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Wealth Inequality in America


oldschooler

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Hollywood isn't part of the 1%?

 

That being said, every year, the Oscars get political in some way. 

 

 

'meh sure they are but they arent really creating the problem from an actors point of view, this is more about those doing the employing.

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'meh sure they are but they arent really creating the problem from an actors point of view, this is more about those doing the employing.

 

 

Yeah I mean "yay" for awareness and all that but it's hard to take someone seriously when their dress is probably worth more than some people's homes.

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  • 1 month later...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/business/owner-of-gravity-payments-a-credit-card-processor-is-setting-a-new-minimum-wage-70000-a-year.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

 

The idea began percolating, said Dan Price, the founder of Gravity Payments, after he read an article on happiness. It showed that, for people who earn less than about $70,000, extra money makes a big difference in their lives.

 

His idea bubbled into reality on Monday afternoon, when Mr. Pricesurprised his 120-person staff by announcing that he planned over the next three years to raise the salary of even the lowest-paid clerk, customer service representative and salesman to a minimum of $70,000.

 

“Is anyone else freaking out right now?” Mr. Price asked after the clapping and whooping died down into a few moments of stunned silence. “I’m kind of freaking out.”

 

If it’s a publicity stunt, it’s costly one. Mr. Price, who started the Seattle-based credit-card payment processing firm in 2004 at the age of 19, said he would pay for the wage increases by cutting his own salary from nearly $1 million to $70,000 and using 75 to 80 percent of the company’s anticipated $2.2 million in profit this year.

 

The paychecks of about 70 employees will grow, with 30 ultimately doubling their salaries, according to Ryan Pirkle, a company spokesman. The average salary at Gravity is $48,000 year.

 

Mr. Price’s small, privately owned company is by no means a bellwether, but his unusual proposal does speak to an economic issue that has captured national attention: The disparity between the soaring pay of chief executives and that of their employees.

The United States has one of the world’s largest pay gaps, with chief executives earning nearly 300 times what the average worker makes, according to some economists’ estimates. That is much higher than the 20-to-1 ratio recommended by Gilded Age magnates like J. Pierpont Morgan and the 20th century management visionary Peter Drucker.

 

“The market rate for me as a C.E.O. compared to a regular person is ridiculous, it’s absurd,” said Mr. Price, who said his main extravagances were snowboarding and picking up the bar bill. He drives a 12-year-old Audi, which he received in a barter for service from the local dealer.

 

“As much as I’m a capitalist, there is nothing in the market that is making me do it,” he said, referring to paying wages that make it possible for his employees to go after the American dream, buy a house and pay for their children’s education.

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This article is from January, but I did an oral presentation last night in my economics class at GMU.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/01/24/the-american-dream-shatters-in-prince-georges-county/

 

African Americans for decades flocked to Prince George’s County to be part of a phenomenon that has been rare in American history: a community that grew more upscale as it became more black.

The county became a national symbol of the American Dream with a black twist. Families moved into expansive new homes, with rolling lawns, nearby golf courses and, most of all, neighbors who looked like them. In the early 2000s, home prices soared — some well beyond $1 million — allowing many African Americans to build the kind of wealth their elders could only imagine.

 

DASHED DREAMS: This is the first part in a series looking at the plight of the black middle class, particularly in Maryland’s Prince George’s County, the nation’s highest-income majority-black county.

 

But today, the nation’s highest-income majority-black county stands out for a different reason — its residents have lost far more wealth than families in neighboring, majority-white suburbs. And while every one of these surrounding counties is enjoying a strong rebound in housing prices and their economies, Prince George’s is lagging far behind, and local economists say a full recovery appears unlikely anytime soon.

 

The same reversal of fortune is playing out across the country as black families who worked painstakingly to climb into the middle class are seeing their financial foundation for future generations collapse. Although African Americans have made once-unthinkable political and social gains since the civil rights era, the severe and continuing damage wrought by the downturn — an entire generation of wealth was wiped out — has raised a vexing question: Why don’t black middle-class families enjoy the same level of economic security as their white counterparts?

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Anecdotal and all, but in my experience I've found that racial tension decreases as the black middle class increases, even when comparing neighborhoods in the same city. It's no coincidence that black-owned business & entertainment districts are prime targets for racist domestic terror groups.  Look up the Greenwood riots in Tulsa or the Rosewood massacre in Florida.  Better yet, the Vanport floods in Oregon, which was closer to deliberate neglect & will immediately remind you of Hurricane Katrina. Or currently; if you know about the East St Louis riot recent events in Ferguson are a lot more understandable.  100 years is only a few generations ago - this is not ancient history. Entire neighborhoods and even towns destroyed - there are weeds where Rosewood stood. Mention "race riots" and people are quick to condemn Detroit or LA, but if you go back a couple more decades Watts starts to look like a candlelit procession and Ferguson a pizza party. 

 

Wiki links if you're interested:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanport,_Oregon#Flood

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_St._Louis_riot

 

 

 

and there are plenty more down that rabbit hole if you have the stomach for it.  American Violence mentions children in East STL being torn away from mothers and thrown into the fires. There's a chapter on Cincinnati's Court St Riot as well. I'm still trying to replace my copy of that one but it's back "in print" digitally.   :1018:   http://www.amazon.com/American-Violence-A-Documentary-History/dp/0394716868

 

 

Anyway, for those of you who've called me a race baiter (my personal favorite - still haven't been invited to one of Reverend Sharpton's BBQ's but I'm hopeful) or apologist etc.. Read some of that shit.  As a white man I have & continue to benefit from it despite none of my direct ancestors holding slaves, others fighting on both sides of the Civil War, and the rest of the family coming over around 1900.. None of my excuses matter on a social level, and while I can't personally apologize for it happening I have to acknowledge that my life was made easier at the expense of others.

