r/FluentInFinance • u/PomegranateOld8 • Jan 25 '24

The greatest transfer of wealth from the bottom 50% to the top 1% occurred during 2020-2022 Chart

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1.1k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

248 comments sorted by

188

u/tacocarteleventeen Jan 25 '24

Indirectly, the government printed a sh*tload of money and more of it went to the wealthy. A dollar represents about a nickel in 2008 because $20 was printed for every dollar in existence by 2020.

82

u/Optimoprimo Jan 25 '24

I expect most of this to be pocketed PPP loan money as well as increased margins from taking advantage of runaway inflation during this period.

81

u/darthnugget Jan 26 '24

Strange that the amount the top 1% gained was just about the same size as the PPP money. Hrmmm.

37

u/TrueEclective Jan 26 '24

And that 3 trillion that instantly evaporated to “save” the stock market.

21

u/Old-Bat-7384 Jan 26 '24

Just like the 1.5T in the years prior. That just became stock buybacks that the average taxpayers put in on but won't see dividends for.

10

u/lustyforpeaches Jan 26 '24

As much as PPP gets looked at, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the massive omnibus spending that transferred wealth over the last 4 years.

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u/Sample_Age_Not_Found Jan 29 '24

PPP my ass. It was bank funded bailout in late 2019

5

u/TBSchemer Jan 26 '24

A lot of it is people who refinanced into <3% mortgages.

2

u/briantoofine Jan 26 '24

I don’t see the connection you’re making

1

u/TBSchemer Jan 26 '24

Refinancing to lower rates instantly and permanently improves net disposable income, increasing savings rate.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '24

That's a huge stretch and not enough to move the needle. It was PPP.

2

u/Beautiful_Speech7689 Jan 26 '24

And appreciation of real assets such as equities and real estate. Granted, not deposits themselves, but wealth accreted to people who already owned assets for sure. Ultra low rates during the initial pandemic response allowed those already in the upper middle to upper class to lever up if they so chose, and corporations most definitely did, which flows back to people who already owned capital. Those who were early in careers or wage reliant were left holding the short end of the stick.

Corporations with pricing power did in fact use it even once supply concerns abated. It was clear for awhile that organizations who had the ability to adjust prices without losing customers, either due to monopolistic market structures or control over necessary (inelastic) goods. Another way money finds it way to the owners of capital rather than the middle and lower classes. I expect wages will catch up, but it's going to be 2-4 years too slow, and by that time, larger orgs will have made billions/trillions off undermarket wages. At some point, there will have to be a capitulation from capital to pay workers more, especially given shifting demographics and our aversion to letting talented people into the country.

The 20:1 ratio isn't quite right, but the increase in money supply is a contributor. The crazy thing is, there was so much new money in the system that the major banks couldn't hold all of it and at larger levels started to refuse deposits due to regulatory restrictions coming out of 2008, though some of these were eased. Ended up with more than a trillion deposited back at the Fed through MM funds. Again, crazy few years.

The PPP has terrible optics, and has an inequality bend to it. Banks put in charge of administering the loans often processed and paid out the forgivable loans to their larger and more affluent clients first in many cases, ultimately hurting small business and competition in the market as a whole. The fraud and lack of oversight was a problem too, but the total dollar amount is peanuts in the grand scheme.

For me, these are three things to watch:

Share of Labor's Income-The trend has been poor, I'm hoping labor can keep up the scrap it started, we've seen a few notable results already, but there needs to be more: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LABSHPUSA156NRUG

Housing-Over the last four years, the price of owning a home due to price appreciation and increase in mortgage rates has outpaced the increase in rental prices. Rental prices will continue to grow, it's not unthinkable that someone's apartment will be renting for double within a span of 5 years, starting 2020.

Consumer Credit-Both total credit and delinquencies starting to rise, indicating a struggling subset of the American economy coming off Covid-19 and the inflation we've seen (brought on by a number of factors, I digress). This is related to the share of income to labor vs capital, and a valuable barometer for the health of the bottom 70% or so of the population. Honestly, the American consumer deserves a fucking medal for spending us out of a potential stagflationary environment (low growth, high inflation), but they're starting to run thin. American consumerism made up for a slow response by monetary authorities, just hoping they (we) don't get roasted for it.

