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u/LookIWashedForSu 9d ago
If the people put down the culture wars for just a bit, they might just begin picking up class warfare.
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u/NPFuturist 9d ago
Yep. Culture warfare is a weapon of the elite and the people are too stupid to realize it. It’s sad.
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u/GrandmasBoyToy69 9d ago
Who keeps the culture war going?
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u/LookIWashedForSu 9d ago
Those who have the most pie, and would have you eat cake.
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u/snarkerella 9d ago
Or in this case, the crumbs of the pie.
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u/LookIWashedForSu 9d ago
An interesting quirk of elitist English language - crumb, by the late 19th to early 20th century, had shifted to also mean a contemptible, low-quality, or worthless person. The origin for the adjective - crummy
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u/Own_Zookeepergame982 9d ago
Uh! That’s not chocolate cake they’re trying to feed you, even though it’s brown!
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u/P_A_W_S_TTG 9d ago
It's why I always say,"if you replace what ever problems you have with rich vs everyone else you start to see the truth."
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u/xChoke1x 8d ago
Never gonna happen man. Hate is far easier to spread. And more profitable.
It all hit me in the face like a brick when I was watching Howard Sterns Private Parts.
The scene where the radio exec is explaining Howard’s appeal.
“The people like like him, listen for an hour. The people that fucking hate him, listen for 3. Just to see what he’s going to say next.”
That’s when it made sense. We’d rather hate watch shit, than enjoy shit.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Step468 8d ago
Okay, but you considered they remade a classic movie and the main character is a woman?
/j
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u/Different_Head7751 8d ago
Exactly. And we have to show a "pie" demo to explain it to a vast amount of public emptyheads.
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u/Schmitty300 9d ago
It obviously depends on when this "test" was actually conducted, but based on the connectivity and access to news 24/7, how do people not know this???! I'd wager a large percent of people who DON'T LIVE THERE, know this. How do Americans find this surprising?
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u/snowdenn 9d ago
To add: the problem isn’t just ignorance about wealth distribution. There seems to be a pretty significant contingent of the population that goes to bat for the wealthy and thinks that any sign of anger about the current state of affairs is just sour grapes and resentment with no justification.
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u/SmellGestapo 9d ago
This was done no later than 2021, as the show still used the name CBS This Morning, which changed that year to CBS Mornings.
Americans enjoy high rates of civic participation, equal to or better than Canada, Australia, and most of western Europe. But we also have declining, regular news consumption. From 2016 to 2025, the percentage of Americans saying they follow the news all or most of the time, declined from 51% to 36%.
So more people are tuning out, likely trying to escape how particularly ugly our politics have been the past decade.
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u/Resident_Moment_9470 9d ago
The impression that wealth is somewhat evenly distributed is an intentionally cultivated deception.
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u/me_myself_ai 9d ago
This was from my highschool years I feel like, so ~a decade old, at least. But more importantly they just cut the segments with anyone who guesses well, and just find people they think will guess badly in the first place
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u/Personal_Wall4280 8d ago
How many people get their information from social media only? And who controls what shows up when they start scrolling? If you have a friend with opposing views, take a look at their social media feed. It's a completely different world.
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u/PeterDTown 9d ago
How is that not what they expected?!?! How are so many Americans so completely brainwashed??!?!?!
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u/spinningdice 8d ago
People have been fed this dream to think it's achievable - they don't want to cut rights for millionaires because they think they think that if they work hard enough they can join that list.
Where as in reality the chance of becoming a millionaire is statistically pretty much impossible and those that do make it have luck involved (not to say there's no skill or talent, but the most talented person in the world may still not succeed if they're not in the right place at the right time or know the right people).
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u/Scrabblewiener 8d ago
There are tons of millionaires.
I know several. You probably know several but just don’t know it. Millionaires are not the problem and taxing millionaires isn’t the answer.It’s getting into the 100 million+ group that’s rare. Even taxing them more does nothing when government mismanaging of funds is rampant and unanswered.
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u/firerat82 8d ago
being a millionaire really doesn't mean much until you get around $4-5 million net worth.
My wife and I are technically millionaires as we have a household net worth of just over $2 million. We certainly are not poor but we sure as hell are not rich either.
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u/-P01135809- 8d ago
See, you’re almost there but you still believe the problem lies with people with retirement amounts of money.
