The top 10% of earners—households making about $250,000 a year or more—are splurging on everything from vacations to designer handbags, buoyed by big gains in stocks, real estate and other assets.
Those consumers now account for 49.7% of all spending, a record in data going back to 1989, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. Three decades ago, they accounted for about 36%.
The top-level post uses a gift link. When it runs out, there is an archived copy of the article.
That’s only because no one else has spare money to spend.
Fuck rich people, and fuck you if you like them. I hate rich people so much.
That’s because they’ve seized all the money.
More significantly, a tiny chunk of them have seized the bulk of the money and other assets. The 90th percentile worker sees the insecurity that they’ll experience with a job loss. Somebody in the top 0.1% is likely a rentier who can live off the rest of us and not care.
“Depends” is the wrong way to frame it.
Essentially, this means we’re serving them.
I keep trying to explain, billionaires aren’t the only issue. Stop looking up to millionaires, too. They’re both ripping us off.
Don’t ever go to bat for them unless you want to be a useful idiot.
The highest earning 10% also have about 67% of the wealth, so they are actually underperforming compared to the rest of the population. It’s just that they have all the money.
they are actually underperforming compared to the rest of the population
They always do, which is a big part of why the “FairTax[sic]” is such a scam.
And by “always,” I mean literally without exception, because the difference between the working class and owner class is defined by it.
Thanks for the number, do you have a link where you got it from? I suspected something like this might be the case, but I couldn’t find a source easily online.
Just passing a bunch of money around at the top.
What’s funny is, I guarantee all of these people will say without flinching, “I need more money.”
Thank goodness for the rich. I’ve nothing against the poor but they’re such drag on my economy
They’re literally trying to build an economy that starves regular people out of it. They don’t care anymore, they want it all.
A whole ass country full of fucking Veruca Salts.
Well, there’s 2 Verucas running the white House right now. I’m sure they care about fixing this issue.
What an insidious way to frame poverty and wealth disparity.
I cannot remember a time a headline filled me with such hatred and anger toward a person.
I hope Ms. Ensign gets exactly what she deserves.
Her WSJ biography REEKS of boot licking and discredited economic theory:
It’s fitting imo, because they’ve stolen the wealth and think that Luigi’s case is just a freak accident rather than the upcoming Bell Riots.
On a side note, I always figured the Bell Riots that were supposed to be back in September of our timeline were just a hair delayed and slightly miscalculated.
Maybe records became fuzzy due to the whole WWIII issue.
Maybe if you didn’t fucking rob the other 90%, the numbers would be different.
$250K isn’t that outrageous of a household income (or at least it shouldn’t be); literally two good white collar jobs would reach that point in the coastal cities.
The bigger thing at issue is to not frame it as 90% vs 10%, it’s literally 99% vs 1% — if not 99.9% vs. 0.1% if we are really talking about the ‘disconnected from reality wealthy’.
That’s the line that the wealthiest amongst us are trying to draw, in order to build class disunity. A white-collar household pulling in $250K has a lot more in common with a blue-collar household pulling in $65K, than they do the oligarchy above them.
Yeah, $250k in an average to high cost of living area is middle class comfortable. Not rich.
Calling that income rich is a tactic to get the middle class to identify with the billionaires and support regressive policies.
As someone who has lived both experiences, you are absolutely correct.
It’s not really robbing when the useful idiots are proud to give up their wealth and power.
Look at all the dumb shit people subscribe to that they could be getting for free. Look at all the dumb shit they waste their money on (like doordash) while complaining they need more.
It’s a cultural problem, and the average worker is proud to be a part of it.
Whenever you suggest they could be doing something differently, like using free streaming sites instead of netflix, they will look at you like you’re worse than a pedophile because you dared to suggest they’re wasting money.
The average worker has no choice but to funnel their money up the wealth chain through rent and mortgages. That’s the bulk of it.
Wrong. We can all choose to live and appreciate more modest lives.
I haven’t eaten at a restaurant or bought a video game in years, for example. If more people appreciated what they have instead of always wanting more, these problems would be solved overnight.
through rent and mortgages.
The housing market is complete bullshit, but workers also have themselves to blame for accepting renting as normal. We need to discourage renting and encourage ownership. Unfortunately, in order to do that people need to be willing to live more modest lifestyles outside of major cities. Supply and demand doesn’t go away just because we want it to.
Wealthiest nation in the world (by a large margin if I may add), regular people are struggling to get by and your solution is “just be more frugal”? I’d imagine if you’re the wealthiest nation in the world you can afford some luxuries but I guess not according to you. Also, if you’re so wealthy where does all that wealth go?
Its not the workers who are to blame. Its the folks who aspires to live on “passive income” who used housing as a vehicle to steal wealth from the younger generations. I finished high school during the GFC and everything about the housing market has been fucked since then.
Its not the workers who are to blame.
No, workers absolutely bear some of the blame. They choose to go along with consumerism and attack anyone who goes against it.
Mate, I have an electrical engineering degree and work for a big chip design company. Wages have stagnated to the point where I can never afford afford to buy a house, and rent eats nearly half my wages. I live a modest life and the only time I travelled was when I was working full time in Europe. Never been on a holiday. There’s literally nothing I could have done to fix that except find a squat to live, or put up with share houses into my thirties. No family I can live with. Its out of many peoples control. The house I rent is valued at 1.2 million in Melbourne. It was 370k 15 years ago.
where I can never afford afford to buy a house
A house where? In a suburb for $250,000+? You know you can buy houses for <$100k, right? Some people’s cars cost more than my house, but I don’t need more.
The house I rent is valued at 1.2 million in Melbourne.
Yeah, you’re part of the problem. You need to be willing a more modest lifestyle. Ask yourself this, if you need more, how do others survive with significantly less? They probably don’t live in major cities, for one. If you think you’re entitled to live in a major city, then you’re part of the problem.
You are commenting from an American perspective. There are no houses in Australian capital cities for less than 100k. And there are no job opportunities for many professions outside the capital cities.
Is there any room for ya’ll to spread out and build more?
And there are no job opportunities for many professions outside the capital cities.
That’s not how jobs work, mi amigo. The more people that live in a given area, the more jobs will be available. You might not get paid as much, but to make the argument that there’s no work or that your job can’t be done remotely is false.
BECAUSE! They.Stole.all.the.MONEY!
Wow, an actually important economic statistic, here on Lemmy? 👏