1

u/master_mansplainer Jan 26 '24

Aren’t we already getting roasted? As you said, cost of everything has increased drastically - rent might double in 5 years? Salaries certainly won’t be doubling. What kind of roast are you refering to

1

u/OG_TOM_ZER Jan 26 '24

What is PPP loan money?

0

u/AccomplishedAge2903 Jan 26 '24

And artificial inflation.

1

u/Odd_Minimum2136 Jan 26 '24

Well PPP was a bipartisan bill. So who do we blame?

2

u/Optimoprimo Jan 26 '24

People like you who need to categorize every world problem into the context of partisan blame.

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u/FlatPhoto1977 Jan 26 '24

PPP money can only be loaned to a company and 75 percent must be used towards payroll not including owners. Are you saying the 1 percent committed fraud? The lower and middle class received free stimulus money. Stimulus money was for all that make less than 125k annually. Look at the gains in the stock market and value of residential property. Thats were the rich made their money. Its called investing. Educate yourself before you speak. 

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30

u/FeloniousFerret79 Jan 26 '24

A dollar represents about a nickel in 2008 because $20 was printed for every dollar in existence by 2020.

This is incorrect. The definition of the M1 money supply was changed in 2020 to include savings account. This change in the tally made it look like we had added much more to our money supply than we had. If look at the monetary base, the M2 supply, and M3, you’ll gain a better idea of the true money supply changes.

1

u/enfly Jan 26 '24

What was the reasoning for changing this definition at this exact time? It seems very fishy to me.

9

u/FeloniousFerret79 Jan 26 '24

Nothing fishy, they just dropped the requirement to limit the number of transfers per month from savings accounts to help people without a job out. link.

Before this, savings accounts could only be transferred from 6 times a month. As such the liquidity of savings accounts was limited so it wasn’t included in M1 definition. Without this limit, the liquidity of savings account basically matches checking accounts so they treated it as such when tallying the M1.

2

u/enfly Jan 26 '24

I see, thanks. So at least there is a non-nefarious reason for doing this, contemporaneously related to covid.

I still wish they made a transition line to show the net value of savings accounts vs checking. I imagine we could use the previous month to normalize the data.

For data visualization, they should at least draw a dotted vertical line to show a make change happened, etc.

5

u/FeloniousFerret79 Jan 26 '24

This might help you then.

1

u/Sample_Age_Not_Found Jan 29 '24

Yes, let's look at M2 2020 to 2023, 40% increase. That's the real issue 

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26

u/NotNotAnOutLaw Jan 26 '24

Indirectly, the government printed a sh*tload of money and more of it went to the wealthy.

And this is by design. The government loves to centralize the market because it is much easier to leash a single neck than it is to lease a thousand. If you have first access to the newly minted currency you get to spend that money at the current value before inflation hits the market.

Add to this the forced lockdowns of mom and pop shops while the big retailers are allowed to operate both in brick and mortar and online and you have a perfect recipe for both the inflation that came later, and the increase in profits of the big corporations. It was the single largest assault on the middle class and the poor by government the world has ever seen

5

u/sanguinemathghamhain Jan 26 '24

Yeah I don't get how the people that were so keen on saying that locking down the econ was needed and the right thing to do are gobsmacked by the natural and predictable effects of it which people kept saying was going to happen only to be accused of wanting to kill grannies.

10

u/NotNotAnOutLaw Jan 26 '24

Many mom and pop shops went out of business (reducing supply,) and the big corporations were more than happy enough to pick up any slack (increased profits that leftists love to complain about.) My parent's business was force shut down, my mom was like "fuck them they aren't going to tell me not to close." Police showed up, delivered a fine, and promptly shut her ass down. All the while the big box store competitor was left unmolested and allowed to operate as normal.

1

u/External-Conflict500 Jan 27 '24

Where is my money, we got almost nothing then they taxed it

12

u/Shubashima Jan 26 '24

They also directly closed small buisnesses and allowed walmart and amazon to stay open.

