Hoover Book Club: The Myth Of American Inequality

[@sarahg2653]

Thank you Hoover Institute. It is nice that these talks are available to listen to for free. I am a fan!

[@CaptainJackSparrow110]

It's cool to be able to hear discussions like this from anywhere in the world -- except liberal households.

[@colindant3410]

The appreciation in value of an asset like the home you live in is irrelevant as everyone else's home has appreciated in value in similar fashion. Of course the general standard of living has risen, but the demands made on people are far higher than they were in the early post-war years. Now, many people feel they are running flat-out just to stand still. Transfer payments are all very well, but it can be disheartening to know that one's work in the marketplace is so poorly valued that one can only feed one's kids through receiving food stamps. Frankly, I would feel embarrassed at having to go to a food bank to feed the family. The reality as I see it is this. The base level of skill required to be considered for most 'bread-winning' jobs today is far higher than it was sixty years ago. Since an ever increasing proportion of the age cohort has, largely of necessity, had to spend more years in education to stand a chance of getting anything worthwhile in the labour market, the returns to education have diminished for most people as there has been an increasing pool of labour with degrees at varying levels. What I consider to be unacceptable is the increasingly lopsided distribution of income in favour of those who have gone down the narrow path to 'success' in today's economy, such as corporate lawyers, financiers, accountants, doctors, and most other STEM professions. Most of the rest of us have, in varying degrees, been left behind, to the extent that it is damaging the cohesion in society. One should not forget the reality of the distribution of cognitive ability. I am sure that this has not changed over the years. The people who, years ago, would have worked in factories will not magically transform themselves into people with skills that are needed in today's economy. Perhaps, from a statistical point of view, there is less inequality today than there was years ago, but I would suggest that there is a far higher proportion of people who are struggling to make ends meet, enabling them to live at THE SAME LEVEL their parents did.

[@CaseyBurnsInvesting]

Fantastic presentation.

[@sherbear8286]

This is so important and upends the myth of inequality in America. Listen up people!

[@markwagner8711]

Thank you so much! Facts speak so well without emotional involvement! 👍

[@craigb4913]

I fondly remember Sen Graham from the Reagan era. Nice to see he's still firing on all cylinders.

[@brucevilla]

Thanks for Uploading.

[@frizzneil2590]

Hey, I remember Phil, love that Drawl...

[@maryspencer4274]

It would interest me to hear how the income from Medicare/Medicaid transfer payments have benifited medical institutions and corporations such as pharmaceuticals and is this an impact on how they structure their financial reporting to the public.

[@carlswenson5403]

Outstanding presentation. My only qualm is that you stated "hard evidence from the irs" regarding income. This is like Jeep inventing an award and giving it to themselves.

[@TheWhitehiker]

Good stuff! [speed to 1.25, John is a slow speaker.]

[@MrGreesonjb]

Excellent discussion of little known inbuilt assumptions not conveyed by the title of the data item

[@jaredspencer3304]

I'm hoping they'll touch on this more, but the point at 9:30 about how "the government payments during the pandemic has hurt the work ethic of middle income earners" seems like a huge stretch of imagination by an economist who might not know that many young middle income earners. "The Great Resignation" is about people voting with their feet, which you're supposed to do in an open democracy. And it has less to do with middle income earners sitting fat and happy because they got $400 a month from the government, and more to do with employers refusing to modernize their employment practices, who previously just relied on fear of unemployment to retain their workers. Hopefully employers can adapt to a new reality. EDIT: Otherwise, a very compelling case about the data and I'm definitely convinced to read the book.

[@qingzhou9983]

They hide the inequality in Plain sight. The biggest inequality is top 1%, especially the top 0.1% vs bottom 50%. He used the top 19% to hide this historic Inequality. In past 4 decades, US economy has grown about 4 times, the bottom 50% actually lost income in real dollar, the middle did not change and the top 10-20% grow somewhat. It is the top 1%, especially the top 0.1% that got vast majority of this National Economic Growth. The bottom Poor did get more transfer. But they are still the Bottom. The middle class got squeezed the hardest! This is the real picture! About more people stopping working. That is mostly because there is no good jobs out there. No one prefer the stingy welfare than a good job. Forcing people to work slavery jobs by hunger is Not American Way Today.

[@cmlon]

thanks! Finally, some real data

[@Feeltheh8]

I'm much more concerned about inflating asset prices and distorting the market equilibrium than "making the rich pay their fair share". Let's actually fix the root of the issue which is a massive debt load that requires expansionary monetary policy just to be sustained. Talk about transferring wealth from the productive working class to the people who produce nothing...

[@johnalbert5786]

Some of you may not like the facts of the record of numbers …… but there they are.

