Video Showing the Huge Gap Between Super Rich and Everyone Else Goes Viral

[jadehunter]

For much of the past decade, policymakers and analysts have decried America's incredibly low savings rate, noting that U.S. households save a fraction of the money of the rest of the world. Citing a myriad of causes -- from cheap credit to exploitative bank practices -- they've noted that the average family puts away less than 4 percent of its

Comments

[alexvdl]

Yeah, gee. I hope someone told Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Kevin Smith, Jeff Bezos, and Wallace "Wally" Amos, Jr. that they'll never get rich if they work hard and get lucky. Hell, I hope that someone told Nick Woodman that there's no way to become rich and employ hundreds in the post 9/11 economy. Wealth doesn't appear out of nowhere. Even the people born with money still had to get that money from somewhere. At some point, someone worked their ass off to get that

[romp]

I also never point to a dictionary definition but I think it will help in this case: myth
1 a : a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon
b : parable, allegory
2 a : a popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone; especially : one embodying the ideals and institutions of a society or segment of society < seduced by the American myth of individualism - Orde Coombs >

this longer definition mentions that many people use the word to mean "any unreal or imaginary story" which seems to be how you think of it

edited for HTML trickiness

[happythree]

If there are concrete examples of something, then it's not a myth.

False. The definition of myth is far more complex than that, especially where the American dream is concerned.

[alexvdl]

Okay. Then the myth of the American dream is far more complex than that, and being more complex a simple designation like "true" or "false" wouldn't fit.

But the American Dream, meritocracy, Horatio Alger, and all of that aren't really important to me. There are any number of reasons that I can't achieve my goals. There are any number of things that prevent people from achieving their goals. Every day there are things.

[happythree]

If you were taking a test and you said that concrete examples of something existing means that that something cannot be a myth, you would be incorrect because you would be oversimplifying and narrowing the term.

And of course there are a number of reasons. But for as long as schools teach such ideals and for as long as significant portions of the social and political establishment push factually incorrect versions of America's socioeconomic condition, it will be appropriate to draw attention to the truth.

[alexvdl]

I was wrong and you were right.

I think it's perfectly appropriate to draw attention to the truth. This video is very eye opening, and certainly will be a good reference for anyone attempting to gather followers who understand the inequality extant in system and the need for something to be done about it.

[happythree]

Honestly, I'm trying to understand why you - and you aren't the only one, goodness knows - feel the need to respond to material like this with something along the lines of "I'm going to work hard!" Do you assume that the people who made this video do not work hard, or would prescribe quitting work as a solution

[alexvdl]

Because I can't do anything about this wealth inequality. I myself can't change this. I can work with others, I can vote my conscience, I can volunteer my time and money. I can do and will continue to do those things

[happythree]

Perhaps not, but there is some merit to the concept of 'opinion leadership' in voter decision-making heuristics. The American political system is slow to change by design, but that's more reason from my perspective to hold onto the inch even if the end results are by no means immediate, seeing as that is often all that a citizen without the power of the dollar can have.

[alexvdl]

Okay. I don't understand your point though though. Not as in I don't think you are right but as in I'm confused as to what you mean by holding onto the inch.

[happythree]

By the inch I just mean whatever issue you think is important for making the country better. For the makers if this video it is apparently raising awareness of income inequality. It's an uphill battle, obviously, and seeing as it challenges the most powerful people in society by its nature, maybe it is a futile one. Regardless, no one has come up with a perfect formula for how to go about change. I am certain, though, that bottom-up change is necessarily collective, so I find simply examining my own personal power, which is obviously quite limited, and going no further than that, is not enough.

[alexvdl]

Stupid phone ate the entry I tried to post an hour ago. Let's try again.

I agree completely. Watching that video, expressing disgust, and then moving on with your life won't help anyone. My personal casus belli is the budget. Every time an individual asks for financial advice, they are told that they should create a budget and stick to it. Why the hell can't a group of people that are required by LAW to make budget, follow the same damn advice? There aren't many things that I feel strongly enough to write letters to Congresspeople about but that's one of them.

I believe that we can't start working on creating jobs, turning this economy around, and cutting frivolous programs until we have an actual idea of what we're working with. If we don't know how much money we do or don't have, how can we direct it effectively?

[romp]

Yes, a myth. Dalton's criticism of the Horatio Alger myth sums up my thoughts well.

[alexvdl]

Top of page *the neutrality of this page is disputed* yeah. No kidding.

That being said, I don't believe that merit will always out or that the playing field is level at all. I talk about that more extensively in earlier comments.

[romp]

What are you talking about?! I'm introducing this term to you. It's not a debate.

[alexvdl]

I'm agreeing with Dalton. The Horatio Alger myth and it's planks are, to be charitable, problematic.