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In the US, the vast majority of gross national income goes to labor not capital. FWIW.
by harryh 9y ago
In the US, the vast majority of gross national income goes to labor not capital. FWIW.
- kasey_junk 9y agoI believe you and my instincts agree with you, but how are you quantifying that?
- harryh 9y agoScott Sumner has a great blog post that gets into this (and some other semi related topics): http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=30566 http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=30566
- int_19h 9y agoOf course, there's also a lot more laborers than capitalists. By orders of magnitude. How about per capita for each group?
- harryh 9y agoBLS says about 153 million Americans are currently working(1). Gallup says 52% of American Adults are invested in the stock market(2). There are about 235 million adult Americans. 52% of that is 122 million. 153 million laborers vs 122 million stockholders Pretty close! And that's just stockholders. There are, of course, many other forms of capital. 1. https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12000000 https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12000000 2. http://www.gallup.com/poll/190883/half-americans-own-stocks-matching-record-low.aspx http://www.gallup.com/poll/190883/half-americans-own-stocks-...
- int_19h 9y agoIf someone is deriving 90% of their income from labor, and 10% of it from stocks, then I don't think it's meaningful to call them "capitalists". It's technically true, yes, but in a way that doesn't make sense in the context of this discussion.
- dragonwriter 9y agoIn class terms, a capitalist derives the vast majority of their income from capital, a laborer from labor, and the middle class has both as significant sources of income. A worker owning a handful of shares of stock isn't a capitalist, or even petit bourgeoisie.