[@fiorevitola880]

What is not considered in my mind is the fact of we (meaning those of us with fixed income). is not considering what we pay in addition to health insurance such as additional supplemental hospital drug insurance. Not to mention property taxes that we are not benifiting by sending children to the public school system for at least 40 years in our case. Let's compare Applies to Applies!!

[@6663000]

important

[@evanstential]

I like that I can understand most of what Is being said. 'Not equality of out come, "fair chance and open way to use your industry dnintellect to advance the self."'!

[@ahwhite2022]

This whole presentation points to be the best indirect argument for a UBI system I've ever heard. The reality is, we're already spending the money. What we aren't doing is spending it in a way to mitigate unintended consequences. As for the Silicon Valley contrast imagery, that engineer making a quarter million might very well be loving in a trailer as well! Cost of living issues in places like have little to do with the issues at hand (but likely a lot to do with other policy choices).

[@dragonslayer69420]

thanks gentlemen! can we get the book on audible/audiobook form? keep up the great work! edit: for that matter can we get ALL the hoover peoples books on audible? ive already ate up all tom sowells books multiple times, i need MORE! :)

[@joefrescoln]

11:16 declined by 3% over what time span?

[@Tony-C]

So why is wealth inequality being miscalculated? Is it due to incompetence or malevolence, and who stands to gain from this?

[@Marta...8877]

Pierwsze słowa wypowiedzi, zawierają ... wszystko... czym powinno być państwo ... ekonomią... do Człowieków wyrażasz swoje uczucia, zachowania, szlachetność, otoczenie opieką, ale Państwo ma przede wszystkim opierać się na mierze wykresów, czyli biznesu... tworzyć warunki aby Człowiek czuł bezpieczeństwo z odpowiedzialności wielkości twej waluty narodowej... wytwór własny, pomysłowość, inwestycje w narodową gospodarkę finansową... żeby to osiągnąć, potrzeba powiązać ze sobą wszystkie systemy, działające na zasadach określonych wartościami ... miłości do Ojczyzny.

[@WestCoastBroodWar]

"Thats real, adjusted for inflation". Let that sink in. ----34:20

[@ronaldanderson6481]

And now we know why people are rushing over the southern border.

[@johnweiner]

Mr Gramm appears to claim that nowhere in the world is unrealized gain in the value of assets taxed. I live in France. There is a tax on wealth (real estate property value), and it is based on a percentage of the market value of the asset. As the market value increases so does the tax. This tax is independent and separate from conventional real estate taxes imposed by local governments.

[@Guti3737]

Why didn't they look into why the data is presented like it is by the government? It makes me question the data used.

[@BitcoinMeister]

Don't resent the successful! That is the bottom line! Class warriors will NOT like this video!

[@jaredspencer3304]

Great presentation. Definitely going to read the book. Would be interesting to hear about mortgage interest payment deductions, and if those are taken into account, and if so, how, since they tend to be quite large and get larger the richer you are. And also the extent to which "chronic poverty" is a thing. Basically, if transfer payments make poor people less poor, are they getting paid to stay poor, or are they using the transfer payments to move up the ladder. Phil mentioned 62% of bottom quintile will get out of it. Just how generationally trapped are the remaining 38%?

[@raymondswenson1268]

This undercuts the claims of gross inequality that are the basis for claims for racial "reparations" for Blacks. Another related question is the income of people in other countries. Black families in America have a higher average income than the citizens of most European nations! And they earn several times the incomes in African nations, where the majority of populations are Black, and racism cannot explain those lower incomes. Whatever the impact of the heritage of slavery and racial segregation, it has far less impact then the other factors that determine income, since American Blacks have more income than most people in Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The American economy has benefitted Blacks significantly despite the negative heritage of slavery and racial discrimination. America has done more for them than other nations have done for Blacks in all other nations.

[@bigchills7194]

Poverty is 3x the basic WHAT?

[@keepcalmcarryon3358]

these fellas missed at least two questions by going off track in their answers … Otherwise it was another informative example of government has always sucked at putting their pet projects into effect and progressive, utopia seeking (I know what’s best for you) governments are full of ego hubris and conceit opposed to wisdom, practical knowledge and real world awareness

[@chenwu9867]

人民自己的合作交易，心里的合作，大脑里的合作，政府也要往内裤里面掏和捣 说白了就是不要脸

[@leudal29]

Where is the aspect of freedom ?😈

[@SavingCommunitiesDS]

This ignores the greatest transfer payment of all, which is rent paid by the users of land and natural resources to the title holders of land and natural resources. That's a big part of why classical liberals overwhelmingly advocated putting the tax burden on the value of land. Graham's claim that nobody in the world pays taxes on unrealized appreciating assets is false, because taxes on land values falls very much on those assets.