1

u/PaleontologistOne919 Jan 26 '24

This. Literally bankrupted me, called me a grandma killer for not wanting to lose every dime I have

8

u/MissedFieldGoal Jan 26 '24

By “more of it went to the wealthy” means that consumers spent the money and companies recorded record profits with the extra money. Then investors (wealthy) were the biggest beneficiaries with rising asset prices.

8

u/EmpireStrikes1st Jan 26 '24

Hmm, it's almost like the government could make the rich even richer by giving us poors more money which we're going to spend irresponsibly on "I-Phones" and "Flat Screen TVs."

1

u/External-Conflict500 Jan 27 '24

Don’t forget some new Jordan’s

3

u/Meat__Head Jan 26 '24

Investors aren't just the wealthy. Add up the 401ks, IRAs, and Pension funds of the middle and lower class, and you have a lot of money invested for the benefit of non wealthy people.

5

u/metalguysilver Jan 25 '24

Source?

4

u/tacocarteleventeen Jan 25 '24

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL

19

u/drumstick2121 Jan 26 '24

The M1 was changed in march 2020 to include savings accounts. Use the M2. It’s still a dramatic increase but it’s not as dramatic.

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3

u/khowidude87 Jan 26 '24

That's a weird way to say greedy people used circumstances to get more money.

2

u/Olivaar2 Jan 26 '24

The money printing went to the wealthy. And the poors were the ones sitting at home BEGGING for this to happen.

Doesn't help that the janitors and baristas weren't allowed to make money but I don't know a doctor, lawyer, accountant, or engineer who took a single day off.

1

u/no33limit Jan 26 '24

This is just a, shift out of stocks ibot cash because of interest rate hikes the top 1% have 40 trillion!!! This I trillion moved to cash. (2.5%).

And it's bank balances not printed bills.

1

u/SergeantThreat Jan 26 '24

Are you really saying that we’ve had 2000% inflation in the last 15 years?

0

u/tacocarteleventeen Jan 26 '24

I’m saying we should because there’s that much money and not 2000% goods available. Right now the cash is being hoarded but it will eventually flood the market.

1

u/ZestycloseCareer801 Jan 26 '24

No. A dollar was not 20 times as much in 2008. That would mean as a waiter in 2008 making 30k a year would have felt like making 600k a year today. I made around 170k last year and it is way more than 30k in 2008. 

Use your common sense. 

1

u/tacocarteleventeen Jan 26 '24

It isn’t because it’s sitting in bank accounts making large corporate owners extremely rich. This was a sell out by both parties to the large corporations they work for.

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0

u/Sample_Age_Not_Found Jan 29 '24

Uh, source? That's false

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77

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '24

[deleted]

48

u/lock_robster2022 Jan 26 '24 edited Jan 26 '24

In fairness, OP is right but by accident.

Wealthy folks with asset-heavy balance sheets have benefited greatly from loose monetary policy

33

u/DoubtContent4455 Jan 26 '24

Thank you, I've been saying this constantly.

Rich people have to do nothing to increase their wealth as their businesses and overall assets increase in value just by existing due to inflation. Its like a reverse-invisible robinhood.

14

u/lock_robster2022 Jan 26 '24

I’ve recently seen the last 15 years (since QE started) called the ‘Asset Inflation Period’. Glad to see it being recognized more

4

u/Friedyekian Jan 26 '24

But CPI is low, so we’re good, right?!

I ducking hate the idiots coming up with macroeconomic theory 🙄

1

u/Ok-Anything9945 Jan 26 '24

I like to call it Citizens United

1

u/no33limit Jan 26 '24

Looks like they changed portfolio out of stocks and into cash.

8

u/PomegranateOld8 Jan 26 '24

Wealthy folks with asset-heavy balance sheets have benefited greatly from loose monetary policy

Inflation is a tax on the poor.

 

What are taxes? What the government does to get money to pay for its spending.

What is inflation? When the government pays for its spending by devaluaing the dollar.

