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“Wealth inequality needs to be considered in the context of overall prosperity and despite the fearmongering you see online, most Americans are doing well. Even

“Wealth inequality needs to be considered in the context of overall prosperity and despite the fearmongering you see online, most Americans are doing well. Even our poor have modern conveniences, access to emergency healthcare, generally safe food and infrastructure - eating the evil rich and redistributing their wealth is unlikely to solve any of the major issues in the country, as we're already throwing tons of money at schooling and healthcare and the like.” This line is extremely condescending. Why don’t we tell the top 0.1% who seem to always need more to do their valuable service to society that they have it much better than any king had it a hundred years ago? So why they need more every year? why is this line only used against the little guy? Fact is that more and more wealth goes to a small group of people. In my view this is extremely damaging to a society in the long run. some level of inequality is probably helpful to motivate people but it shouldn’t be growing constantly.

mam2 7y ago
They dont "need" more nor even look for it so much in fact. What makes inequality increase is actually the mindset of poor people that their poverty is "someone else's fault" like this kind of comment ( and also that "the state should do something" like it is their mother ). The hard truth is that inequality increases because poor people dont fight against and do nothing about it except complaining. Its always the fighting that has brought any of the social improvements, not the goodwill of politicians or anykind of "fair invisible hand".
pubutil 7y ago
I also have a big problem with the reasoning of the quoted argument, at least from a United States point of view. Our poor do have modern conveniences, because that’s what the world does; it evolves with current technology. They have access to emergency healthcare, which will almost inevitably bankrupt them when they need treatment. “Generally safe food” is not good enough in what is supposed to be one of the top first world countries. Infrastructure? Sure. Depending on how poor you are you’ll have varying access to infrastructure. This hasn’t happened out of concern for our poor. The poor are getting society’s leftovers. I don’t particularly care if we’ve “thrown tons of money at schooling and healthcare and the like” when we spend exponentially more money on the US military. Teachers across our country are still underpaid, and our education system is still not taken seriously enough. The US is not in the top 10 most educated countries (K-12), despite being a top first world country. Admittedly, money wouldn’t fix all the problems with our education system, but it would make a big difference. It sounds like this was written by someone with a limited frame of reference.

mam2 7y ago

They dont "need" more nor even look for it so much in fact. What makes inequality increase is actually the mindset of poor people that their poverty is "someone else's fault" like this kind of comment ( and also that "the state should do something" like it is their mother ). The hard truth is that inequality increases because poor people dont fight against and do nothing about it except complaining. Its always the fighting that has brought any of the social improvements, not the goodwill of politicians or anykind of "fair invisible hand".

pubutil 7y ago

I also have a big problem with the reasoning of the quoted argument, at least from a United States point of view. Our poor do have modern conveniences, because that’s what the world does; it evolves with current technology. They have access to emergency healthcare, which will almost inevitably bankrupt them when they need treatment. “Generally safe food” is not good enough in what is supposed to be one of the top first world countries. Infrastructure? Sure. Depending on how poor you are you’ll have varying access to infrastructure. This hasn’t happened out of concern for our poor. The poor are getting society’s leftovers. I don’t particularly care if we’ve “thrown tons of money at schooling and healthcare and the like” when we spend exponentially more money on the US military. Teachers across our country are still underpaid, and our education system is still not taken seriously enough. The US is not in the top 10 most educated countries (K-12), despite being a top first world country. Admittedly, money wouldn’t fix all the problems with our education system, but it would make a big difference. It sounds like this was written by someone with a limited frame of reference.