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> Unions are the best way known to man that allows the re-distribution of profits from a small upper class Wealth inequality is still huge in Scandinavia (espe

by qwytw 4y ago

> Unions are the best way known to man that allows the re-distribution of profits from a small upper class Wealth inequality is still huge in Scandinavia (especially Sweden which is even worse than the US in that regard), Germany and the Benelux (especially when compared to many other European countries which might not have very strong unions..). So unions didn't really help that much with that...

tfourb 4y ago
I can't speak for other countries because I never looked at the data but in Germany, increasing wealth inequality correlates with decreasing union membership in recent decades while the big and broadly distributed wealth gains of the post-war era correlated with historically high levels of union memberships. Intuitively it would make sense that rising income inequality is the result of too little unionization, not too much or it being irrelevant. Also, there is plenty of actual research that backs this up, i.e.: - https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-help-reduce-disparities-and-strengthen-our-democracy/ https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-help-reduce-dispariti...
BowBun 4y ago
Data from the World Inequality Database refutes your statement - https://wid.world/world https://wid.world/world Every single socialist European nation (including the Scandinavian ones) has a better wealth distribution than the USA. > So unions didn't really help that much with that... Can you back your statement up with facts instead of hand-waving away paragraphs of meaningful discussion that came before this comment?
- qwytw 4y ago
  > refutes your statement Credit Suisse says otherwise when measured using Gini: https://www.credit-suisse.com/media/assets/corporate/docs/about-us/research/publications/global-wealth-databook-2022.pdf https://www.credit-suisse.com/media/assets/corporate/docs/ab... Of course they are possible not the most trustworthy source given the recent events.. To be fair I don't know how to explain the disparity, the report even says this: "For all other countries, except the United States, the wealth shares of the top groups are expected to be understated"

by qwytw 4y ago

tfourb 4y ago

I can't speak for other countries because I never looked at the data but in Germany, increasing wealth inequality correlates with decreasing union membership in recent decades while the big and broadly distributed wealth gains of the post-war era correlated with historically high levels of union memberships. Intuitively it would make sense that rising income inequality is the result of too little unionization, not too much or it being irrelevant. Also, there is plenty of actual research that backs this up, i.e.: - https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-help-reduce-disparities-and-strengthen-our-democracy/ https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-help-reduce-dispariti...

BowBun 4y ago

Data from the World Inequality Database refutes your statement - https://wid.world/world https://wid.world/world Every single socialist European nation (including the Scandinavian ones) has a better wealth distribution than the USA. > So unions didn't really help that much with that... Can you back your statement up with facts instead of hand-waving away paragraphs of meaningful discussion that came before this comment?

qwytw 4y ago
> refutes your statement Credit Suisse says otherwise when measured using Gini: https://www.credit-suisse.com/media/assets/corporate/docs/about-us/research/publications/global-wealth-databook-2022.pdf https://www.credit-suisse.com/media/assets/corporate/docs/ab... Of course they are possible not the most trustworthy source given the recent events.. To be fair I don't know how to explain the disparity, the report even says this: "For all other countries, except the United States, the wealth shares of the top groups are expected to be understated"