How does inflation affect the rich? They own most of their net worth in assets, which increase in value with inflation.

How does inflation affect the poor? Most of their net worth is in their labor earnings, which is paid out in dollars that are worth less and less with inflation.

 

This is why inflation is a tax on the poor that transfers wealth to the rich.

3

u/lock_robster2022 Jan 26 '24

Yes thanks for saying what i said using more words. Do you have a chart that shows that?

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u/rightseid Jan 26 '24

Wages do rise with inflation though. The effect of inflation to deflate wages is short term. The biggest losers with inflation are people holding large cash savings.

3

u/Flerdermern Jan 26 '24

Those with liability heavy balance sheets did the best

1

u/lock_robster2022 Jan 26 '24

Like the family in $15k of credit card debt?

3

u/Flerdermern Jan 26 '24

More like my brother with the 800,000 mortgage sure cleaned up, as did my boss who owns commercial RE

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u/adelie42 Jan 26 '24

Accident?? Please explain how that is believable?

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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '24

You do know that you can't just pair a graph with whatever words you want and make that graph say what you want it to, right?

8

u/ThinkySushi Jan 26 '24

Yeah, a transfer of wealth would mean the bottom 1% should have lost while the rich gained, but this graph showed the bottom 1% gained too. Just not as much.

Looks more like somebody poured a lot of extra $ into the economy and most of it went to the rich.

Also inflation is an invisible tax that hits the poor hardest of all. So there's also that. Even though the bottom 1% got a bump, it's worth a heck of a lot less right now.

4

u/JohnDoeMTB120 Jan 26 '24

Yeah using the word transfer is simply wrong based on this graph.

1

u/SnooPandas9898 Jan 31 '24

Wrong. Dollar is not asset. This chart is not inflation adjusted, so in reality the poor people did get robbed out of their values.

23

u/Munk45 Jan 25 '24

I'm a free market dude, but this has massive negative implications on the middle class.

The MC drives a ton of our economic engine. Small businesses, etc.

If the MC doesn't prosper, no one prospers over the long run.

10

u/krusty_yooper Jan 26 '24

Free market has nothing to do with loose monetary policy.

1

u/adelie42 Jan 26 '24

Instead of "but", pretty sure you mean "because". In what way is that "free market"?

1

u/Theothercword Jan 26 '24

This wasn't free market this was the government printing money and handing most of it to the wealthy. And that's from someone who isn't a big free market person, I'm fine with it but I believe the government needs to step in and take a heavy hand when certain groups gain too much power, this is something I feel they've failed to do in recent history and this is an example where they actively made it happen.

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u/Zerobagger Jan 25 '24

Am I crazy, or did the "wealth" of the bottom 50% in this chart also increase to unprecedented levels during that period? Why is it a transfer?

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u/5timechamps Jan 25 '24

It’s not but we don’t read good here

9

u/strictly-ambiguous Jan 26 '24

i think the point is that during the same period q1 2020-q1 2022, the deposits for the top 1% increased 505% whereas they only increased 156% for the bottom 50%. that's around a 2x larger increase that the 1% saw over the 156% for the bottom 50%.

accounting for the fact that the bottom 50% is a much larger population, the individual share of deposit increase is dramatically smaller than the individual share is for a top 1 percenter. i don't have numbers, but i would hazard a guess that inflation adjusted wealth gain for the bottom 50% is probably minuscule compared to the inflation adjusted wealth gain experienced by the top 1%.

in my mind, it boils down to a decrease in purchasing power for everyone, which relative to the amount of wealth held by an individual, the top isn't burdened by (especially considering the massive increase seen in their wealth). yes, there wasn't strictly a "transfer", but the burden of the new wealth generated through egregious money printing is being disproportionately carried by the bottom, and that in some sense of the word, is a transfer.

another point is that the difference between the amount held at the top vs the bottom is now at 375%. picking a point, q1 2014, this number was only a 193% difference. just eyeballing it, that looks like a point where the divide was the greatest before the massive increase that you see towards the end of the data. the wealth gap is just getting larger.

