Wealth Inequality In America Summary

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In this video, Wealth Inequality in America describes how the average American believes our wealth is distributed and what they think the “ideal” distribution is. It begins by citing a study conducted by a Harvard business professor. The professor asked 5,000 Americans two straightforward questions: How do they think our wealth is distributed among social classes and what do they believe the ideal distribution is? Americans answered the first question by saying the top 20% had a sizable part of the wealth, the middle 20% had slightly less, then the bottom 20% had significantly less but still enough to live. Their answer to the second question, however, aligned with a very socialist ideal – each social class has the same distribution. Of course, there were differences between the bottom 20% and top 20%, but 9 out of 10 Americans believed the classes should be equidistant. …show more content…
The top 20% and even 1% had most of the wealth leaving the bottom 20% with nothing more than “pocket change”. The video even goes on to say that when trying to graph how much wealth each social class gets, the bottom 20% are nonexistent while the top 1% cannot even fit on the graph. These are all describing the concept of Economic Inequality: Both wealth inequality and income inequality. By using these concepts alongside shocking statistics such as the fact that “1% of America has 40% of all the nation’s wealth – the bottom 80%, 8 out of every 10 people... only has 7% between them.” All bring attention to a wide spread of issues: rapid erosion of social cohesion, greater political polarization, and lower economic growth. The video’s goal is to show Americans that their idea of wealth is distorted, and we need to understand the reality of our situation – all of us are at a

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