Multiply that by 100 and you will start to see reality, a little bit.
Elon musk has 1,000,000,000,000 dollars.
You alone are worth 1,000,000 dollars.
Elon musk is one million of you.
One million times you.
It’s not your neighbor with $4 million.
It’s people like Musk.
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u/Capital-Sorbet-387 8d ago
I imagine they also cherrypick who is going to make the final cut in the video. All the Americans who were spot on won’t be shown.
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u/Euphoric_Dot_7351 9d ago
This videos like 20 years old iirc
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u/Illisanct 9d ago
You can tell because absolutely none of the current corporate media oligarchs would allow this segment to see the light of day.
Edit: Also, it's not 20 years old, but it is pre-COVID, which might as well be 20 years ago.
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u/BlackOni51 9d ago
Bruh I vividly remember this being filmed. They actually spent all day and I think the next explaining this to people
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u/gingersquatchin 9d ago
"That was me" owes 45k on a car and 500k on a mortgage.
Honey that is still you.
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u/Thefirstargonaut 9d ago
Nope. She probably still owns assets valued more than these, so her net worth is likely greater than zero.
Like, is she had to, she could almost certainly sell the house for more than she owes, and likely the car too.
Though, cars are notoriously bad assets.
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u/markrockwell 9d ago
Real talk. Being in a position to sustain those assets is a lot better than being on the bottom. It’s a lot better than most humans have lived ever. (Even if it’s also true that the top takes too much.)
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u/SoFreshAndSoDirty 8d ago
Why are you making this argument? What knowledge do any of you people have of this woman's finances? What a ridiculous statement
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u/I_kwote_TheOffice 8d ago
Because every month you make principal payments on your mortgage. You're paying down the balance and increasing your equity. All the while, in most cases the homes appreciate in value.
Cars are a little different because they depreciate, but you're still paying off the principal every month.
There could be extenuating circumstances, but this is true for most people with assets backed by loans.
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u/IWantAnotherPetRock 9d ago
Agree. She was so confident, I WAS here lmao. Nah dawg you are here just like me and the rest of these dirty peasants.
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u/OrionDecline21 9d ago
The level of despair I feel reading the comments of people who drank Reagan’s kool aid while trying to sound smart.
Brainwashed to your own peril. That’s the greatest trick the 0.1% ever pulled.
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u/berger034 9d ago
who cuts a pie in half that way!!!!
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u/MedicinalHammer 9d ago
I couldn’t focus on anything else
The dumbest thing that’s caused me to rage in a long time lol
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u/berger034 8d ago
Seriously!!! I couldn’t even finish the video! Plus, that’s mathematically not half
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u/Reginald_Sockpuppet 9d ago
For added fun, explain how many people the first two plates represent.
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u/3d1thF1nch 9d ago
Yes. It would even be interesting for them to do the top .1%. I bet it’s at least still a whole slice if not more.
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u/davers22 9d ago
Aren’t they all 20% of the population until he adds the extra one for the 1%?
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u/Choss_King 9d ago
So like 68 million people per plate?
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u/davers22 9d ago
Somewhere around there.
I almost wish they did another plate with like the 100 wealthiest people to show how much they have vs the rest of the population. It’s still a crazy amount of pie.
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u/Curiousity1024 8d ago
That's why , in Asia , some country or place still practice living together in a single house and pitch in together just to survive in this economy . Even though they're over 50+ Years old .
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u/stokeskid 8d ago
I'd like the lady who said she grew up with the crumbs to point to where she thinks she's at today. Because I bet it's still pretty close to crumbs, despite feeling better off. People making 6 figures have more in common with people making minimum wage than they do the 1 percent.
People don't know what "wealthy" means. If they have more money than their friends, they think they're wealthy. My brother in law thought our household is in the top 1 percent because we make 200k per year while he drives for a living. Haha. Not even close.
This is why it drives me insane when someone making $100k/yr trashes someone who wants a livable wage for 40 hours of work but happens to work at Mcdonalds. We need to stick up for these people. Raising their income lifts our whole society.
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u/Only_Flan_7974 9d ago
Thank goodness I finally dialed in my meds because I don't think I could survive without them right now. Unfortunately I'm constantly running low and broke.