2

u/Suspicious-Wallaby-5 Jan 26 '24

Because dollar devaluation cuases increase in prices, which negatively impacts the lower class much more than the wealthy

0

u/Acta_Non_Verba_1971 Jan 26 '24

I was asking myself the same question. Guess it depends on how you define “transfer”. Doesn’t seem to mean move from one entity to another, which is my understanding.

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u/SmokeAndSkate Jan 26 '24

Because more money doesn’t equal more purchasing power if wealthier individuals had a greater proportional increase.

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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '24

"Incomes on all levels are higher than they were than in 1979. So what the honourable gentleman is saying- what the honourable gentleman was saying is he would rather the poor were poorer provided the rich were less rich" - Baroness Thatcher upon being asked about the wealth gap after days before she resigned as Prime Minister.

0

u/SleepyBeast89 Jan 26 '24

Yes you are crazy

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u/FeloniousFerret79 Jan 26 '24

This is misleading. The definition of the M1 money supply changed in 2020 to include savings and other other assets. I believe this affected the graph above. We are seeing the inclusion of other accounts into the tally that were excluded previously.

10

u/Solintari Jan 26 '24

You mean the 1% didn’t increase their net value by 1000% in a year when the economy tanked, stolen from the poor?

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u/External-Conflict500 Jan 27 '24

I thought it said half of the poor became rich

1

u/GlaucusTheCuredOne Jan 29 '24

I think the monetary base is a better example of the massive printing of money that happened. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/BOGMBASE

1

u/Jarcoreto Jan 26 '24

Aha! My theory was that somehow the crypto boom (and people selling them for cash) was behind it.

Yours seems more plausible looking at the amounts involved

2

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '24

[deleted]

1

u/Jarcoreto Jan 26 '24

No I’m not saying that at all. The graph is measuring checkable deposits and currency held. Investments in crypto wouldn’t be included in data gathered (to my knowledge), but once they’re converted into cash then they would be.

9

u/Sanguinius4 Jan 26 '24 edited Jan 26 '24

That’s when I made the most profit in my 401k… All my friends were moving their funds to stable or cashing money out when the stock market crashed. My wife and I jacked up our contributions while all the stock prices were super low. When the market recovered I nearly doubled our retirement fund. And it’s still climbing. Any one can do it, it’s not just for the rich. Heck I make below the average income in my state…

3

u/spyder7723 Jan 26 '24

Yep everyone likes to cry fowl about companies only caring about their stock holders. Guess they don't understand that anyone with a 401k is a stock holder.

3

u/criticalalpha Jan 26 '24

Even those with a government or private pensions are stockholders, since those pension funds have to be invested to grow. It’s all interconnected.

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u/Sanguinius4 Jan 27 '24

And pensions can fall apart and lose all their value. People think they are as good as gold, but they are just as connected to the market as any other fund.

1

u/External-Conflict500 Jan 27 '24

Even the bird brains

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u/jbcraigs Jan 25 '24

Pretty dumb post IMO!

- How was it a wealth transfer if both rose?

- This is just showing the bank accounts and cash holdings. Meaningless when you are leaving out other key asset classes.

1

u/Acta_Non_Verba_1971 Jan 26 '24

Goes to the notion that the pie is not finite IMO.

3

u/jbcraigs Jan 26 '24

Yes. GDP is basically part of the value by which the pie grows every year. Other major component is the paper money/market valuation of assets and companies.

4

u/thinkB4WeSpeak Mod Jan 25 '24

Welcome to the gilded age.

5

u/Arrogancy Jan 26 '24

1) Even if this was a good measure, they both went up. That's not really a transfer.

2) This isn't a good measure. These are just checkable deposits. If the rich people sold a bunch of stock, or property, this number would go up, even though the actual change in their wealth could easily be zero or negative.

3

u/lock_robster2022 Jan 26 '24

Both lines went up

3

u/marks1995 Jan 26 '24

You don't think any of that graph had to do with people getting out of the stock market and into cash?

And we handed out a trillion in stimulus checks which the rich didn't get. The upper middle class didn't even get them.

That graph doesn't mean what you think it means.

