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> "The video states that 60% of the wealth in the U.K. is inherited" I hate statements like this because they are completely misleading. other similar ones li

> "The video states that 60% of the wealth in the U.K. is inherited" I hate statements like this because they are completely misleading. other similar ones like "top 1 % controls ~50 % of wealth" etc. This goes by networth. Imagine this, there are about 20 million college students, nearly all of then have a negative net worth. By that logic, if you hand a homeless person a single $ bill, they 'control' the wealth of at least 20 million Americans. you can add in tons of americans who have a positive net worth to make up for all that negative net worth. Its an absurd way of thinking. its especially problematic since most net worth is paper net worth (stocks that not even the owners can really touch). Surely someone who just graduated college and has 100k negative net worth is far better off than a starving person in a desert, distended belly and all.

max76 7y ago
Are you really saying a statistic about wealth inequality shows exaggerated inequality because we have lots of people heavily in debt?
- autokad 7y ago
  thats only one issue, there are many others. there are also a ton of people who just dont save/invest any of their money, even those making 100k a year. furthermore, we are in a bit of bull market for stocks, which networth overly focuses on. also networth is just a terrible metric. it ignores income streams, it ignores things that produce income like degrees, etc. it over inflates paper wealth as mentioned before.
  - max76 7y ago
    I understand that a person's networth isn't the same as their value. It's still a reasonable approximation of someone's current financial position.
AnthonyMouse 7y ago
> Surely someone who just graduated college and has 100k negative net worth is far better off than a starving person in a desert, distended belly and all. And a big part of that is just the way we do the accounting. If you put the degree on the balance sheet as an asset it would change everything.

max76 7y ago

Are you really saying a statistic about wealth inequality shows exaggerated inequality because we have lots of people heavily in debt?

autokad 7y ago
thats only one issue, there are many others. there are also a ton of people who just dont save/invest any of their money, even those making 100k a year. furthermore, we are in a bit of bull market for stocks, which networth overly focuses on. also networth is just a terrible metric. it ignores income streams, it ignores things that produce income like degrees, etc. it over inflates paper wealth as mentioned before.
- max76 7y ago
  I understand that a person's networth isn't the same as their value. It's still a reasonable approximation of someone's current financial position.

AnthonyMouse 7y ago

> Surely someone who just graduated college and has 100k negative net worth is far better off than a starving person in a desert, distended belly and all. And a big part of that is just the way we do the accounting. If you put the degree on the balance sheet as an asset it would change everything.