[mschuster91]

> One of my favorites is something like "the richest 10 people have more net worth than the bottom 40% of Americans SUMMED". Well the bottom 40% of Americans are in debt, so if you have $1, the above statement is true for you too!

That interpretation is even more shocking than "the rich are so rich". Like, a very significant part of your population have to resort to borrowing money in a death spiral to bankruptcy, just to survive. While 40% just barely surviving paycheck to paycheck is bad enough, 40% in debt is even worse because the people who barely make do come on top of that.

The lower class minority struggles day to day, and the fat cats at the top make bank despite the world being embroiled into a multitude of parallel crises.

[NovemberWhiskey]

>That interpretation is even more shocking than "the rich are so rich". Like, a very significant part of your population have to resort to borrowing money in a death spiral to bankruptcy

What. No, look, for example: assessed from a "net worth" perspective, almost every single college student is in the "debtor" column, because the net present value of a college education isn't something that shows up in the calculation.

If I borrow money to buy a car, but have no substantial savings, then I'm a debtor - but if I can easily afford the payment then there's no problem, is there?

You're making one of the exact same semantic errors as the OP was talking about.

[mschuster91]

> What. No, look, for example: assessed from a "net worth" perspective, almost every single college student is in the "debtor" column, because the net present value of a college education isn't something that shows up in the calculation.

And that's completely correct, given that there is an absurd amount of garbage colleges/degrees out there, that there's a massive oversupply of people with degrees, and that companies nowadays require degrees even for underpaid paper pusher jobs because it allows them to legally discriminate against otherwise protected classes. It's fundamentally impossible to assign any positive value to a college degree unless the person is actually employed.

[lapcat]

> the net present value of a college education isn't something that shows up in the calculation.

Sometimes it never shows up. Mine never did. And I still have student loan debt.

When you're calculating values, consider that different students have very different levels of student debt despite receiving the same education. Rich kids with the bank of mommy and daddy don't need to borrow at all.

> If I borrow money to buy a car, but have no substantial savings, then I'm a debtor - but if I can easily afford the payment then there's no problem, is there?

No, because your net worth is not negative.

[NovemberWhiskey]

>No, because your net worth is not negative.

If I borrow money to buy a car, and I have no substantial savings, then for sure my net worth is negative because a car is a depreciating asset.

[lapcat]

It really depends on what "substantial" and "easily" mean.

If you're truly living paycheck to paycheck, then you are actually in danger, because paychecks can easily stop, e.g., layoffs, and then you won't be able to "easily" afford your car payment.

This is not even mentioning other unexpected expenses that can arise and suddenly make your easy car payments not so easy.

[RHSeeger]

The original quote sounds like it's saying

> The richest 10 people are so rich that they have more than...

When, in reality,

> The poorest 40% are so poor that they have less than a normal poor person that only has $1 to their name

The fact that the richest 10 people ALSO have more than those 40% doesn't really add anything to it.

[mschuster91]

> The fact that the richest 10 people ALSO have more than those 40% doesn't really add anything to it.

Oh yes, socially this point definitely adds to the discussion. Cap everyone's maximum wealth at 1 billion $ - that is more than enough for anyone and their descendants to never have to work a single day in life again - and tax and distribute the rest towards the poor.

You'd lift a massive amount of people out of utter poverty that way, while not even inconveniencing the fat cats riding on the backs of their employees - and you'd get a nice economic boost on top, like with the covid stimulus funds.