Thread: Wealth Inequality

Originally Posted by cyrille

So the absolutely massive rise in income inequality is of absolutely no relevance to your imaginary vacuous prole because he's got a mobile with games on it.

OK then.

Wealth inequality is an interesting topic, although only tangentially related to the impact of AI on the workforce. So, I am putting my reply in a separate thread.

I think accurate measurement of wealth inequality firstly requires accurate measure of wealth of an individual. There are infinite factors that could be included in this metric, many of which are often left out of wealth inequality studies calculations.

We can compare the relative wealth of contemporaneous members of society from different social strata and we can compare the relative wealth of social ladder equivalents from different time periods.

We could theorise that wealth inequality may be correlated with absolute wealth level of the lower strata. i.e. absolute wealth may increase as a function of wealth inequality.

I would argue that comparative wealth level over time for a social equivalent is a more meaningful comparison in terms of measuring the success of a society's economic trajectory than comparative wealth level between strata members.

Sybille you absolute fucking melt.

What happened to this thread, looper?

Apart from harriet being a dick, obviously.

You seem quite odd.

^I kind of stuffed the AI thread up

I am interested in discussing AI impact on the workforce. But I started the thread as a reply to Betty's comment on Mendip's thread. But then Betty's point was more wealth inequality oriented so it made for a misleadingly worded OP.

However, I am also interested in discussing wealth inequality, but I think it is essentially a different discussion to AI so I started yet another thread.

I am blaming Betty for the whole thing.

My 'Louche" Looprechaun advises

" Best stick to Elf management you won't regret it, don't forget to remove yer dentures (aka aperitif) at Goblin parties rude no to"

Kinda simple really Loopy.

The rich will continue to find ways to make money and they're particularly interested in being able to do it without having to pay pesky employees.

That's about it really.

Applies to robots, AI, third world labour, etc. etc. etc.

Originally Posted by Looper

Wealth inequality is an interesting topic, although only tangentially related to the impact of AI on the workforce. So, I am putting my reply in a separate thread.

I think accurate measurement of wealth inequality firstly requires accurate measure of wealth of an individual. There are infinite factors that could be included in this metric, many of which are often left out of wealth inequality studies calculations.

We can compare the relative wealth of contemporaneous members of society from different social strata and we can compare the relative wealth of social ladder equivalents from different time periods.

We could theorise that wealth inequality may be correlated with absolute wealth level of the lower strata. i.e. absolute wealth may increase as a function of wealth inequality.

I would argue that comparative wealth level over time for a social equivalent is a more meaningful comparison in terms of measuring the success of a society's economic trajectory than comparative wealth level between strata members.

I see what you are saying. But I disagree because today we have phony wealth that resulted from credit expansion and money printing. Not tangible economic gains.

The evidence doesn't lie. Look at the levels of homelessness in the developed world compared to say 1990 to 2000. There's no comparison. 1990's to 2000 was objectively better living for everyone than it is today. And we had less millionaires and billionaires.

Post covid has created almost no tangible economic gain for anyone yet the billionaires doubled or 4x their net worth. And the there's even more homelessness and decay