 

Hope that's not too OT for y'all but the intersection of economics, race, and terrorism pretty well describes our society right now IMHO.

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Anecdotal and all, but in my experience I've found that racial tension decreases as the black middle class increases, even when comparing neighborhoods in the same city. It's no coincidence that black-owned business & entertainment districts are prime targets for racist domestic terror groups.  Look up the Greenwood riots in Tulsa or the Rosewood massacre in Florida.  Better yet, the Vanport floods in Oregon, which was closer to deliberate neglect & will immediately remind you of Hurricane Katrina. Or currently; if you know about the East St Louis riot recent events in Ferguson are a lot more understandable.  100 years is only a few generations ago - this is not ancient history. Entire neighborhoods and even towns destroyed - there are weeds where Rosewood stood. Mention "race riots" and people are quick to condemn Detroit or LA, but if you go back a couple more decades Watts starts to look like a candlelit procession and Ferguson a pizza party. 

 

Wiki links if you're interested:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanport,_Oregon#Flood

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_St._Louis_riot

 

 

 

and there are plenty more down that rabbit hole if you have the stomach for it.  American Violence mentions children in East STL being torn away from mothers and thrown into the fires. There's a chapter on Cincinnati's Court St Riot as well. I'm still trying to replace my copy of that one but it's back "in print" digitally.   :1018:   http://www.amazon.com/American-Violence-A-Documentary-History/dp/0394716868

 

 

Anyway, for those of you who've called me a race baiter (my personal favorite - still haven't been invited to one of Reverend Sharpton's BBQ's but I'm hopeful) or apologist etc.. Read some of that shit.  As a white man I have & continue to benefit from it despite none of my direct ancestors holding slaves, others fighting on both sides of the Civil War, and the rest of the family coming over around 1900.. None of my excuses matter on a social level, and while I can't personally apologize for it happening I have to acknowledge that my life was made easier at the expense of others.

 

Hope that's not too OT for y'all but the intersection of economics, race, and terrorism pretty well describes our society right now IMHO.

 

Its more about money than race. 

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Its more about money than race. 

 

 

I would argue that they're too closely intertwined to say that.  Over most of this country's history there's been a concerted effort to keep certain minorities poor & disenfranchised.  You can't really blame poverty without examining the root causes.

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I would argue that they're too closely intertwined to say that.  Over most of this country's history there's been a concerted effort to keep certain minorities poor & disenfranchised.  You can't really blame poverty without examining the root causes.

 

Bam

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I would argue that they're too closely intertwined to say that.  Over most of this country's history there's been a concerted effort to keep certain minorities poor & disenfranchised.  You can't really blame poverty without examining the root causes.


I've said that for two months to you. Glad something is sinking in.
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Methinks you overestimate your communication skills... :mellow:


I think I overestimate the intelligence of people on this board. We've been having a different blend of this exact conversation for months related to crime and the causes of crime. The causes of crime are lack of attachment. The causes of lack of attachment are often having a low income. For many the cause of low income has been institutional racism. I honestly think income inequality and greed are at the base of almost every societal Ill.
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  • 1 month later...

There will always be a group of people with much, much more than the rest. They likely share some, giving to charities and whatnot, but keep the vast majority of it for themselves.

 

We are no different, when you consider all the poor, undeveloped countries in the world. We use/consume many times more resources, and waste much more than citizens in Haiti and other impoverished countries.

 

I support doing ore for others, but after a point, it has to be done by choice. I believe that the government alreadt takes too much of our money as it is. But if taxes and whatnot are to be increased on the rich I believe that such and increase should be based on your income beyond average, as we are trying to Harrison Bergeron people, it has to hit all people bringing them to the same level.

 

But I do not support that, so I will digress. Maybe I'll right up my rant about the justice system needing to adjust fines upwards based on income to efficiently "punish" all people equally...

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The notion that we will always have more with more is not something that anyone has a issue with. It's the wholesale purchase of our politicians to employ policies that favor them over the rest of us.

 

I don't have an account in the Camens to avoid paying taxes, do you?

I can't afford Lobbyists to write up policy and tax code to benefit me can you?

 

There are a million more examples, and demonizing the bottom half of the country as not willing to do for themselves is tired.

 

Should a person working full time (40 hours a week) have to be in a position they have to take government assistance?

Should the incentive to get off welfare be better so that it's not a trap? Meaning should wages be so low that a person can make more money on welfare than off it? And don't feed me the line that we should lower welfare payments then, that's a non-answer,  you arent making a whole lot of money on welfare.

 

There are a whole host of other issues we could talk about but we have to start at the idea that nobody wants to be on welfare

 

Fix the incentive structures at both the top and bottom, and by bottom I mean fix wages, and we can fix alot of this mess.

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I was just arguing with one of those types yesterday on FB. Currently unemployed and wont take unemployment insurance (at least that he'd admit to) but wants to get rid of the system all together and blames welfare leeches for the state of the economy.

 

These people are not bright.

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