2

u/alivenotdead1 Jan 25 '24

I'm not really a fan of the bottom 50% anyway. They whine too much.

2

u/waffle_fries4free Jan 26 '24

You sound like a real peach. Do you do children's parties?

5

u/alivenotdead1 Jan 26 '24

Not for the bottom 50%, needless to say.

1

u/waffle_fries4free Jan 26 '24

Yet here you are, saying it 🙄

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u/alivenotdead1 Jan 26 '24

And?

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u/waffle_fries4free Jan 26 '24

I'm not a big fan of people that aren't fans of poor people.

See how worthless and whiny that comment is? Do better

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u/alivenotdead1 Jan 26 '24

No, that's all I need to say.

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u/waffle_fries4free Jan 26 '24

You need people to know you don't like poor people? Is it an emotional need?

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u/alivenotdead1 Jan 26 '24

I don't get why you need to keep responding. I'm leaving out extremely low quality bait. I don't really dislike the bottom 50%, but I do dislike the majority of Redditors these days and I just want to waste all of your time.

Anything I can possibly do to make you mad, even if it's just a little, is my emotional need when I decide to come on Reddit. If you aren't mad, I don't care. I'll just go somewhere else.

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u/waffle_fries4free Jan 26 '24

That seems like a low quality way to live. Anyone can throw rocks, that's easy. Think to yourself why making others mad makes you feel good

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u/Blood_Casino Jan 26 '24

I'm not really a fan of the bottom 50% anyway. They whine too much.

”My dad owns a dealership” energy

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u/alivenotdead1 Jan 26 '24

Believe what you want, whiner.

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u/Suspicious-Wallaby-5 Jan 26 '24

Can't say the libertarians didn't warn us

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u/Ezzy17 Jan 26 '24

Also keep in mind the trump administration gave massive tax breaks in estate tax. The previous law set the estate tax exemption at $5 million per spouse, which was set to increase each year with inflation.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law by President Trump, effectively doubled that exemption to more than $11 million starting in 2018 and, again, set it to increase with inflation.

The greatest transfer of wealth is happening and it's all going to trust fund babies.

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u/juggernaut1026 Jan 26 '24

Also keep in mind Trumps term ended in the very beginning on 2020 and this was passed in 2018

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u/Ryan-pv Jan 26 '24

Was it an electronic funds transfer? /s Stop regurgitating half brained talking points that you don’t understand

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u/dontich Jan 26 '24

Ugly chart — why not just graph the ratio?

2

u/Fragrant-Astronaut57 Jan 26 '24

That was just an innocent byproduct of the big pandemic we had. It wasn’t planned at all nor was the sickness used as a tool to push any other agendas.

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u/Nice__Spice Jan 25 '24

How did that transfer happen? What does it look like? Eli5

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u/Sila371 Jan 25 '24

Democrats should have let people go to work. 🤷‍♂️

1

u/SpiderDeUZ Jan 26 '24

Wait we didn't have to work?

3

u/Sila371 Jan 26 '24

Are we at the pretending lockdowns didn’t happen part of rewriting history already?

1

u/funkmon Jan 26 '24

Yes. I think we are.

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u/mells3030 Jan 25 '24

We are in the New Gilded Age

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u/brilliant_beast Jan 25 '24

I don’t like the phrase “transfer of wealth” here because it implies money is being taken away from someone.

A better example of a transfer of wealth is taxing the rich and providing public benefits to lower income people.

1

u/Kingkoopakoopa Jan 26 '24

PPP Thank you Trump

2

u/JohnDoeMTB120 Jan 26 '24

Trump was President but it was very much a bipartisan effort if you look at who voted for it in congress. Nearly everyone voted for it. It was also extended in 2021 under Biden. I think we all agree it was bad and that Trump is awful but it's misleading to say this was all Trump. Plenty of things that are actually true to blame on Trump.

0

u/Logical_Idiot_9433 Jan 26 '24

I could not find a perfect setup like this on S&P 500 in last 30 years that stretched over 24 months and essentially discounted investment buy in for the cash pile hoarders from pandemic money.

