fun fact: Sanders Net worth higher than combined net worth of the bottom 40%

[kennetha]

....even though he's basically a pauper and not even close to a plutocrat.


http://www.factcheck.org/2016/01/sanders-wealth-inequality-stat/

Just goes to show what you can do with statistics.

Anybody with a even a dollar of positive net worth has a greater net worth than the bottom 40%, though, because since the bottom 12% has so much negative net worth, you have to get all the way up to the bottom 40% before the cumulative total of net worth turns positive.

[berni_mccoy]

1. This is so fucking lame and here's why

It’s important to note that having just $1 of positive net worth wouldn’t make someone wealthier than every individual who’s in the bottom 40 percent. The negative net worth for that 40 percent is a combined figure — skewed, again, by the large negative figures for some. The 30th percentile, for instance, starts at $14,800 of net worth.

Please put the keyboard away.

[avaistheone1]

25. AGREED!

Thank you!

[bunnies]

41. Wow. Its amazing what some people omit. nt

[riversedge]

2. Chuckle.

[merrily]

3. Fun fact: The Clintons made $110 million during their first 7 years out of office.

A Hillary supporter trying to make an issue out of Bernie's relatively small net worth is hilarious.

[Hekate]

38. So did they invest it in yachts &mansions, or did they found the CGI for the betterment of others?

Only Democrats who wear sackcloth and ashes and walk barefoot among the paupers are True Democrats -- right?

Of course, Bernie isn't an evil Democrat anyway, as he reminded anyone who would listen for 50 years.

[sabrina 1]

39. The old 'dems need to wear sackcloth and ashes' attack on the left. Can't remember

which right wing anti left smear monger I first heard that particular nonsense from, but I think it was probably Limbaugh though it could have been Hannity.

[Hekate]

40. Tsk. Since I have never listened to them, I wouldn't know. I simply got that from DU....

Relentless smearing at good old DU, where I've hung out since 2002, you know.

All Democrats were good right up until we got one in the White House, at which point it turned out that any Dem who had ever made it good was probably allied with Satan in putting their boots on the necks of the masses.

I pay attention. Now, if you tell me that my impressions derive from right wing smears, all I can say is

[merrily]

42. First, they did not use the $110 million for charity. Second, as I said,

point is,

A Hillary supporter trying to make an issue out of Bernie's relatively small net worth is hilarious.

The OP is the one who brought up wealth, not I.

[Fawke Em]

55. Not sure about yachts, but there are some mansions

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

4. Of course, when you're extremely 'wealthy', people give you lots of credit.

So you can be living large, spending millions, and still have a negative net worth.

Heck you can be 'dead broke' when you leave the White House, with a negative net worth.

Then be multimillionaires again only a few speeches later.

Sadly, that isn't quite the same as the negative net worth of the 40% of Americans or so living paycheck to paycheck who also have a negative net worth.

[beam me up scottie]

5. First you claim Bernie's an atheist and now this?

Smells like desperation.

[kennetha]

6. actually I cited that part.

I'm not trying to use this against Sanders. Just pointing out that saying things like a few families have more net worth than the bottom x% is a little, well, misleading.

oh... I see you changed your tune about what I left out.

[beam me up scottie]

7. You still haven't edited your op claiming Bernie's an atheist.

Even though the article you cited quotes him as saying he believes in God.

[kennetha]

9. I just said that he doesn't believe in god as most people define god

and concluded that he was at best a sort of pantheist.

and there have been many long debates in the history of religion/philosophy about whether pantheism amounts to atheism.

that wasn't at all a mischaracterization of his words. you seem not to be able to deal with nuance.

[beam me up scottie]

10. You said "he's a pantheist which is just really a fancy name for atheism"

Well, at best he's a pantheist
which is just really a fancy name for atheism.

He said he believes in God so either you don't know what Pantheism/atheism is or you're not telling the truth.

[kennetha]

11. Well, many great minds have argued

that pantheism is basically atheism with a dodge.

I know full well what pantheism is and how it differs from standard forms of theism and am steeped in debates over the nature of the divine and whether there is or is not such a thing as the divine.

you're too quick to judge people's motives on the basis of your political likes and dislikes.

[beam me up scottie]

12. Which is it? Is he a Pantheist which you defined as an atheist or not?

This is about your credibility, it has nothing to do with political likes and dislikes.

Spreading misinformation about someone's religious beliefs is intolerant, imo.

[kennetha]

13. sigh

How wearying it is to try to have a serious intellectual discussion here.

I didn't define pantheism as atheism.

