The Wealthiest Are Getting Wealthier Three Times Faster Than Any Other Group

Source

Piketty’s research, he claims, suggests that the top of the wealth distribution is growing at a pace three times faster than any other group. He calls the “the return to the patrimonial society,” suggesting that Forbes’ list of billionaires globally is about to become a far larger number of individuals and will be held in even greater powerful positions in their societies than before.

Just a few examples:
Net worth:

Sheldon Adelson
2006: 20.5 billion
2007: 26.5 Billion
2008: 26 billion
2014 37.3 Billion.

Charles koch
2006: 12 billion
2007:17 billion
2008:19 Billion
2014: 41.1 billion

David Koch
2006: 12 Billion
2007:17 billion
2008:19 billion
2014: 41.1 Billion

George Soros:
2006: 8.8 Billion
2007: 8.5 Billion
2008:9 Billion
2014: 23 Billion

a reply to: links234

Good catch Links... I was just looking at this from a whole different direction for seeing Nations GDP and related figures, world wide, back to the 70's and line item'ed. Bad times recently...huh? Everyone hurting...aren't they? Imagine my surprise to see even nations we think of as 3rd world..have been growing GDP by leaps and bounds.

It seems everyone but the average folk paying bills every month are having a grand time at the moment.

Rich get richer, Poor get to stay poor.

Except in this case, the rich have created a system where they can propagandize and buy off our representation in government.

End result, Rich getting richer at an exponential rate, while the Poor (thats all everyone not in that highest tax bracket) Vote against their best interest.

To under-educated to know any better, and eating the MSM slop served up to them on a platter.

I'm Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me!

Just four individuals and we're already looking at 142.5 billion!

I bet there's thousands of them that have billions!
I bet there's millions of them that have tens of millions!
And they continue to grab more and more each and every hour!

Is it any wonder there's not enough to go around!

Time for wealth redistribution?

originally posted by: VoidHawk
Just four individuals and we're already looking at 142.5 billion!

I bet there's thousands of them that have billions!
I bet there's millions of them that have tens of millions!
And they continue to grab more and more each and every hour!

Is it any wonder there's not enough to go around!

Time for wealth redistribution?

Look at me!

No, simple a currency based off of more than just say so.

While we can see where these people have acquired there wealth and fortune, I mean especially bill gates his product is in many homes across the globe

I think the real questions should be where and now did people like this amass such vast wealth I. Such a short space of time, just over a decade...

Vladimir Putin net worth: $70 billion

www.celebritynetworth.com...

Vladimir Putin net worth: Vladimir Putin is a Russian politician who was born in the Soviet Union and has a net worth of $70 billion dollars. Vladimir Putin is currently serving his second term as the President of Russia. His first Presidential term lasted from 2000 – 2008. Putin was also Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 – 2000 and again from 2008 – 2012. Over the years Putin has earned a very controversial reputation. He is frequently criticized by other world leaders and political experts for his handling of human rights and foreign policy issues. Many westerners have called the circumstances under which he has continued to hold office in Russia "undemocratic". Still, Putin has been fairly popular among the Russian people ever since taking over as President in 1999 following the surprise resignation of Boris Yeltsin.

Another obvious one would be to point out how Chinese politicians make there US counterparts look like poors in comparisons

Many Americans grumble about the wealth of their politicians, but they are paupers compared with their Chinese counterparts. The 50 richest members of America's Congress are worth $1.6 billion in all. In China, the wealthiest 50 delegates to the National People's Congress, the rubber-stamp parliament, control $94.7 billion. Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, is the richest man in Congress, with $355m. China's richest delegate is Zong Qinghou, boss of Hangzhou Wahaha Group, a drinks-maker, whose wealth is almost $19 billion (including assets distributed to family). Last year Mr Zong was China's richest man, but was overtaken by Wang Jianlin, who is not a member of the NPC. Wealth can bring problems wherever you are. On September 20th, a man, angry at being refused a job, attacked Mr Zong with a knife near his home in Hangzhou. Mr Zong survived, with nasty cuts to his hand.

www.economist.com...

originally posted by: VoidHawk
Just four individuals and we're already looking at 142.5 billion!

