The top 1% of earners is finally earning more than the entire middle class

[Baller234]

Yep. And neither party will do ANYTHING to address it. No matter who you vote for this will continue. Depressing stuff.

I don't know, I seem to recall one side being very insistent on re-opening businesses and getting kids back to school as soon as they could. In fact those cities and states were demonized for doing so.

Meanwhile I remember the other side fighting tooth and nail to keep the lockdowns going indefinitely for as long as they could, except of course when it came to the St. Floyd celebrations.

We will not allow you vax boys to rewrite history on this.

[Bill Gates]

I don't know, I seem to recall one side being very insistent on re-opening businesses and getting kids back to school as soon as they could. In fact those cities and states were demonized for doing so.

Meanwhile I remember the other side fighting tooth and nail to keep the lockdowns going indefinitely for as long as they could, except of course when it came to the St. Floyd celebrations.

We will not allow you vax boys to rewrite history on this.

Over your head. They are trying to explain that this has been an issue for decades now, well before covid. Just go look at the graph in the OP.

[Baller234]

Over your head. They are trying to explain that this has been an issue for decades now, well before covid. Just go look at the graph in the OP.

So then why weren't you guys saying this during the covid shutdowns.

Seems to me that if you were truly concerned with the well being of the middle class, or if you were truly concerned about too much wealth funneling to the top... shutting down the economy for an entire year seems like the absolute last thing you would want.

Yet you all cheered like good little lemmings.

[Bill Gates]

This is the natural evolution of capitalism. The only way to remedy it is to tax the wealthy more to help even out the distribution. This is a reality that the right hates to accept. But it will only get worse and worse until we have no choice. Even the wealthy will be begging for it because they can not exist without a middle class buying their products.

And like I've said before, down the road, when AI and automation has completely wiped out the workforce. We will have no choice but to become communist. This isn't all a bad thing though. This is what humanity has been working toward for centuries. A society that simply doesn't have to work. Embrace it.

[Baller234]

This is the natural evolution of capitalism. The only way to remedy it is to tax the wealthy more to help even out the distribution. This is a reality that the right hates to accept. But it will only get worse and worse until we have no choice. Even the wealthy will be begging for it because they can not exist without a middle class buying their products.

And like I've said before, down the road, when AI and automation has completely wiped out the workforce. We will have no choice but to become communist. This isn't all a bad thing though. This is what humanity has been working toward for centuries. A society that simply doesn't have to work. Embrace it.

Sorry, that's not actually a good thing for humanity. Don't project your lazy fantasies onto the rest of us.

Work keeps man humble. Work gives life balance. There is no play without work. There is no success without struggle. That is why the children of wealthy people who are spoiled from birth become depressed drug addicts.

Even Jesus was a carpenter.

[Charlie Sheen]

Or one could argue that the pandemic was the equivalent of throwing gasoline on the fire.

It would not be a great argument.

The underlying fact is that 90% of this country was not prepared for any emergency because they do not have adequate savings. Or any plan for retirement. The pandemic was not the perfect storm. It distracts you from asking the more important question... why was the American worker or small business unable to survive a shutdown? What lead up to this?

[Baller234]

It would not be a great argument.

The underlying fact is that 90% of this country was not prepared for any emergency because they do not have adequate savings. Or any plan for retirement. The pandemic was not the perfect storm. It distracts you from asking the more important question... why was the American worker or small business unable to survive a shutdown? What lead up to this?

Even if that were true, you can't just automatically attribute that to some corrupt system.

It could also be due to people's poor spending habits.

[Bill Gates]

Sorry, that's not actually a good thing for humanity. Don't project your lazy fantasies onto the rest of us.

Work keeps man humble. Work gives life balance. There is no play without work. There is no success without struggle. That is why the children of wealthy people who are spoiled from birth become depressed drug addicts.

Even Jesus was a carpenter.

Humans will have different things to work towards, personal projects and what not. But they will not be necessary for survival. Speaking of survival humans will eventually conquer death as well. We will edit the aging process right out of our DNA. You don't need to fear it though because you won't live long enough to see it. I'm just pointing out what society is naturally heading toward.