I said pantheism is the belief that the universe and god are identical, and that god isn't a thing or being or person that transcends the universe.

Sanders says:

“I think everyone believes in God in their own ways,” he said. “To me, it means that all of us are connected, all of life is connected, and that we are all tied together.”"

I said that sounds a lot like pantheism.

Then i suggested -- as have many -- that pantheism is a fancy name for atheism, atheism by another name.

Many have argued that over the centuries. Some pantheist embrace that argument themselves. a few do not.

Some move from pantheism to something called panentheism because they think pantheism collapses into atheism, despite any attempts to prevent it from doing so.

None of this was said as an attempt to attack or undermine Sanders. I was just wondering if Americans, who are among the most religious people in the world, are ready for a president so out of the religious mainstream, and who, by his own admission, doesn't seem to believe in a theistic god.

[beam me up scottie]

14. Suggested? You quoted and linked to an article that said Pantheism is atheism.

If you say he's a Pantheist and define that religion as atheism then you're saying he's an atheist.

He calls himself Jewish and says he believes in God, why isn't that acceptable, why try to redefine his beliefs for him?

You also said Bernie was "not all that culturally jewish".

What did you mean by that?

How do you define "culturally" Jewish and why doesn't he qualify?

You make a lot of claims about Bernie but move the goalposts when pressed.

[kennetha]

15. I know many Jews of whom the following isn't true

Almost seven years apart in age, the Sanders boys shared a bedroom in a modest but comfortable apartment. Passover Seders would rotate among neighbors. When their father went to synagogue on Yom Kippur, the boys would sometimes wait outside, listening to the World Series. Bernie Sanders’s bar mitzvah was “a big gathering,” Larry Sanders recalled, at which the adolescent looked younger than his 13 years.

Their Jewish education was “unsophisticated,” Larry Sanders said, grounded in a simple moral code of right and wrong.

“He could read a prayer in Hebrew,” Larry Sanders said, “but not with a great deal of understanding.”

Larry Sanders doesn’t remember Judaic teachings — or even the Holocaust — being a common topic of conversation within the family, although a pall hung over the household after the Red Cross brought news that an uncle in Poland had been shot by the Nazis.

[beam me up scottie]

21. So you don't actually know and are just guessing, thanks for clearing that up.

I prefer to let others define their beliefs and/or lack of them and after watching the right wing smear Obama by claiming he wasn't a Christian I thought everyone on DU would feel the same way.

My bad.

[Warren DeMontague]

46. Do some research into the "religious" beliefs of Jefferson and Lincoln.

You'll find Bernie Sanders is in excellent company.

[cali]

32. At best? Really? Politics and religion is a toxic brew.

[KingCharlemagne]

17. Are you seriously disputing the FACT that 1% of America controls

(AKA 'owns') 40% of the country's wealth? Are you seriously disputing the FACT that 10% of the country's population controls 80% of the country's wealth?

WTF???

The only one doing any misleading is YOU! I will be charitable and assume you have been mislead by 30 years of Reagan-Bushism.

[kennetha]

20. jeepers

just pointing out an interesting fact about comparisons to the bottom x%. Nothing really follows from that -- except that it's a misleading way to phrase a certain point about inequality.

[KingCharlemagne]

28. You are the ONLY one doing any misleading here. It's

really pathetic and reeks of desperation.

[Bread and Circus]

19. It is not misleading, it is that you are missing the point.

And my guess is you are doing so willfully.

You sound offensive and arrogant.

[merrily]

45. "I'm not trying to use this against Sanders." LOLLOL!

No, you just happened to pick his net worth out of 350 million Americans you could have used as an example of "statistics." We understand.

[daleanime]

8. Seems to me to be a system.....

that needs to be Bern down.

[NCTraveler]

16. I believe O'Malley is actually in that 40%. nt.

[Bread and Circus]

18. To anyone who is not stupid this further proves Bernie's point

...of how dire the situation is.

If 40% of the population has negative net worth, that is a calamity.

This is the whole point of Bernie's candidacy.

So rather than act like it is a joke or a "fun fact", consider that it is evidence of the real and widespread misery we have in this country as a result of 35 + years of the Republicans and Democrats selling out the American peoe to the highest bidder.

[kennetha]

22. 40% of the population

does not have negative net worth.

the cumulative net worth of the bottom 40% is negative, because the bottom 12% have negative net worth -- very high negative net worth -- so that when you start to aggregate it, you have to get all the way up to 40% before the aggregate number turns positive.

