las Vegas Mixx]

13. Top 1% of American earners now own more wealth than entire middle class

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/12/06/top-1-american-earners-more-wealth-middle-class/71769832007/

The top 1% overtook the middle class in collective wealth in 2020
Thirty years ago, America’s celebrated middle class commanded twice as much wealth as the upper 1%.

Over the years, the rich have grown steadily richer. The top 1% caught and passed the middle class in collective wealth in late 2020, Fed data shows.

The wealth lead has changed hands since then, but the 1%-ers have it now, and their margin is growing.