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Perhaps this is a foolish question, but how do retirement accounts fit into this? I assume many of us have retirement accounts that own parts of mutual funds or
by stinkytaco 5y ago
Perhaps this is a foolish question, but how do retirement accounts fit into this? I assume many of us have retirement accounts that own parts of mutual funds or ETFs, are those counted, or are the banks that managed those considered the "owner" and we're just getting a share?
- alistairSH 5y agoThey're included, which makes the headline (and article itself) mostly meaningless. Yeah, I have >$1million in the market, but it's almost all via funds in my 401k. I'm not actively voting on any of the companies and I largely don't even know which companies I hold. It would be more interesting to know what % of the market the top-1% hold.
- lexapro 5y agoWhy does it make the headline meaningless? It doesn't really matter whether you vote or know what you own, what matters is the wealth concentration.
- alistairSH 5y agoFair enough. My point is the 10th percentile household (~$200k income) has more in common with the median (~$70k) income household than they do with the top 1% household (~$530k). Or even the top 0.1%... https://review.chicagobooth.edu/economics/2017/article/never-mind-1-percent-lets-talk-about-001-percent https://review.chicagobooth.edu/economics/2017/article/never...
- kapp_in_life 5y agoReally? I doubt that the median income household goes on international vacations every year, whereas that is a luxury both the 10th and 1th percentile can afford to enjoy. Sure the 10th percentile might have to pick 2 of the 5 luxuries enjoyed by the 1%, but thats more than someone at the median could enjoy. Things get messier if you include assets, but speaking just to income percentiles...
- alistairSH 5y agoI was thinking more in terms of ability to generate intragenerational wealth (of the self-sustaining variety). Rich vs wealthy. Working for income vs living off interest. Etc. Or the ability to influence politics, corporate policy, or otherwise yield substantial power, which tends to reinforce the income gap. As a top-5% income earner, I can assure you I don't yield any more political or corporate power than anybody else in the bottom 99.5% or so. And I certainly won't be leaving massive trust funds for my heirs.
- colinmhayes 5y agoI'm not sure if the point of the article was that the top 10% control corporations. I think they were more trying to point out the extreme wealth inequality in this country.