I bet there's thousands of them that have billions!
I bet there's millions of them that have tens of millions!
And they continue to grab more and more each and every hour!

Is it any wonder there's not enough to go around!

Time for wealth redistribution?

Time for a wealth ceiling

Never mind they keep pushing the debt ceiling up debting our children's children to enslavement

How about we give THEM a wealth ceiling ? Anything earned over that wealth ceiling gets redistributed to feeding the poor like the should be doing anyway the greedy snipers

Nobody need more than a few million, if you are sitting literally sitting on billions you're a disgrace

However I don't think the western world is even close to the levels of inequality in places like China Russia the Middle East and they'll sure have problems before we in the west do

Here are two articles on this Important and indisputable study:


Thomas Piketty Undermines the Hallowed Tenets of the Capitalist Catechism
Not only does capitalist growth not reduce inequality; it increases it.

Using data and computer power unavailable to Kuznets, Piketty pored through 200–300 years of the economic history of the largest capitalist economies—principally the United States, Britain, France, Canada, Germany, Sweden and Japan. The numbers show that that since roughly 1700, with one exceptional period, the returns to capital (profits and interest) have exceeded the rate of overall economic growth. Since the rich own most of the re-investable capital, their wealth accumulates faster than the wealth of the vast majority of people whose income depends on wages and salaries.

www.commondreams.org...

And then there is a link to :

What the 1% Don't Want You to Know
Bill Moyers interviews Paul Krugman

A 25 minute long intereview by Bill Moyers of Paul Moyer:

www.commondreams.org...



The above article talks some about the careful methodogy used by French Economist Thomas Piketty:

originally posted by: TritonTaranis
Another obvious one would be to point out how Chinese politicians make there US counterparts look like poors in comparisons

So you feel that since our rich people are AS Rich as other countries rich people that ours are justied. That is not an argument it is a distraction.

originally posted by: TritonTaranis

Time for a wealth ceiling

Never mind they keep pushing the debt ceiling up debting our children's children to enslavement

How about we give THEM a wealth ceiling ? Anything earned over that wealth ceiling gets redistributed to feeding the poor like the should be doing anyway the greedy snipers

Nobody need more than a few million, if you are sitting literally sitting on billions you're a disgrace

However I don't think the western world is even close to the levels of inequality in places like China Russia the Middle East and they'll sure have problems before we in the west do

Thats what the Inheritance tax was supposed to be, prevent generational wealth.

Unfortunately, like most laws, the loop holes in place by lobbied congress makes them only apply to Upper middle and below.

Keep the poor, poor.

And the rich put their money into corporate and private trust that carry over for generations, ensuring the obscene hoarding of wealth...

But whatcha gonna do, Vote for politicians based on policy and not platform?

That would be insanity...

Not a world finance expert by any means but I seem to remember something about wealth being finite. There is only so much of it, more or less.

I think naturally there are those who will accumulate more than the rest. But what about a more naturally occurring distribution? How much of that difference is due to good old ingenuity and elbow grease and how much of it is due to less than honorable means?

Competition is great in a text book but we see that notion misleadingly tossed around to cover every finagle imaginable. In reality, the very few leaders of the pack coordinate to let no one catch up regardless of how well the leaders are running (or not). The rest of the pack is simply there to be ahead of.

I ran across a couple of interesting infographics in this article.

This is the something most of us are probably used to seeing that shows how the top 1% are getting richer:


..but looking at the 1%, you'll see that the real story is the exponential increase in wealth accumulated by the top .01%


Times are tough right? We need to release some of those mythical Job Creators from the business stifling tax burden so they'll shower us with the blessings of jobs and all that money can trickle-down through the economy right? Wrong. The truth is that rich people don't need to employ us to get wealthier, they're not out there starting new businesses that provide thousands of middle income jobs as they would have in the past. There's much more direct means for redistributing the wealth from the bottom to the top.

