god I should start sleeping earlier, look what happens.
The rise of the super-rich hits a sobering wall.
This is by far one of the most interesting articles I've read about the financial crisis. Beyond talking about why the rich have, for the first time in around thirty years, stopped growing richer, it discusses inequality. Apparently in 2007, the top 1% of earners in the United States pocketed 23.5% of the country's income. Seriously, just think about that.
Reading the article mixed up this oddly potent cocktail of schadenfreude and... identification. On one hand, it must be horrible to lose millions when you're worth tens of millions more. Except... it's not, to actually be honest. On the other hand, that's what happened to my family. A few weeks back, my father found a cash box filled with old photos from the 1970s. They were photos of my older uncles and aunts in Europe, New York, Egypt, all these beautiful places, with my grandparents and their siblings. My sisters and I rifled through stacks and stacks of photos, and watched our older relatives, younger, more well-dressed versions of them at parties and trips abroad. Going through the photos, I wondered why things were so different now, like I was born into the echoes of my family's best times.
I remember trips abroad before I reached elementary school. I remember beluga whale petting in Vancouver, the smell of unleaded gas in Boston, my aunt's condominium in Hong Kong, a food trip to Shanghai, all these tiny snippets I'm certain happened, but can't really remember now. One thing I do know is that it's alright to not eat out all the time, to not have gone abroad in about five years when there's running water, electricity, food, and a bed to come home to. Having just enough might have been the best thing to happen to my family.
...even though most of my friends are rich as fuck.
Those bitches.
This is by far one of the most interesting articles I've read about the financial crisis. Beyond talking about why the rich have, for the first time in around thirty years, stopped growing richer, it discusses inequality. Apparently in 2007, the top 1% of earners in the United States pocketed 23.5% of the country's income. Seriously, just think about that.
Reading the article mixed up this oddly potent cocktail of schadenfreude and... identification. On one hand, it must be horrible to lose millions when you're worth tens of millions more. Except... it's not, to actually be honest. On the other hand, that's what happened to my family. A few weeks back, my father found a cash box filled with old photos from the 1970s. They were photos of my older uncles and aunts in Europe, New York, Egypt, all these beautiful places, with my grandparents and their siblings. My sisters and I rifled through stacks and stacks of photos, and watched our older relatives, younger, more well-dressed versions of them at parties and trips abroad. Going through the photos, I wondered why things were so different now, like I was born into the echoes of my family's best times.
I remember trips abroad before I reached elementary school. I remember beluga whale petting in Vancouver, the smell of unleaded gas in Boston, my aunt's condominium in Hong Kong, a food trip to Shanghai, all these tiny snippets I'm certain happened, but can't really remember now. One thing I do know is that it's alright to not eat out all the time, to not have gone abroad in about five years when there's running water, electricity, food, and a bed to come home to. Having just enough might have been the best thing to happen to my family.
...even though most of my friends are rich as fuck.
Those bitches.