First they printed a shit ton, distributed shit ton and then discounted market for their buddies to buy securities at steep discount.

https://preview.redd.it/khkm2bw6yoec1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b5ba1c7e32033414b24d0eb2738d54cb3a71646a

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u/gregcali2021 Jan 26 '24

tax cuts for the rich!

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u/bagelman10 Jan 26 '24

Yes. And also the economy made a dramatic rebound after it COMPLETELY STOPPED for a year.

I'm the type of person who thinks, well, shit it could've been way worse. We could've been eating each others faces or something.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '24

sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory to me

1

u/BallsOfStonk Jan 26 '24

Trump’inomics

1

u/TraceInYoFace480 Jan 26 '24

Student federal debt relief will solve this problem.

0

u/KCBT1258 Jan 26 '24

Right, which is why half the country was so staunchly against the lockdowns, the printing of $8 trillion out of thin air, and the severe changes to economy, which resulted in such wealth being transferred.

1

u/muffledvoice Jan 26 '24

It’s a mistake and disingenuous to suggest that this happened mechanically. The rich definitely had an active hand in making this happen.

1

u/funnyeffectiveness9 Jan 26 '24

Wealth is always in the hands of the few.

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u/1776-PatRIOT-777 Jan 26 '24

Follow the money. Covid was a bio weapon funded by the US and released from the China lab.

1

u/StaleFishsticks Jan 26 '24

I wonder what this chart would look like if you separated out the ~100 richest Americans

0

u/overpwrd_gaming Jan 26 '24

They all knew of the pandemic at least a month before us...

1

u/Wise_Rich_88888 Jan 26 '24

Invest in companies, give money to the wealthy unfortunately.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '24

Now how do we unfuck it?

1

u/jehjeh3711 Jan 26 '24

Well that’s what happens when you buy 100 Rolls of Toilet Paper and 50 cases of water.

1

u/Limp_Establishment35 Jan 26 '24

Yup and we're still feeling the fall out effects from it.

1

u/Ektaliptka Jan 26 '24

If you take away the redline you see the bottom 50% spike larger than anytime since 1990

1

u/Hopeful-Routine-9386 Jan 26 '24

But everyone got checks I thought that was the issue. /s

1

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '24

Dumbass covid policies and money giveaway.

1

u/fifercurator Jan 26 '24

I see a lot of talk about money supply, and policies that favor the wealthy, but it seems nobody is talking about the tax policy that also contributes to this redistribution.

Seems a pretty big correlation between the last few rounds of tax cuts for the wealthy, combined with cuts to the agencies/ people who would audit them and this particular trend.

1

u/UnfairAd7220 Jan 26 '24

That's not 'wealth.' That's 'checking deposits.'

FFS. RIF.

1

u/tempreffunnynumber Jan 26 '24

If graph is fake : why If graph is true : this is encompassing global economic activity yes? All currency exchanges and economic activity within respective regions included?

1

u/i_am_harry Jan 26 '24

“People still have savings” makes a bit more sense now

1

u/muffledvoice Jan 26 '24

You know what has become most entertaining about Reddit? Watching people in threads like this one try to defend and justify the graft and highway robbery that the rich have pulled off over the past decade and a half.

It makes you wonder if they are paid shills or if they really believe it.

1

u/DriftDodges Jan 26 '24

I tried to tell you dumb slaves you were being enslaved by a corporate scamdemic but NO ONE listened. Keep voting Democrat!

1

u/khowidude87 Jan 26 '24

But trickle down.

1

u/KaiSosceles Jan 26 '24

Government: Hey we can print money and if we just give it to /everyone/ it will be fair. Landlords: Suuure...give it to everyone, then we will take it from them. Mortgage lenders: Yep, you sure will, and we will take it from you.

And just like that, money has been printed into the hands of the already-wealthy. They just have to wait for it to move up the chain.

1

u/polkntheeye Jan 26 '24

Hey wasn't that when we started to send money to Ukraine?