[Bread and Circus]

26. ok 12% is 30,000,000+ people. The point is the same.

It is still a calamity.

And you are still being offensive and arrogant.

I hope you are proud of yourself.

[randome]

23. Yeah, but he's more less rich than Clinton! Or something.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[beam me up scottie]

27. Or something:

Bernie Sanders net worth is $528,014. Our Bernie Sanders net worth calculations come from analyzing his U.S. Senate financial disclosure forms.

http://moneynation.com/bernie-sanders-net-worth/

Hillary Clinton's net worth is $31.3 million. Our Hillary Clinton net worth number comes from analyzing her 2015 U.S. Public Financial Disclosure Reports. Bill Clinton has an estimated net worth of $80 million.

http://moneynation.com/hillary-clinton-net-worth/

[Ichingcarpenter]

30. Two of Hillary's Banksters talks equals Sanders net worth

Gee that's something to think about

[questionseverything]

56. actually @ 300,000 a pop

the difference between 2 of her speeches and bernie's entire net worth....would buy a decent little house

[Manifestor_of_Light]

29. read How to Lie with Statistics.

Classic text and easily understood by non math majors like me.

[frylock]

31. How to Lie With Bullshit seems more suiting for the OP

[kennetha]

33. Just the facts!

not sure why you'd be so upset by a simple fact.

[frylock]

34. Let us know when you find them.

[kennetha]

35. you denying that

Bernie's net worth is single handedly greater than the combined net worth of the bottom 40%?

[frylock]

36. How to Lie With Bullshit seems more suiting for the OP

[workinclasszero]

37. Yeah I always get a laugh when some folks make out Bernie to be a common citizen

Best free healthcare for life and hundreds of thousands of dollars in his bank account LOL

From the other side of the tracks where me and mine try to survive till the next paycheck, Bernie looks like a very rich man.

[Warren DeMontague]

44. FDR was extremely privileged.

This line of attack is extremely lame, even by the lame standards of normal HRC supporter attacks.

But then, obviously Hillary can't run on the issues.

[beam me up scottie]

47. Bernie has "hundreds of thousands of dollars in his bank account"?

I'm sure you have a link to back up that claim, right?

[madokie]

49. And Hillary is going to be good for you

how is that?

[Warren DeMontague]

43. Guess the "godless" thing wasn't getting you the kind of traction you wanted, huh?

Awwwww.

[beam me up scottie]

48. Not on DU, we're a bunch of godless heathens.

Maybe the op should try peddling that meme somewhere else.

[Warren DeMontague]

50. Maybe they should ask themselves why they're doing so shitty with Millennials

Case in point, right there.

[beam me up scottie]

52. One HC supporter actually predicted Bernie would suddenly get religious and start visiting churches.

Okay first: it's Temple not church

And second: Bernie don't play like dat, he won't suddenly declare the Torah is his favourite book and start "spontaneously" reciting verses in Yiddish with the owner of a Jewish deli in front of the press.

With scripture, Hillary Clinton wins over a voter

[Warren DeMontague]

53. It's like people who've spent their lives only listening to bad hair bands

Sorry, ma'am, but Radiohead is not about to start playing "sweet child o' mine"

[beam me up scottie]

58. Perfect analogy!

[virtualobserver]

51. vs. Hill and Bill are richer than the bottom 99.9%

[Motown_Johnny]

54. Shouldn't that percentage be much higher?

You really should add up all the debt held by that bottom 40% and then figure out the net worth of people who have a positive net worth. If you then find a "break even point", where the positive net worth of some cancels out the negative net worth of the others, you should use that percentage point instead of the 40% which you sighted.

Of course we are assuming that Bernie has a positive net worth, or something close to it. We would need to look at his financials to really get into it. For all I know he owes more on his house than it is worth.

The deeper truth behind all of this is that you are making an argument which supports Bernie's message on income inequality.

Thanks for that.

[questionseverything]

57. the op points out how bad the income equality is without realizing it

if half a million bucks is more wealth than the bottom 40% of the country have

it is much worse than i realized

[Motown_Johnny]

59. It is even worse than that, according to the OP.

The OP is saying that 40% of Americans have a negative net worth. We need to add up all that debt to really get an idea of how bad things are.

Yes, this is a very powerful message about income inequality. No doubt about it.

[kennetha]

61. Only 12% have negative net worth

but when you aggregate net worth, the aggregate number doesn't turn positive until you get to 40%

[liberal_at_heart]

60. I've had enough of your lies. I love the ignore list function. Bye.

[NurseJackie]

62. Ha!! :-D (nt)