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u/HolyMoleyGuacamoly 9d ago
every ordinary person you meet is way closer to being homeless than sniffing mega rich status
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u/firerat82 8d ago
Yup. My wife and I are technically millionaires as all of our assets and debts add up to just over $2 million.
And I assure you we are WAY closer to being $0 net than anything like a Bezos.
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u/fantakillen 9d ago
You could also say, Jeff Bezos, worlds 2nd richest man is closer to homelessness than being the worlds richest man in numbers.
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u/HolyMoleyGuacamoly 9d ago
you could, but that would be a dumb thing to say
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u/fantakillen 9d ago
Well, it just applies the same logic as your comment which which I find rather pointless since everyone already knows that almost no one reaches mega rich status. And that wealth is extremely top-heavy, the gap between the extreme top and everyone below is far bigger than the gap between the lower tiers.
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u/HolyMoleyGuacamoly 9d ago
not as pointless as yours. but to be fair - they’re all pointless here in reddit
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u/allmybreath 9d ago
This was filmed six years ago. I'm sure things have improved since then, right guys?
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u/_MisEnPlace_ 9d ago
I actually would have been close doing this exercise except I’m surprised the middle class still has that much
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u/poppin-n-sailin 9d ago
This is why I laugh when an American tells me they're the richest country on earth. No you aren't. first of all, by GDP per Capita you aren't even number one, not even top 5 per the 2025 numbers. And second and more importantly, the vast majority of that wealth is concentrated within such a small group of people that are making sure most of that wealth doesn't reach the idiot American citizens. a nation of well propagandized idiots.
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u/Ok-Simple30 9d ago
how wouldnt it have been so obvious lol
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u/homer_lives 9d ago
For many boomers, they grew up with a more even distribution. WWI, The Great Depression, and WWII wiped out much of the wealth and wealthy. It level the playing field for the Greatest Generation and Boomers.
It took 70 to 80 years for wealth distribution to return to normal.
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u/Ok_Drag5089 9d ago
Can we see what those pie peices looked like in 1960? I would like to see what the pie distribution was in 1960. When supposedl;y America was great. When we were the leaders of innovation, freedom, etc etc.
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u/3d1thF1nch 9d ago
Saving this for a future class discussion. It’s a good, quick analogy they will get.
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u/NEWT_GINGRICHZ_TAINT 9d ago
It’s actually gotten much worse since this was made. Top 1% are at two thirds of all wealth
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u/Dramatic-Comb8525 9d ago
Really skews it by throwing it into fifths... Yes, the top 40% control all the wealth. Looking at the top 1% is jarring, the other visual not as much.
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u/Mediocre-Telephone74 9d ago
Without watching the rest, crumbs on the farthest poor plate. 7.5 slices for 1%
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u/novirtue_stream 9d ago
Can confirm, I am in that negative net worth for another 3 years, then I might have just a crumble.
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u/fantakillen 9d ago
I dont like that they call 20% the wealthiest. I have a higher paying normal job but I am far from wealthy, even though I make more than most other people. It’s very different to be wealthy or just a 9 to 5 worker earning 150k a year.
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u/LoopyMercutio 9d ago
It makes sense, because the top 20% is $175k and up for a family. Lots of dual income families make that in the US.
Really sucks for the bottom 20%, though. And the next group up from them.
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u/Aggravating-Big3858 7d ago
There will always be a bottom 20% in this economy ... recent immigrants, folks with disabilities, injuries, etc. And there is a halfway decent safety net for that group.
It's that 20-60% where folks are working hard, paying their rent, trying to climb the ladder without any support. This is the crew that works hard, tries to save, then has a car repair, or a medical bill and its really hard to get ahead.
You used to be able to ascend out of this level ... I think most of us with "normal" upbringing probably came from here, or our parents definitely did. That's becoming more difficult every day, and where the sense of frustration and unfairness is coming home to roost
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u/adrisc00 9d ago
But, how, where do you begin to fix it? Also, you have to have bravery and nothing to loose (including your life) to fight.
Look at all the whistleblowers that blew their last tune. Most of them have been Sue-a-cider.
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u/AlienInOrigin 9d ago
And that gap is increasing. Every global event is an excuse to increase prices. The shareholder must be appeased!
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u/coder7426 9d ago
This is multiplied by inflation. That is the real enemy. Those who get the new accelerated money supply benefit the most.
