American Income Disparity: 'Only Those With Money Can Increase Their Wealth'

[GoLeft TV]

From Ring of Fire:

During the past year, the richest Americans made a wealth grab that furthered the financial income disparity in the country. Since the recession, the wealthiest Americans have made millions from their stock holdings, while the average American household earns less today than it did in 2009. A recent report by Paul Buchheit, founder of Us Against Greed, shows startling facts about the increase in US wealth distribution to the wealthy over the past year.

1. In 2013, just 13 Americans made more from their investments than the entire Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). According to Buchheit’s research, the top 13 wealthiest Americans, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and four members of the Walton (Walmart) family, took in $80 billion among them just by being invested in the stock market. That’s more than one year of food stamps for nearly 50 million people.

You can read the full article here at Ring of Fire.

[thefool_wa]

1. And with the money supply being finite...

Every dollar they suck out of the economy through the stock market is a dollar someone else literally cannot have.

Its getting to the point where we are printing money so it can be handed directly to the super rich.

[Igel]

2. Except that they didn't increase earnings held in $.

They're mostly unrealized capital gains.


Nobody gave money to my neighbors when their houses, worth $120k when they bought them, peaked at $145k. Nobody took money away from them when their houses declined in value to $90k.

The houses sat there, changing their value because demand increased and then decreased. But no dollars changed hands, no $ were put into or removed from the economy purely through a change in the paper value of the houses.

[thefool_wa]

3. Except that they aren't necesarily all unrealized

Dividends pay out, that money has to come from somewhere, and in major corporations the bulk stock holders usually sit on the board, so they take that money out. It may not be dollar-for-dollar the increase in value, but with this size of value increase, we are still talking about a significant chunk of cash.

Regarding the house comparison, that money due to increase in value can be realized as well through re-financing, but the comparison starts to fall apart when you go that route as it is further loaned money expected to be returned with interest...taking money back OUT of the economy again and giving it to a financial institution who ultimately makes the profit off that increase in value.

Also, they will in fact take that money if the house decreases in value if one ends up having to sell the house for less than the mortgaged value. It renders most, if not all, of the mortgage payments made as lost money (that was in fact taken out of the owners pocket).

These guys don't put millions and millions in without expecting MORE millions and millions out and back into their pockets. So make no mistake, every time they put those millions or billions into their own accounts, they will never be available to anyone else again. There may be constant churn of money in and out, but their PERSONAL balance sheets are almost always net positive.