Comment on These are the world’s happiest countries in 2024 | CNN
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 6 months agoAccording to the OECD the US has the largest wealth gap among G7 nations.
Thanks for what I have always suspected. It is all about jealousy with the left. You can’t be happy if someone else has more.
Bongo_Stryker@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
I am super curious as to how you come to that conclusion.
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 6 months ago
You think the wealth gap is important. It isn’t. That’s just jealousy. Elon has more than me but I have plenty. The gap isn’t important to my happiness. I’m fine with what I have.
Bongo_Stryker@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
A large wealth gap does not only indicate that there are people with incomes high above the median, but also that there are those with incomes far below. It is hard for you to imagine that I might be concerned for the 2.2 million Americans without running water in their homes for example, or the 26 million Americans without health insurance , or the 44.2 million Americans affected by food insecurity. You automatically assume I am angry because someone has more than me, not less.
The standard republican reply to such concerns is that those living below the poverty line ought to work hard and pull themselves up by their bootstraps, because everyone in the USA has opportunity to improve their situation. If that were true, there would be evidence of that happening, especially in places where hard work and bootstrap philosophy is most prevalent. According to politifact, in 2021-2022:
A widening wealth gap seems to show that all that hard work and bootstrap pulling is not having the desired effect, even among the hardest working and most fervent believers in bootstrap pulling.
High levels of economic inequality can lead to economic, political and social instability. I’m not saying it’s a cause but it is surely a contributing factor. If you think back over the last 200 years or so, it should not be difficult to recall nations that suffered rather calamitous events that were proceeded by situations of economic inequality: France, Russia, Italy, and Germany to name a few.
Finally, here’s an interesting read that shows a connection between wealth disparity and the great depression: www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=8997…
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Or to put in simply, jealously. Wealth gap is a bad measure as it ignores the wealth that is locked up and not usable.
Communism cares are wealth gaps. Capitalism does not as much of that is locked up and not usable.
You are free to move to Cuba where the wealth gap is small. Almost everyone is equally poor. I have no interest in degrading our quality of life because of jealousy.
heritage.org/…/defending-the-dream-why-income-ine…