EDIT:

That's why we have new terms like "jobless recovery" to describe a situation where the richest people are making more money than ever and the peasants are at each other's throats fighting about the job situation that's never going to get better because why in the world would it? Even if these people weren't making way more money from things like intellectual property rights and insane, exotic financial instruments that encourage predatory lending, increasing levels of automation mean that even if we could get them to build factories here, they'll need less and less people each year to make the same overpriced sh*t that people go into debt to buy.

originally posted by: FyreByrd

originally posted by: TritonTaranis
Another obvious one would be to point out how Chinese politicians make there US counterparts look like poors in comparisons

So you feel that since our rich people are AS Rich as other countries rich people that ours are justied. That is not an argument it is a distraction.

I'm saying we have less inequality

Less corruption

And the propaganda stems from places like this, pot kettle etc

Notice that I also said we should creat a wealth ceiling, I never said the western worlds super rich was justified I said why is nobody talking of the rest of the worlds mega super rich and corrupt... Agenda?

originally posted by: mrmeeseeks

originally posted by: TritonTaranis

Time for a wealth ceiling

Never mind they keep pushing the debt ceiling up debting our children's children to enslavement

How about we give THEM a wealth ceiling ? Anything earned over that wealth ceiling gets redistributed to feeding the poor like the should be doing anyway the greedy snipers

Nobody need more than a few million, if you are sitting literally sitting on billions you're a disgrace

However I don't think the western world is even close to the levels of inequality in places like China Russia the Middle East and they'll sure have problems before we in the west do

Thats what the Inheritance tax was supposed to be, prevent generational wealth.

Unfortunately, like most laws, the loop holes in place by lobbied congress makes them only apply to Upper middle and below.

Keep the poor, poor.

And the rich put their money into corporate and private trust that carry over for generations, ensuring the obscene hoarding of wealth...

But whatcha gonna do, Vote for politicians based on policy and not platform?

That would be insanity...

Of course it is us who will ultimately have to make them listen, the system is rigged sure but It could work if there was a wealth ceiling, the flaw and imbalance in the system is the debt ceiling , or there about's

Truly amazing how many people doubled their wealth while so many where losing what little they ever had.. What a coincidence. I am sure there is no real connection

Media keep pumping out these numbers of how the rich get richer while the rest get poorer and we are good with that as a whole because if people really cared about getting screwed to a lower quality while helping to pay the way to have people to have more money then their entire family could spend for generations while many struggle to pay rent after working 40 hour work weeks the would be riots .

Its a complete obscenity and beyond any form of understanding that anyone is allowing it to ever occur. Only the equality gets you off this planet or those like this, only equal and loving souls go home.

originally posted by: Unity_99
Its a complete obscenity and beyond any form of understanding that anyone is allowing it to ever occur. Only the equality gets you off this planet or those like this, only equal and loving souls go home.

America is Rife with Poverty.

Under-educated.

Over-taxed.

And we are told it is OUR fault.

Nafta sells the good jobs over seas.

Government Subsidizes Corporate models that give incentives for destroying the work force.

Government Subsidizes the raping of the Economy through bail outs.

Yet the poor, the Sick, the uneducated children in ghettos...

Its their fault.

While the Rich, keep buying our Politicians, and the Media, to tell us so, on a constant and regular basis.

So much so, that we believe this, is free market capitalism, built on Subsidized business...


The only reason this is "our fault" Is because we keep letting them do it to us.

Any Financial gain, that causes so much harm, is Unsustainable.

Not in the Modern world, the inequality will cause a snap to occur, History tells us that much.

In what kind of society do any of you envision a control on what people make?
(hint; its been done before)

What many of you are missing is that the Fed is pumping 85 billion into the market each and every month.
Quantitative Easement is largely responsible for the wealth growth.

End the Fed, let the market correct itself, and you'll see a reduction in the wealth inequality gap.

Just my two ameros.

originally posted by: beezzer
In what kind of society do any of you envision a control on what people make?
(hint; its been done before)

What many of you are missing is that the Fed is pumping 85 billion into the market each and every month.
Quantitative Easement is largely responsible for the wealth growth.

End the Fed, let the market correct itself, and you'll see a reduction in the wealth inequality gap.

Just my two ameros.

Im not a fan or forced wealth distribution.

BUT

What we are seeing is runaway crazy and unsustainable.

There not enough wealth to or resources in the world to keep this up. The result will be a return to feudalism. Eventually a few hundred powerful family's will end controlling all the worlds resources and land and then start dishing it out to there "serfs".