4 ms·

It's important to remember that those numbers only count taxable income, and don't include welfare and other government services. If the world today seems and

It's important to remember that those numbers only count taxable income, and don't include welfare and other government services. If the world today seems and indeed is meaningfully less unequal than the world of Downton Abbey its partly because of those things. And also because more of the income of the super rich these days goes into bidding up the price of positional goods[1] rather than having the biggest possible house or the most possible servants. [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positional_good http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positional_good

fennecfoxen 13y ago
In other words, inequality is at an all-time high if you ignore all the measures we take to make it better and spread the wealth around. Clearly we should elect more politicians who promise to spread the wealth around. Better start stumping for Hilary 2016. Oh, wait, look! We already are! cough :b
amalag 13y ago
I think income of the super rich may go into positional goods, but their wealth goes into commodities which does raise prices across the board. And that percentage may be greater than it was in the past.
- fennecfoxen 13y ago
  Pfft. No it doesn't. Does Bill Gates have a billion dollars' worth of soybeans sitting around in silos somewhere? Did Steve Jobs buy up $50 million worth of crude oil at some point and no one told me? Does Warren Buffett have a freezer with $333,000,000 worth of pork bellies hanging in it? No. Even an ETF like PHCU has ~$15.24 million worth of copper - a drop in the ocean next to the wealth of a single billionaire. The only commodity the rich put anything approaching a substantial amount of money into... is gold. (Oooh, no, the price of gold is too high! think of the children!) No no. The super-rich put their wealth into BUSINESSES, which is why they remain super-wealthy. Also, they put it into: taxes (incl. the estate tax), charities, their heirs, corporate bonds, government bonds, and positional goods like fine art or NYC penthouses.
  - amalag 13y ago
    A lot of money is in hedge funds through which it goes into businesses and commodities. So you have to see where the hedge funds have their money. I would guess that the wealthy have more money in hedge funds than positional goods like fine art. But this is speculation on both our parts.

fennecfoxen 13y ago

In other words, inequality is at an all-time high if you ignore all the measures we take to make it better and spread the wealth around. Clearly we should elect more politicians who promise to spread the wealth around. Better start stumping for Hilary 2016. Oh, wait, look! We already are! cough :b

amalag 13y ago

I think income of the super rich may go into positional goods, but their wealth goes into commodities which does raise prices across the board. And that percentage may be greater than it was in the past.

fennecfoxen 13y ago
Pfft. No it doesn't. Does Bill Gates have a billion dollars' worth of soybeans sitting around in silos somewhere? Did Steve Jobs buy up $50 million worth of crude oil at some point and no one told me? Does Warren Buffett have a freezer with $333,000,000 worth of pork bellies hanging in it? No. Even an ETF like PHCU has ~$15.24 million worth of copper - a drop in the ocean next to the wealth of a single billionaire. The only commodity the rich put anything approaching a substantial amount of money into... is gold. (Oooh, no, the price of gold is too high! think of the children!) No no. The super-rich put their wealth into BUSINESSES, which is why they remain super-wealthy. Also, they put it into: taxes (incl. the estate tax), charities, their heirs, corporate bonds, government bonds, and positional goods like fine art or NYC penthouses.
- amalag 13y ago
  A lot of money is in hedge funds through which it goes into businesses and commodities. So you have to see where the hedge funds have their money. I would guess that the wealthy have more money in hedge funds than positional goods like fine art. But this is speculation on both our parts.