Louis Brandeis on concentration of wealth in the US

[EVDebs]

Louis Brandeis 'We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both'

Then look into the concentration of wealth in the US
http://www.osjspm.org/101_wealth.htm#3

How much longer can that last ?

[whistle]

1. Did I miss it, or do none of those graphs and charts show how...

...much actual wealth there is in the U.S.? If the top 1% of the households (that would be 1,021,000 HHs have an average of $10,204,000 in net worth, then in total they would be worth $10.4 trillion. That in turn is 38.1% of all wealth in the country, so the total wealth comes to about $27.3 trillion.

How does that compare to the rest of the world, I wonder? Does the U.S. have over half of all wealth? A third? I know that collectively, we have over $35 trillion in debt, and that comes off of our net worth, so there has to be well over $50 trillion in assets.

Here is the sad part of all this, those same individuals who make up only 1% of the households have control of more than 80% of those assets and that leaves the remaining 99% pretty subservient to that fat cats!

[EVDebs]

2. World GDP is about $36 trillion / yr and US's part of that is $12 trillion

or thereabouts (you can check the World Banks' figures for accuracy), so the US is about 1/3rd of the world's economy; as for total world wealth it is of note that even Saudi's went into debt, with little to show for it, in the past.

With 'peak oil' upon us and proven reserves that can last only about 35 more yrs, we would do better putting the USA onto a conservation-mode agenda (as we did in the late 1970's-early 1980's) in order to make that oil last longer and not have to fight the Chinese for the last drop.

Wisdom, in the end, is the ultimate 'wealth' when you get right down to it.

[whistle]

7. Right, that's GDP or Gross National Product, what we and the....

...world produces, but wealth is different. Weath is the net worth of nations or the difference between total assets (the capital which is used for production along with all that is owed us and the liquid assets on hand) minus total liabilities (all that we owe). The difference is ownership or the total wealth.

[EVDebs]

8. Yes, and that's the starting point...with interest (usury) it is much

higher. Basically we hold the mortgage on the planet, so to speak.

[Roland99]

3. The namesake of the law library at my alma mater

http://library.louisville.edu/law/brandeis/

[cthrumatrix]

4. the "elite" make the rules ....and it's all about concentrating more

among fewer and fewer.

[CWebster]

5. Now, now, don't bite the hand that feeds you

Why those big old meanies might get mad and attack and bully, so we must bow to our masters, who bow, because they are bowing for us.

[no name no slogan]

6. Check my sigline dude

We're on our way, aren't we? :shrug: