America's Children Face Income Inequality Unseen In Generations

[appalachiablue]

'America's Children Face Income Inequality Unseen In Generations,' By Paul Buchheit, Truthdig, 12/10/*2018. Excerpts:

- The Inequality to Be Suffered by Our Children:

The fortunate ones will not be suffering. In the past eight years, the richest 5% of Americans have increased their wealth by $30 trillion—almost a third of total U.S. wealth—while the poorest 50% have seen their average wealth drop from $11,500 to $9,500. There is ample evidence for a nation soon to be made even more unequal by the transfer of wealth from rich baby boomers to their children and grandchildren, who will have done little if anything to earn it.
The middle class will be further crippled by the ongoing growth in inequality. Unless progressive policies are demanded by American voters, most of our children and grandchildren will suffer from the continuing expansion of a Great-Depression-like wealth gap that already “dwarfs” the rest of the developed world.

- Nearly a Third of U.S. Wealth Will Be Handed Down, Mostly to Rich Kids:

Total U.S. wealth is about $98 trillion. According to an Accenture study, $30 trillion in financial and non-financial assets will be inherited by the children of Baby Boomers in the next thirty to forty years..
Some sources question the claims for massive impending wealth transfers, saying that Boomers may spend most of their money, or that the newly rich young beneficiaries will mismanage their portfolios. Apparently it’s difficult for some of us to accept the reality of a worsening disparity in U.S. wealth.

- The Rich Kids Will Have Learned How to Avoid the Public Good:

Skipping out on tax obligations will start right away, as over 99.8 percent of estates are not currently required to pay any estate tax. Here’s another way for the young heirs to skip out on taxes: Offshore hoarding of private American wealth is estimated to be $3.3 trillion (4% of U.S. $82 trillion financial wealth).
And yet another way: Make a fortune, then move out of the country and renounce U.S. citizenship to avoid taxes. Most infamous for this strategy was Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who turned decades of American technology research into a billion-dollar fortune before bolting to Singapore and giving up his U.S. citizenship. There are more of these tax avoiders every year. Tech billionaires are building their doomsday bunkers in relatively safe faraway places like New Zealand, the home of the world’s most unaffordable house prices.
Still another way to shirk responsibility, while looking altruistic: Set up a donor-advised fund with a charitable-sounding name. Rich donors can get immediate tax deductions, while the recipients of their largesse don’t actually have to use the money for charitable causes, and the fund directors can pay themselves handsome undisclosed salaries.

- The Rich Kids Will Have Private Doctors, Police and Firefighters:

The kids will never have to worry about health care. They’ll continue their parents’ trend of paying ‘concierge’ doctors to visit their mansions or yachts, where emergency rooms are equipped with heart monitors, ultrasounds, x-ray machines, and blood analyzers. If a hospital stay is required, they might look into a $2,400 per day penthouse hospital suite complete with butler and grand piano.
In case of fire, they can follow the example of Kanye and Kim and hire a private firefighting service.
For security, the already proliferating private police forces are certain to fill the protection needs of the kids with newly-acquired estates. But private officers tend to be undertrained compared to public police; their acts of aggression are rarely reported; and in some states private forces are not even subject to investigation through the Freedom of Information Act.

- The Growing Number of Poor Kids:...

Source: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/americas-children-face-income-inequality-unseen-in-generations/

- NPR, U.S. Income Inequality Worsens, Widening To A New Gap, Sept. 26, 2019,
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/26/764654623/u-s-income-inequality-worsens-widening-to-a-new-gap

- 'Camp Millionaire' Money Camp for Ultrawealthy Children' BBC,
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190827-the-camp-that-makes-future-millionaires

[FiveGoodMen]

1. They definitely need a party that will fight for them.

No one has in decades.

That's why we're here.

[appalachiablue]

2. It will be many years of struggle and then some because it's

already been in the works for 40 years. Unfortunate it had to go this way, demise of the American middle class dream.

[guillaumeb]

3. Reagan was the poster boy for attacking unions.

And as unionization levels have fallen, so have wages.

[appalachiablue]

4. For a strong middle class it's unions and labor protections. Dutch,

fmr head of SAG, a union also lowered taxes on the very wealthy and corps. 4 times maybe.

His admin removed regulations broadly which stimulated M&As/mergers and acquisitions and raiding pension plans which were moved from liabilities to assets. In the 1980s is when stock options were first granted to execs I think.

The Roaring 80s, what a decade and greed isn't good.

[guillaumeb]

5. Reagan was a racist, a liar, and greedy.

But unlike Trump, Reagan could pretend to be normal.

And the fiction promoted by the right is that the US is place where anyone can go from poverty to wealth, but the fact is that the US is ferociously class-stratified.

[appalachiablue]

6. I don't know how anyone could support an old cowboy actor/gov.

and a NY casino, property heir as POTUS but that's our populace and media. No more presidents from the entertainment business, ever. Yes RR was a racist, the Civil Rights tragedy in Philadelphia, Mississippi where Raygun launched his presidential campaign in 1979 and much more. In DC at the time, I lived through his election and inauguration, twice; I'm amazed I actually made it. The 1980 election floored me.

[BigmanPigman]

7. The wealthy want to roll back the calendar to the good ol' days

before there was Income Tax too. They are the greediest people since the Gilded Era.

[appalachiablue]

8. No taxes, hard line libertarianism at work.

[OldBaldy1701E]

9. Wow...

So, based on what I am reading from various articles like this, it is all my fault. I mean, I am a 'boomer' (one of the last ones, according to the proffered timeline for these things). I was born to a dirt farmer. Would have been considered poor. Grew up in a very small, rural town that was nowhere near anything that could be considered 'urban'. This was way before social media or the internet, so communication and information was pretty much non-existent, unless you owned a television station. (The closest was 45 minutes away, and poor people rarely travel that kind of distance for anything other than medical emergency). Yet, it is all my fault. The rich and unscrupulous have been the real control in this society for over 150 years (and, as I explained, I was never a member of that part of society), but it is MY fault. I suppose I should do the nation a favor and just go find a bridge...

(and, I am a white male boomer... gods, how did the planet survive at all with me around???)

[appalachiablue]

10. The Baby Boom generation, 1946-1964 had a large number of births,

hence the 'boom.' The Boomer generation consists of people of all backgrounds- working class, middle class and upper class and from many races, religions and political backgrounds including Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton George W. Bush, Jr. and Ben Carson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers

[OldBaldy1701E]

11. Umm... thank you? (n/t)