4 ms·

New data: global wealth rises, inequality falls

22 points by elsewhen 3y ago

mattpallissard 3y ago
> The amount of wealth in the world is set to rise substantially even as inequality declines cough hack bullshit cough Seriously though. I work in tech. I do alright. I'm watching many of my non-tech friends struggle. Like really struggle. And these aren't lazy folks. It's hard to ignore.
- gizmo686 3y ago
  global inequality fell. local inequality increased in many places. These are somewhat two sides of the same coin.
- rogerkirkness 3y ago
  What is happening is those friends are rapidly approaching the global median amount of wealth, which is probably much lower than what was typical before. If there is no exceptional, specialized or physically proximity requirement to their work, they will eventually end up with the global median of wealth (which is increasing).
- nerdchum 3y ago
  The reason global wealth is increasing is because your friends local wealth is decreasing. The rich stay rich but the more and more zero sum resources allocated to the first world working class are being distributed to the entire world now.
  - tonyedgecombe 3y ago
    Which is a good thing unless you happen to be first world working class.
    - nerdchum 3y ago
      If only people would have responsible amounts of children we could all share in the wealth. As the billions of third world people continue having irresponsible amounts of children to expand to the new resources given to them.it becomes impossible for most first worlders to compete and everywhere becomes third world. So it may not be as good of a thing as it seems. Its funny the recent middle class is actually an abberation throughout most of human history. Most of human history has been the rich with their foot on the neck of the poor.
xg15 3y ago
Yeah, you can find articles like this every year. Usually they (deliberately or accidentally) confuse inequality between countries with inequality within a country. So Indian and Chinese 1%ers are catching up to Western 1%ers. That doesn't imply any meaningful change for the rest of the population.

22 points by elsewhen 3y ago

> The amount of wealth in the world is set to rise substantially even as inequality declines cough hack bullshit cough Seriously though. I work in tech. I do alright. I'm watching many of my non-tech friends struggle. Like really struggle. And these aren't lazy folks. It's hard to ignore.

gizmo686 3y ago
global inequality fell. local inequality increased in many places. These are somewhat two sides of the same coin.
rogerkirkness 3y ago
What is happening is those friends are rapidly approaching the global median amount of wealth, which is probably much lower than what was typical before. If there is no exceptional, specialized or physically proximity requirement to their work, they will eventually end up with the global median of wealth (which is increasing).
nerdchum 3y ago
The reason global wealth is increasing is because your friends local wealth is decreasing. The rich stay rich but the more and more zero sum resources allocated to the first world working class are being distributed to the entire world now.
- tonyedgecombe 3y ago
  Which is a good thing unless you happen to be first world working class.
  - nerdchum 3y ago
    If only people would have responsible amounts of children we could all share in the wealth. As the billions of third world people continue having irresponsible amounts of children to expand to the new resources given to them.it becomes impossible for most first worlders to compete and everywhere becomes third world. So it may not be as good of a thing as it seems. Its funny the recent middle class is actually an abberation throughout most of human history. Most of human history has been the rich with their foot on the neck of the poor.

xg15 3y ago

Yeah, you can find articles like this every year. Usually they (deliberately or accidentally) confuse inequality between countries with inequality within a country. So Indian and Chinese 1%ers are catching up to Western 1%ers. That doesn't imply any meaningful change for the rest of the population.