The super-rich earned their wealth with hard work, right? Yea! The hard work of the working class. There is only one way to become a billionaire: to exploit people and their labor. What does that mean, really? Basically, the salary of the workers who actually make shit happen is drastically lower than the CEO’s or business-owners. What would a business be without all the workers and manual laborers? Chances are, it would be a sad group of old white men sitting around a table in overly expensive suits.
The truth is, the complexity of the economy, capitalism, and
its intrinsic connections to key demographics (such as race, gender, education, etc.) cannot be summarized in a neat little set of infographics. But who has time to conduct research on their own? We are all busy working 40+ hours for “the man.” With our free time, many would rather spend it with loved ones or just generally escaping the capitalist reality. The goal of these infographics is to share a little bit of information in an accessible, bite-size (pun intended) way.
Wealth is sometimes referred to as a pastry, encouraging workers to “get a piece of the pie.” It's a great metaphor for wealth inequality because chances are, the people making those pies are the ones getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop. (do super-rich people even know what a tablespoon looks like?)
If the wealth in the U.S. (in 2022) were a pie, it could be cut into four disturbingly uneven pieces. If YOU worked in a bakery and cut your pies like this, your boss would probably fire you. There are three fairly large pieces and one teeny tiny piece. Can you guess who is going to get the smallest slice?
Here is a visual representation of the U.S. American population. Let’s simplify and say there are 100 plates, 100 people, and 100 mouths to feed. There are 4 groups, the bottom 50, the middle 40, the top 10 and within the top 10 there is the top 1. You could consider these groups to be the lower class, middle class, upper class, and elite class. For some context, the US population in 2023 was about 338,497,247 and the real median income of U.S. American households was about $80,600. Would your household fall above or below the median? If you’re like me, welcome to the bottom 50%! Pull up a chair and get comfy.
Is your fork ready? Uh oh! Looks like the lower class owns the smallest piece of the pie. The bottom 50% of the population own 6% of the entire wealth in the country. I am shocked, utterly surprised. Ok, you can have half a lick OR a quarter of a crumb of the pie. The choice is yours, sweetie. Don’t be selfish!
Let’s see how the other half lives...
Woo-wa-wee-wa! King of the castle, king of the castle, it’s the middle 40%! They have (almost) a fair amount of wealth, owning 38%. Nice! If they worked a little harder maybe they could be promoted to the upper class.
The top 10% wealthiest people in the United States own 54% of the wealth. I will state what we are all thinking. The fuck?! I am no mathematician but I do know this: those 10 mouths are getting waaaaay more pie than mine! Those bitches get a whole slice. Let’s dig in deeper into the top 10% and check in with the tippy top 1%.
You know that conspiracy theory that the world is run by a bunch of lizard people? Hoarding all this wealth is some dragon-behavior... If dragons weren’t cool at all in any way possible. Of the 54% of wealth owned by the top 10%, the very richest 1% claim 27%. Even within the upper class there is a great divide. Let’s put ‘em all in a room together with some forks and see what happens!
This is what people are referring to when they say there is economic inequality in this country and it’s destroying the well-being of our people.
Thought exercise time! Use that beautiful brain of yours and stretch out your critical thinking skills. Think about how an unexpected expense in your life has drained your savings account. Think about all the debt you have under your name. Think about how expensive insurance is and how difficult it is to get the benefits after something happens. Think about how shitty your job is. Think about how expensive the cost of living is. Think about how guilty you feel for treating yourself with something nice or something to distract you for a bit. Think about how you would give the world to your loved ones if you could. Think about the good you could do if you had the means.
Now. What are you going to do about it?
Please feel free to share any and all graphics in this blog post. The source for the graphics is Daniel de Visé with USA Today and they site the United States Department of Commerce.