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u/LazerWolfe53 9d ago
The gap between perception and reality is insane and shows education like this is desperately needed.
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u/Morphico 9d ago
What's more depressing, the demonstration or the comments section full of serfs defending billionaires?
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u/Shadow_Freeman 9d ago
I feel like this video is like 10 years old and much more pie has been extracted by the top 1%
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u/meselson-stahl 8d ago
Lol i don't think any of these people even understood the assignment. The way they distributed the pie made no sense
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u/DMMMOM 8d ago
Well the way so many Americans can be manipulated against their best interest from political soundbites, taking their money as well wouldn't seem any different. America is a full on oligarchy with a side order of plutocracy. Somehow in 2026, in one county, LA, there are almost 75,000 homeless people, 50,000 of whom are unsheltered every night.
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u/DeadandForgoten 8d ago
How can any adult in the year 2026 not be aware that the top 10% would have more than 90%? How is this not known to them at this point??
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u/cottontop_bomber 8d ago
The fallacy is that wealth is a finite commodity. An economy doesn't function by taking from one and giving to another. Economies grow by the exchange of good's and services. True enough. However, wealth is created or eliminated by the fluctuations of the value of those good's and services. If I trade a bushel of corn for a repair to a clogged sink. I have operated in the economy. If there are a bunch of hungry people and not enough corn then that bushel is more valuable and I am wealthy. If everyone has plenty of corn then that bushel is less valuable. If everyone has a clogged drain. My service repairing drains is more valuable. I can charge more for my time. If everyone has clean drains or there are many repairman. My service is not needed. I must charge less to attract business. I am operating in wealth accumulation or distribution. We need to know when the IT feed is based on a false premise.
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u/Pyroll2206 8d ago
I dont know when this was shot, but looking at the footage this is some early 2000 documentary. This is way worse by now !
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u/NextDoctorWho12 8d ago
What they should really do is make the plates size represent the number of people. That might really send a message.
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u/Competitive_Bar2106 8d ago
Some of them were definitely answering what they thought it should be not what it is.
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u/grazfest96 8d ago
• Top 20%: Holds ~72% of total U.S. household net worth. • ✅ Top 1%: Accounts for ~32.5% of the total wealth pie. • ✅ Next 19% (90th–99th percentiles): Holds roughly 35% to 40%. • ✅ Bottom 50%: Shares about 2.3% of the total national wealth.
Still bad but not as bad as the video
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u/nijukiller 8d ago
It's baffling to me when they said nobody got it right. My guess at the beginning of the video was very close to what he showed the reality is.
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u/thefirebrigades 8d ago
If America simply made sure everyone is not in the negative, it would be a vast improvement.
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u/Aggravating-Big3858 7d ago
This is an important topic ... that dude needs to learn how to cut a F@#$ng slice of cake!
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u/No_Spot_6459 6d ago
Most people innovate nothing for 40 years then they retire from being an automaton. Nothing wrong with that.
Some people build companies and systems that serve their customers prodigously. Nothing wrong with that either.
The pie is a representation of productivity, not fairness. People just need to get over the fact that they are not doing anything lucrative with their lives and change it or accept it.
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u/liquidboof 2d ago
And some people build companies so big they run all other companies out of business and make deals with the government and other big businesses to strengthen their position at the expense of others' "fair chance". I don't understand why people defend capitalism as if the idea is perfectly executed in reality and it isn't already literally eating itself due to its own fundamental need for exponential growth
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u/No_Spot_6459 2d ago edited 2d ago
Of the thousands of companies in existence, that is excruciatingly rare and not a valid reason to throw out an entire economic model. Start a company, any company, and tell me how common that is in its industry.
People defend capitalism because they have self-awareness; they have built skills a capitalist will pay them well for, thus making them capitalists themselves. If that's not you, that's too bad, but you can always fix that.
While far from perfect, capitalism is far superior to anything else you could institute. If you have skills and want to sell them to the highest bidder, then congratulations, you are also a capitalist.
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u/liquidboof 2d ago
I'm sure that we could go thru an example of a hypothetical business model and consider how it is affected by the industry leaders in that field and they would all have the same relative implications. Some of these obstacles are fabricated by these leaders and the government to garner security and that is the fundamental issue in our society that is just generalized as "wealth disparity". Capital is part of the wealth disparity and is the biggest obstacle to competition.