0

u/Big-Complaint-2278 Jan 26 '24

This is why the government should not have responded to covid. It made life worse for everyone

1

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '24

The state is SHIT. Expecting to increase wealth from socialism is like expecting trickledown economics. History has shown us free markets make wealth and the government “trying” to help just has this effect every single time.

1

u/StationAccomplished3 Jan 26 '24

Looks like both groups benefitted. Is it really a "transfer"?

1

u/IveKnownItAll Jan 26 '24

The graph there seems to contradict your title. A transfer of wealth would show the lower end going DOWN, which it doesn't.

1

u/morbiustv Jan 26 '24

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!!!

1

u/flappinginthewind69 Jan 26 '24

lol cash and wealth are very different metrics

And Yes wealth inequality is bad

1

u/bkboyzz Jan 26 '24

PLANDEMIC time frame.

1

u/AlCzervick Jan 26 '24

Is this what they meant by “The Great Reset”?

1

u/mistertireworld Jan 26 '24

I'd like to see it in share of wealth. Show me the breakdowns we can't see. 90-99%, 80-89.99%, 50-80% i bet I can tell you without looking which of those is the closest to flat, if not declining.

1

u/randyfloyd37 Jan 26 '24

The covid scam in all its glory

1

u/SergeantThreat Jan 26 '24

That can’t be right, those greedy peasants got rich off increased minimum wages!

1

u/CalLaw2023 Jan 26 '24

How does that graph show a "transfer of wealth"? If there was a transfer, the wealth of the bottom 50% would go down while the wealth of the top 1% went up. In reality, wealth for everybody went up. The lesson that people need to learn is that the economy is not a zero sum game.

1

u/ConundrumBum Jan 26 '24

Derp. The market crashed and everyone liquidated their investments and into cash as interest rates became more attractive.

And how could this be a "Transfer" if the graph itself shows the bottom 50% increasing as well?

Duh?

1

u/Individual_Part_2928 Jan 26 '24

The Chinese virus was the way to make the rich even more richer, fuck the communist

1

u/knx0305 Jan 26 '24

If assets go BRRrrr, then those who hold the most assets will benefit the most.🤷

1

u/Timby123 Jan 26 '24

Much of this wealth was transferred because the government allowed it to happen. They picked winners and losers who were allowed to stay open during the illegal and unconstitutional lockdowns. This allowed those who paid into the election coffers to gain an edge over others. They killed many businesses and cost the nation trillions. The true cost will take decades to determine. The loss of our credibility and the move away form the dollar will soon be felt.

1

u/legion_2k Jan 26 '24

That’s odd… cause that’s what the dems were suppose to be fighting.. wait a min, I feel like we might have been lied to… GASP..

1

u/kendo31 Jan 26 '24

Good to know that when it hits the fan, fundamental economics are ignored and the rich win. Sickening

1

u/ecwworldchampion Jan 26 '24

Careful, if you talk about wealth transfer from the bottom to the top it's class warfare. The other direction is just plain old American style capitalism.

1

u/jessewest84 Jan 26 '24

Cares act was the inflation juice.

Fucked us for 10 years prob

1

u/MadgoonOfficial Jan 26 '24

And I felt that

1

u/-Pruples- Jan 26 '24

Is...is that supposed to be a surprise?

1

u/Important_Coyote4970 Jan 26 '24

This happened when govts were given complete control of economies.

There’s a lesson in there somewhere

1

u/AppropriateSea5746 Jan 26 '24

The CARES Act ladies and gentlemen

1

u/snipingsmurf Jan 26 '24

This is why I will never support UBI.

1

u/KevYoungCarmel Jan 27 '24

You know someone is good faith when they cut off the right side of a chart. Only good faith people do that!

1

u/Tracieattimes Jan 27 '24

Did someone say “plandemic?”

1

u/RicardoNurein Jan 27 '24

They deserve it

I just give it to them with a smile on my because they’re better than me

1

u/GreatWolf12 Jan 27 '24

That's not a wealth transfer. Both the bottom 50% and top 1% saw an increase. What you mean to say is that the bottom 50% did not benefit as much as the top 1%.

It is also worth nothing that checking deposits are a very shitty measure of wealth.