Talk:Distribution of wealth

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Some parts of this page involved redistribution of wealth, which involves politics. It was moved to wealth redistribution because that page involves the politcs involved with wealth inequalities. This page is meant to be for statistical analysis of wealth, which is separate from any political interpretations of this statistical data. As is stated in the intro, "The statistical study of the distribution of wealth is designed to provide data, not recommend policy."


I would like to make an addition to this page. Below is the link to a graphic that compares the GINI index for wealth distribution to the GDP per capita for most of the countries around the world.


[[1]]

The data is open source and verifiable. The trend is pretty compelling showing that the richest countries have the best distribution of wealth.

I would appreciate any feedback on this topic. Should I include this topic on this page, or should I create an entirely new topic?

Please send inputs to PatrickTRobinson@comcast.net

Thanks! Pat R

Contents

[edit] Placeholder text

Dude, what gives? It looks very unprofessional to leave a template of sorts in place of the final text. That sort of thing should go on the talk page.


Sorry. Here are questions that still need to be answered:

  • 1)what is the total amount of wealth in the world.
  • 2)what is the total amount of income in the world?
  • 3)what is the total amount of wealth in each individual country?
  • 4)what is the total amount of income in each individual country?

A statistics section that shows the data should be added.


Distribution of Wealth does not just refer to global distribution and the stats arent necessarilly whats important; the important thing is the distribution in an economy between the producers and those that control the surpluis. This is going to require a graph with a few common points on it: Rawl's point, Nash's point, Bentham's point, and a point that represents feudalism or slavery. I hope someone is familiar with what Im talking about and willing to put in the effort to edit the page.

The political systems of socialism and communism are intended to diminish the perceived conflicts arising from unequal distribution of wealth. They attempt to do so by forcing wealthier members of society to surrender some or all of their assets to the state in a process sometimes called redistribution of wealth. The State then administers all public assets.

Isn't communism stateless by definition?

Kenji Yamada 00:32, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

We have too many rich asses. We should seize their wealth and divide it evenly among all people.

Dividing the wealth evenly doesn't work, because nobody values what everybody shares. Keeping the wealth in the hands of the few doesn't work either. What worked very well until Bush dismantled it was an income tax that kept the wealth moving. Rick Norwood 18:59, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I wish we lived in a cashless society where we worked to better the world as in the fictional world of Star Trek. Money is paper when you get down to it. One idea that I have heard is the placing of caps on all income. For example, the wealthy are allowed to retain an income flow of one million annual income but anything over that would be seized by the government and used to benefit the rest of society. No one person can spend 50 billion dollars, Bill Gates, so why should they be allowed to keep it when it could be redistributed within society where it could do greater good. It has been argued that the war on poverty has been a dismal failure and I agree that it has failed but only because the money was spent on massive and corrupt government agencies. The easiest solution is to give the money directly to the people. Please let it be known that I realize that there are great logistics in any plan such as I am supporting but unless we end class warefare our society will suffer greatly in the next century. I believe in massive income redistribution and this is coming from a conservative republican.

I cannot help but express my opinion on these remarks, and I have to say that they are absolutely ridiculous. "We should seize their wealth and divide it evenly among all people"? This individual has no understanding of what "wealth" is, how it is created, and how a society should function properly. Wealth is not a static entity that exists in a fixed, finite amount in the world. Before it can be "redistributed", it must be created. How is wealth created? By the minds of businessmen. Do not say that physical labor and toil is what creates wealth, because every age prior to the birth of semi-capitalism had an abundance of it. It was only when men realized the central role of the mind in human survival and the necessity of applying it to the problem of production was wealth finally created. The question is often raised: how should wealth be "redistributed"? This question can only be raised if the one who asks it does not believe in the concept of individual rights, and more specifically, property rights. In order to survive, man must live by the exercise of his rational faculty and produce, by rational thought, those things he needs in order to survive. If man cannot dispose of his effort (in other words, if he does not have control over his property, the product of his mind), he cannot dispose of, and has no right to, his life. Laissez-faire capitalism is the only moral social system, not because it creates abundance for all people (although this is true), but because it is the only system consonant with man's rational nature, and because it is the only one that recognizes the principle of individual rights. Yes, selfishness is profoundly virtuous! Mankind will only survive if individual men are free to think, to produce, and to live. Enslaving them to the needs of "the people" will damn man, damn existence, and end any hope of good in the future. Death to collectivism...long life to laissez-faire capitalism! (By the way, I need to make this point absolutely clear: I am not a conservative or a liberal, but rather a "libertarian", heavily influenced by the thought of Ayn Rand. Conservatives are not defenders of capitalism.)

[edit] Mean Distribution

If a poor has income of US$ one and Wealthy has income of US$ 2,500 than their mean income is say US$ 1,250.

In India one who works in Gold Mine get some Gold whereas poor farmer get many Kgs. of Sand.

[edit] Work toward removing the cleanup tag.

I've done some work toward removing the need for a "cleanup" tag, including fixing some bad grammar, adding references, and breaking the article into sections. The two things I see the article most in need of are 1) more data and 2) a shorter list of external links. A picture would be nice -- maybe of Scrooge McDuck in his money bin (but Disney would have a mouse). Rick Norwood 17:20, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Charity

Other organizations should be mentioned


[edit] Links

I would recommend that the links be gone through, any redundant or irrelevant ones removed, and descriptions added. I'd do it myself, except I'm currenty trying to write a paper on this topic :-P. (168.122.64.71 22:19, 1 March 2007 (UTC))

Indeed, there's a lot of linkspam here. Riki 11:43, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Distribution of Wealth or Income

In the US Discussion, the gini given is for income even though the article just got done explaining that there is a difference between income and wealth. The map shows ginis for income. This is largely replicated in the gini article itself. --66.84.240.194 21:55, 21 June 2007 (UTC)MZF

I'll echo the same point. My first reaction when I saw the opening paragraph, then the issultration, is that someone is confused about the distinction. How ironic that the very next section notes that many are confused.

Ideally, someone can find a map or graphic representing wealth, rather than income.

The following link is broken and I've been unable to find the referenced document to correct it:

    The UN-WIDER World Distribution of Household Wealth Report  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.115.42.190 (talk) 17:56, 8 March 2008 (UTC)