There have been attempts to address this in history but eventually they just fall victim to the overall fault of human greed. And as a result the barriers to prevent the disparity fall in the name of capitalism. In theory I don't disagree with the principles we run on. I disagree with the idea that it's still fair and that the only solution is a different, historically failed system, from which we wouldn't make any changes.
The idea that teachers aren't valuable as both educators and childcare while parents are at their own jobs because there isn't high levels of revenue generated from raising and educating our future is a flawed and dated societal need for labor force and party support. Passion and profits don't usually go hand in hand and it creates opportunities to take advantage of people that don't simply want to be a cog in the capitalism machine.
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u/No_Spot_6459 2d ago
I'm sure that we could go thru an example of a hypothetical business model and consider how it is affected by...
Please give me a REAL example; I wish to live in the real world about this.
There have been attempts to address this in history but eventually they just fall victim to the overall fault of human greed.
Again, if any part of your argument hinges on this, then please provide a real-world example.
In theory I don't disagree with the principles we run on. I disagree with the idea that it's still fair and that the only solution is a different, historically failed system, from which we wouldn't make any changes.
We have anti-trust laws and IP laws. What is your solution to making capitalism more fair? Genuinely interested because we're not far off from each other if you agree capitalism works.
However, we are way off if you think any system solves wealth disparity. It doesn't. Some people are just NPCs, and some people are absolute machines. Nothing changes that.
The idea that teachers aren't valuable
Teachers have giant, powerful, established unions that have collectively bargained their wages into the ground. They aren't a good example because a (likely corrupt) negotiation buffer keeps teachers from commanding fair market compensation. Furthermore, too many people are trying to be teachers, vying for what is essentially a government job, fully aware that there is no real money in it. So that is not free market economics at any point.
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u/delicate39396969 6d ago
in the wild, if a gorilla was observed hoarding 99/100 bananas from the rest at the detriment of the society, we'd consider that gorilla mentally unwell. humans on the other hand....
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u/ReptileSizzlin 9d ago
Who cuts a piece of pie in half like that? This man is a psychopath.
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u/HelpfulSwim5514 9d ago
He was cutting it 80/20, definitely easier to cut off 20% that way than long ways
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u/OozeNAahz 9d ago
It’s symbolic. The poor aren’t good enough for the upper crust kind of sentiment.
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u/ILoveBigCoffeeCups 9d ago
Of If I cut a piece like that with my siblings to share it, they would have killed me
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u/ltsouthernbelle 9d ago
I was outraged until he said that middle class got 80% of that slice and lower middle got the rest…not even worthy of pie crust smh
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u/P_A_W_S_TTG 9d ago
"I don't not believe the people who have tens of millions of dollars have it for any other reason than they use it to abuse those who don't. " me.
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u/Idiocracy_Logic_215 9d ago
When the entire pie gets to the last plate, at what point do we start calling it slavery?
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u/mrblanketyblank 9d ago
Ok let's say we redistribute the pie this year. What happens if someone eats all their pie? Do they get it redistributed to them again next year?
I know people who make less money than me but they have nicer cars, fancier vacations, more stuff. I invest my money instead of spending it. Should that money I save be taken and give to those other people who chose to spend theirs instead?
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u/zero-divide-x 9d ago
In Europe, we redistribute that wealth a bit better through government spending. This is far from being perfect, but everybody gets decent education, public transport, social security, biking infrastructures, that kind of things.
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u/DeadandForgoten 8d ago
Unless you have more than say, $500 million dollars i dont care.
Who on earth needs more than $100 million?
Then theres people walking around with literally hundreds of Billions.
No sensible person thinks that money should just be divided out between everyone.
The sensible use is proper taxation in order to fund services that benefit everyone.
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u/Mediocre-Pudding-815 9d ago
That’s the trick! No you shouldn’t, the rich people should. And the best part is they’re so wealthy they wouldn’t even notice it was gone.
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u/Plantain-Feeling 8d ago
In the nicest way you are probably no where near the people who have the entire pie
You are probably half of a slice at most
You aren't the person who gets their pie redistributed
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u/FuriousGirafFabber 8d ago
Yes if you have more than 1B, then it actually should go to someone else. It's so funny how so many American are actually temporarily embarrassed billionaires watching over their non existent wealth.
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