Class Struggle?

[chomerics]

Originally posted by luckydevil

Russell Roberts over at Cafe Hayek has talked about this the last week. Skin-n-vegas and others should check it out

I read the article, but he was really undecided as to if there is actually an income gap or not. He basically took the need more data position, but didn't say there wasn't an income gap. Good short read anyways because he does bring up a good point about imigrants lowering the wages, but . . . I'm still not sure because Americans would not be working in those same jobs making the same wage, it is a market driven wage, not an imigration driven one.

As for the US having more imigrants, it has more to do with the fact that we are the leaders of the world, and we have a second world country along our southern border. It is a never ending supply of imigrants, different completely from an overdeveloped Europe. Besides, even if Europe's poor are better off, how will the people from poor countries get to Europe, throught their imigration system etc etc.

[Larry]

I'll also point out:

I've heard that for several years, the best-selling car among millionaires in the US is the Ford F-150 pickup.

Remember those kids you made fun of in High School? The ones who took auto body and shop? Well, some of them now own their own electrical (or plumbing, or air conditioning) companies. (I would assert that, the ones that now work for themselves are the most ambitious, hardest-working ones.) Their job will never be outsourced.

Plumbers may not rank high on the social scale, but there's good money in it, if you don't mind doing hard work. it's not unheard of for a good plumber (electrician, AC man) to be a millionaire.

(At least, untill the "investment class" decides that the way to push labor rates down, in jobs you can't outsource, is to bring in more immigrants. Y'know, like Bill Gates saying that the US should tripple the number of immigrants allowed in the tech industry, because he wants to cut the pay of his programmers.)

[Baculus]

I remember reading an article regarding some millionares, and many are folks that aren't super-rich, but have saved up money over the years, and often do not drive a modest car. They've saved money over the years, and with frugal care, accumulated wealth. That is part of the American dream, and still possible.

Even when folks talk about class warfare and the wealthy, they have to remember that everyone isn't the same and were not born into wealth, but worked hard for it. On the same hand, being less well-off or poor does not immediately mean laziness.

[Predicto]

Originally posted by skin-n-vegas

Then you didnt read it.

Of course I read the article. What's more, I am not necessarily saying that the underlying thesis of the article is entirely wrong. Alll I was saying is that they are claiming to "prove" something that their article does not actually "prove."

As I understand it, the overall percentage of America's national wealth possessed by the very rich (the top one percent) has more than doubled, from approximately 20 percent in the 1970s to over 40 percent today. (From a breakdown of Congressional Budget Office data by NYU economist Edward Wolff. Don't have a link.)

That is a huge change, and it means something has happened in this country, at least that what it means to me.

[Baculus]

Predicto, the super rich are gaining more and more. And that is the odd thing - of course these folks never want to hear about "class wafare" because American citizens may start to wake up to what's happening around them. Which is consolidation and gaining more and more power. And if the general population ever discovered that many of these same super wealthy (and not just the "rich") run this nation as a plutocracy, then their position may be threatened. But that won't happen as long as folks stay unaware of events, in the past and the present.

[SnyderShrugged]

Originally posted by luckydevil

Russell Roberts over at Cafe Hayek has talked about this the last week. Skin-n-vegas and others should check it out

Some decent thoughts in that Blog Lucky. I like his point that you really can't compare the "gap" due to the vast differences in demographics over the years within what many might feel are the same groups. It actually added some context to the one I had posted from Cato.