"Total average household wealth grew by 10.4% in inflation-adjusted terms for those at the bottom, but increased by 20.6% for those in the fourth income quintile and by 18.2% for households in the top 20%." - Forbes
"A recent analysis by the Penn Wharton Budget Model found that low- and middle-income households spent about 7% more in 2021 for the same products they bought in 2020 or in 2019. That translates into about $3,500 for the average household." - CNBC
In other words, rich asset-holders won during the pandemic, whereas everyone else suffered. The working class was:
- locked down
- made to wear masks
- told to suffer for two weeks
- financially destroyed if they owned a storefront
- saw their kids' education held back
- had their $1,200 check wiped out by inflation
- was forced to incur a medical treatment
- saw two separate societies created for people: the fully vacc'd (this def is changing) and the unvacc'd
If someone said to you, I need to borrow your car for 2 weeks and didn't return it for 2 years, at what point does it dawn on you that your car has been stolen?
COVID-19, masks or 'shutdowns'...(see linked article from the St. Louis FED)...lots to talk about...if you don't take the lead, i'll be happy to get things rolling.
Link: https://www.stlouisfed.org/open-vault/2020/december/has-wealth-inequality-changed-over-time-key-statistics
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Did your folks have money?
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You have often written things here that point to someone with money who is probably impressed with himself. It fits with what I've experienced many times in life, and is probably inevitable to varying extents: people make a lot money and become desensitized to those who have less, along with acquiring at least a subtle notion that they're just a little bit better than the others. "If you work a little harder, you might be as successful as me. Well, maybe not that successful, but successful. Stop whining, proles!"
I have a beloved family member who divorced and remarried a neurologist and now leads a very different lifestyle. The same phenomenon has happened to her, to a certain extent. You'd have to try really, really hard not to become a little callous.
If your parents could afford to send a kid to college, as my middle class parents could, you also came into life with a head start. Accepting that fact alone will bring a person a bit of humility.
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I've written here and elsewhere what I think to be all the dangers of an increasingly feudal society. I don't need to rehash that right now. I'm completely shocked that as a man of means, you aren't bothered by the situation.
I will paraphrase the great Buddy Rich, "You're not my kind of guy," and just leave it at that.
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