[Baller234]

Humans will have different things to work towards, personal projects and what not. But they will not be necessary for survival. Speaking of survival humans will eventually conquer death as well. We will edit the aging process right out of our DNA. You don't need to fear it though because you won't live long enough to see it. I'm just pointing out what society is naturally heading toward.

Uh, and what does any of that have to do with embracing communism?

[j3lademaster]

Yes... they shut down small businesses during lockdown but Walmart, McDonald's, Amazon etc. we're all still in business and grabbed a huge chunk of market share. The plandemic worked to perfection.

If you look at the graph, the decline in the middle class as well as the ascendence of the top 1% has been consistent for years, proving the covid lockdowns are a very miniscule factor. for the past 100 years there has been like... 3 years with deflation, several years with double digit inflation and typically an annual 3% inflation. Why is inflation harmful? Well, the $10k you have saved in your bank account now has $9700 in value compared to yesterday's, whereas assets are growing... and who owns all of the assets? Billionaires and corporations. Small 3% increments over a lot of years and THAT is what's bringing us to the trend represented in the graphs. People are fed these npc talking points that create these tribal politics as a smokescreen... hell look at this thread. Literally right off the bat it's "THIS WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU VAXCUCKS DIDN'T SUPPORT THE SHUTDOWNS". All the while we inject 3 trillion into the stock market to grease the fatcats even further, which they just reinvest and create their own artificial money multiplier that kills the average Joe's savings. That is what we're seeing in real time.

And small businesses never stood a chance, they have been irrelevant if we're talking big picture overall market for years. CME alone owns like 30% of the S&P and the Dow and most people pretending to understand our market on here's never even heard of them.

[Bill Gates]

Uh, and what does any of that have to do with embracing communism?

Looks like most everything goes over your head. I am pointing out that society will naturally have to evolve into a communist state over time. We will simply have no choice. We are at the early stages of AI and automation removing our need to work. This will happen slowly over decades and it isn't a right or left thing. And it also has nothing to do with covid. It is just where technology is taking us.

[Baller234]

If you look at the graph, the decline in the middle class as well as the ascendence of the top 1% has been consistent for years, proving the covid lockdowns are a very miniscule factor. for the past 100 years there has been like... 3 years with deflation, several years with double digit inflation and typically an annual 3% inflation. Why is inflation harmful? Well, the $10k you have saved in your bank account now has $9700 in value compared to yesterday's, whereas assets are growing... and who owns all of the assets? Billionaires and corporations. Small 3% increments over a lot of years and THAT is what's bringing us to the trend represented in the graphs. People are fed these npc talking points that create these tribal politics as a smokescreen... hell look at this thread. Literally right off the bat it's "THIS WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU VAXCUCKS DIDN'T SUPPORT THE SHUTDOWNS". All the while we inject 3 trillion into the stock market to grease the fatcats even further, which they just reinvest and create their own artificial money multiplier that kills the average Joe's savings. That is what we're seeing in real time.

And small businesses never stood a chance, they have been irrelevant if we're talking big picture overall market for years. CME alone owns like 30% of the S&P and the Dow and most people pretending to understand our market on here's never even heard of them.

So you attribute to the wealth gap to inflation, but not the inflation that occurred as a result of the pandemic? As if we didn't just witness the fastest and highest rate of inflation in our lifetime?

[Baller234]

Looks like most everything goes over your head. I am pointing out that society will naturally have to evolve into a communist state over time. We will simply have no choice. We are at the early stages of AI and automation removing our need to work. This will happen slowly over decades and it isn't a right or left thing. And it also has nothing to do with covid. It is just where technology is taking us.

So because of advances in AI and technology, citizens won't be allowed to own private property?

[Bill Gates]

So because of advances in AI and technology, citizens won't be allowed to own private property?

Ownership will still exist but incomes and salaries won't. That will be provided. Communism. Material objects and food and everything else will be automated for us so it won't matter much anyway.

[Baller234]

Ownership will still exist but incomes and salaries won't. That will be provided. Communism. Material objects and food and everything else will be automated for us so it won't matter much anyway.

So "the state" determines what you are and aren't allowed to have? "The state" provides everything? Including how much money you get to have?

And this sounds like a positive thing to you?