[breadbreadbread]

actually no, I don't think anyone should look at the wealth spread in the US and think that it's normal or good. It's objectively dangerous and undemocratic. If someone can earn millions a day from passive investment but someone who actually provides meaningful goods and services day-to-day barely makes 50k a year, I think we have totally misunderstood as a society what to value and how to distribute resources

[exabrial]

There are plenty of people on earth living less than $1usd a day and would trade their situation gladly for a very comfortable $50kusd/year.

[MerManMaid]

>There are plenty of people on earth living less than $1usd a day and would trade their situation gladly for a very comfortable $50kusd/year.

This is absolutely besides the point. I also wish as many people as possible could make enough money to live comfortable lives but it has nothing to do with the problem of people passively earning millions of dollars without contributing anything positive to society.

[breadbreadbread]

imagine if i told you that i think everyone deserves to make a wage that allows them to thrive and have stability.

Also consider that A) things are more expensive here and B) our economy is debt based and many people with homes and cars in the US have negative income after expenses, just because aesthetically our poverty looks different, it doesn't mean that it's good. It's not comparable.

[al_borland]

Debt is heavily marketed, but ultimately a personal choice. For those who choose to live within their means and not take on debt, they don’t have most of their paycheck going out the door to pay for last month, or have negative income.

I’ve had people who make less than me tell me I live like a poor person. That’s ok. I know I’m doing fine and they have since told me about some of their money struggles, and have a lot of debt to deal with each month.

Maybe if people stopped using debt to pretend they had more than they do, we’d see more reasonable housing and car prices, as well as goods that are made with some quality and repairablity instead of things like fast fashion that simplely gets thrown away.

Companies doing business in the US go to where the demand is. People need to stop using debt to demand junk that makes things worse.

Step one could be ratching down the average home size. It has more than doubled since the 1950s, while the number of people in the house has gone down. A bigger home is naturally going to be more expensive to buy/build, but then it also takes more land, has higher property taxes, costs more to heat/cool, costs more to repair and maintain, has more rooms to furnish, and has more place to put stuff before a person needs to stop and question if this need all of it. Simply living in a more modest home or apartment can have a massive effect on a person’s finances.

[sapphicsnail]

So as long as there is someone more miserable than me, I can't want something better?

[breadbreadbread]

if your opinion is that some people make millions a day and some people make $1 a day and thats just life and we shouldnt try to change that, I think you are fundamentally lost.

Also consider: where do the billionaires in the US get the resources to fuel their empires? Do they get their cobalt from slave labor mines in the Congo? Do you think maybe there is some kind of connection between corporate greed in America and people on the other side of the world making $1/day or less?