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submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Writing for the outlet, Andrew Lisa explained that Americans hold a combined $160.35 trillion in wealth. To the average person, that sounds like quite the payday, but someone in the top 1% probably wouldn’t see it that way. According to Lisa, “The bottom 50% of the country shares less than 3% of that enormous pie, while the most fortunate 10% gorge on nearly all of it.”

There are approximately 340.11 million people in the U.S. If they all shared that $160.35 trillion, each person would come away with $471,465. Not only is that more than the average person could even imagine, but it only compounds when you consider how it would add up for families. For example, a couple would hold a combined $942,930, and a family of four would have $1.89 million. Because, of course, in an ideal world, wealth would be distributed evenly regardless of age.

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[-] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago

That wealth has been plundered from around the world. But sure, let's have Americans keep it all...

[-] [email protected] 20 points 6 days ago

you may have confused this for an actual plan. it's just a math equation showing how uneven the wealth distribution is. there's no "letting them keep it all", they already are going to keep it all. it's just that most of it is kept by a handful of the most despicable people in the world.

[-] [email protected] 35 points 1 week ago

$471,465. Not only is that more than the average person could even imagine

That's (roughly speaking) owning your own home w/ no mortgage. I can imagine quite a bit more than not paying rent.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

That's very location dependent.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Okay... Your point?

Say it's a upscale mobile home in Podunk for $100k. That leaves you with $375k. Can you imagine (per the article) other ways to spend your $375k?

A 2026 Ferrari 896 is $350k. Can you imagine driving a Ferrari every day? Sure it's a dumb way to spend your money, but surely your imagination is capable of considering it.

You can get a lakefront home in the Ozarks for $325k. Can you imagine vacationing from Podunk to your second home in the Ozarks? Sure it's hot and sticky most of the year, and too cold the remainder, but can you imagine it?

A horse costs ~$2k/month to care for. Can you imagine having a couple of horses for like 6-7 years then realizing you're out of money and selling them to the glue factory?

My point is not that anyone needs any of these things, but I hope that "most people" can imagine quite a bit more than simple having $500k per capita.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

https://www.zillow.com/burbank-ca/

https://www.zillow.com/fresno-ca/

https://www.zillow.com/chico-ca/

Bit of a price difference was my point.

I think different people with differing experiences and income and exposure have differing abilities.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

I'd argue if all houses were redistributed to their rightful owners the price of all housing would go down - but that's outside of this thought experiment I guess.

Remember though that that's ~500k per person. So every kid, every SO, every parent. I think on average it would equate to more than just getting to own your home, even if we ignored the likely change in wealth valuations that would follow.

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[-] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago

The author makes solid points as to just exactly how fucked up our wealth distribution is, but smearing it around evenly would be a disaster.

Had this conversation with a friend in the early 90s:

Mike was really upset when he found out that the government burned and shredded worn currency.

"They could just give that to the people!"

"Well, yeah, and it's well within the government's power to give us $1M each. Want them to do that?"

"Hell yeah!"

"OK, you know I have a one-man lawn service and charge $20 a lawn, right? If I had one million dollars, how much do you think I would start charging? Hell, I wouldn't consider anything less than $10,000, if that, because I already have a million dollars."

"Yeah, but you could still get a righteous meal at McDonald's for $20!"

🤦🏻‍♂️

We're not going to get anywhere talking about wealth redistribution because American's interpret that as the undeserving taking their hard earned money. We need to make the wealthy, not the merely rich, our enemies. We need to talk about how they are already taking our hard earned money.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

With enough money, you could work less, and mow your own lawn. Cook your own food. If you had a million dollars, in most regions you could afford to live sustainably with very little income. Conveniences like lawn care and fast food would cost more because less people would be desperate to work long hours for minimal pay... but you would have more money to pay them.

If you want the luxury of having others do these things for you, you would probably keep working to make more money anyway. The same applies to the people who cook food and mow lawns - if they want luxuries, they would work for them. They would probably just work a bit less and charge a bit more. Like, say, 32 hours a week, and $30 an hour.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

"OK, you know I have a one-man lawn service and charge $20 a lawn, right? If I had one million dollars, how much do you think I would start charging? Hell, I wouldn't consider anything less than $10,000, if that, because I already have a million dollars."

Wrong. You would charge nothing because at such an unreasonable rate no one would pay you for lawn service. You would have a lawn service in name only and certainly not a "business".

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[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

unifying against a common enemy is easy as long as that enemy is easily identified. i propose the top 1% wealth-hoarders the target.

fun fact: in the US, the top 1% each have $10 million or more. that makes it easy to remember, and easy to point to.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

The income at the 1%tile household income in the US is $663,000. That’s upper middle class professional level.

somebody making that income may certainly have $10 million, it’s not a given, and it is a minuscule fraction of the robber barrons.

I think this message would be a lot clearer if you said the top 0.1%.

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[-] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

We likely should eliminate money. The concept seems to lead to issues.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

if you eliminate money, people and small communities will come up with their own money. all it would do is fragment the market, which btw i'm not a-priori against.

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[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

While it wouldn't last, it would at least help some people. Unfortunately even in controlled experiments money tends to funnel upwards.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

When water pools, you break up the blockage and then it can flow again

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

what if it pools in the sea?

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

If you take all the wealth in an area and split it evenly among that populace there is no "upwards" - everyone is equal in terms of wealth. Money funnels "upward" because of wealth disparity, if someone owns more wealth than the average person than on average some of the average person's money goes to that wealthier person in the form of rent or interest on debt or profits from the factory or what have you.

If all wealth was distributed this way it would look like everyone owning their own home and a portion of their place of work and their car, etc etc. I'm not saying money wouldn't pool again over time, or that a new upwards wouldn't be established, but I don't think you phrased it fairly. The way you said it felt to me like an assumed hierarchy of better people and worse people - when in reality it's just wealthy people and not wealthy people.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

I feel like equitability needs to factor in, somewhere.

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this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
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