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Anger at these things obscures the ability to find a solution. When you say "the black and white wealth gap continues completely unchanged for over 50 years', I

Anger at these things obscures the ability to find a solution. When you say "the black and white wealth gap continues completely unchanged for over 50 years', I get that is hyperbole, but surely it has changed in some ways, if not on aggregate then in specific locales, in the curve of the distribution... in SOME way. Given that lots of other things have changed in society, if this gap has stayed the same as an average or median on the whole, that is speaking to something deeper. So what, exactly? Thomas Sowell makes the point that average ages vary by race: https://www.tsowell.com/spracecu.html https://www.tsowell.com/spracecu.html and there must be other factors, like where races live. Asians being based in San Francisco pre Silicon Valley's boom has surely had a positive affect on their collective income and wealth. I really wish there was a clear cut answer, but there self evidently isn't one, unless we believe that every change in society in the last 50 years was made for cynical reasons. So there must be all sorts of answers in the data, sliced properly, that could lead us to a more equitable future.

kaens 7y ago
> that is speaking to something deeper. So what, exactly? the lingering effects of hundreds of years of overt oppression of both the individual and systemic sort. this whole thing is like telling a bunch of contestants in a race that they have to start a minute late and aren't allowed to practice and then pretending like that's not going to be a factor in their finish times.
- burntoutfire 7y ago
  That does not undermine the thesis that the society is basically a meritocracy - it rewards everyone proportional to their contributions, it's just that some people are poised by birth to be able to contribute more than others. If US weren't a meritocracy, they would promote incompetent people to positions of power. This for to a large degree does not happen - for example, you can't get a $500k FAANG job just because you have an uncle there. On the other hand, if you were born in a family with right values, have the right genes and worked your ass off in school, you are a powerhouse in terms of your ability to contribute and will get that job (simplification, of course).
  - RugnirViking 7y ago
    "If US weren't a meritocracy, they would promote incompetent people to positions of power. This for to a large degree does not happen - for example, you can't get a $500k FAANG job just because you have an uncle there." I think you'll find that a large and potentially growing number of americans disagree profoundly with this statement. Higher-paid = works harder/produces more is pretty much at the core of this disagreement Specifically your claim that the US (or the west more generally) doesn't promote incompetent people to positions of power would be completely laughable to pretty much everyone I know (and I don't even mean anything regarding the government). Of course my peers are generally young, and university educated like myself, and I am from europe, not NA, but even my right-wing friends don't hold it self evident that a person in a position of power is automatically competent. We've all worked with and under far too many frustratingly underqualified or straight-up clueless people to give such a notion any credit at all.
  - llamataboot 7y ago
    Well-connected parents get you into well-connected schools, which get you into well-compensated jobs. I'll take your FAANG example and raise you all of Wall St.
llamataboot 7y ago
This is nitpicking the basic fact that the wealth gap between white Americans and African-Americans is basically unchanged. Go take a look at the graphs yourself!

kaens 7y ago

> that is speaking to something deeper. So what, exactly? the lingering effects of hundreds of years of overt oppression of both the individual and systemic sort. this whole thing is like telling a bunch of contestants in a race that they have to start a minute late and aren't allowed to practice and then pretending like that's not going to be a factor in their finish times.

burntoutfire 7y ago
That does not undermine the thesis that the society is basically a meritocracy - it rewards everyone proportional to their contributions, it's just that some people are poised by birth to be able to contribute more than others. If US weren't a meritocracy, they would promote incompetent people to positions of power. This for to a large degree does not happen - for example, you can't get a $500k FAANG job just because you have an uncle there. On the other hand, if you were born in a family with right values, have the right genes and worked your ass off in school, you are a powerhouse in terms of your ability to contribute and will get that job (simplification, of course).
- RugnirViking 7y ago
  "If US weren't a meritocracy, they would promote incompetent people to positions of power. This for to a large degree does not happen - for example, you can't get a $500k FAANG job just because you have an uncle there." I think you'll find that a large and potentially growing number of americans disagree profoundly with this statement. Higher-paid = works harder/produces more is pretty much at the core of this disagreement Specifically your claim that the US (or the west more generally) doesn't promote incompetent people to positions of power would be completely laughable to pretty much everyone I know (and I don't even mean anything regarding the government). Of course my peers are generally young, and university educated like myself, and I am from europe, not NA, but even my right-wing friends don't hold it self evident that a person in a position of power is automatically competent. We've all worked with and under far too many frustratingly underqualified or straight-up clueless people to give such a notion any credit at all.
- llamataboot 7y ago
  Well-connected parents get you into well-connected schools, which get you into well-compensated jobs. I'll take your FAANG example and raise you all of Wall St.

llamataboot 7y ago

This is nitpicking the basic fact that the wealth gap between white Americans and African-Americans is basically unchanged. Go take a look at the graphs yourself!