Of course, this article isn't about wealthy people having actual pie. They actually tend to be skinny and eat healthier than the rest of us. This article is about wealth distribution in the United States. It's a lot more skewed than you probably think it is.
The 100-Pie Graphs are pretty useful. In other words, if you take 100 slices of pie to represent wealth (or lack of it) in America, you can illustrate the way people think things are AND the way they really are.
Here's the story of U.S. wealth distribution told with pie:
How Do Average People Think Wealth is Distributed?
If you take a survey of your friends, neighbors, and coworkers, this is how they probably think the pie s and should be distributed:
In other words, most people assume that the wealthiest 20 percent of Americans have a little less than three times the pie of the poorest 20 percent. In this world, poor people would drive a Kia, and rich people would own Mercedes or something like that. Rich people get a smoother ride, but everybody gets to ride.
Sadly, this is NOT now it really works out.
How the Pie (or Wealth) is Really Distributed
The following graph illustrates how pies are really distributed between the top 20 percent vs. the bottom:
The BOTTOM 40 percent have NO PIE. The bottom 20 percent are in debt and owe pie. Meanwhile the top 20 percent have 90 percent of the pie. Even the middle 20 percent only have two slices of pie and are sitting on an abyss.
What do the famous one-percenters have? They have 40 pies out of 100. So the poor saps who are still in the top 20 percent have to split 50 pies between them. Man, that's still a lot of pie if your sitting in the middle to the bottom.
Is Wealth Distributed the Same in Other Countries?
Actually, if you look at other countries, pie distribution changes a bit. Lets look at other Western nations:
Anyway, if you think the wealthy need more income distributed to them in the US because they deserve it, you might first look at your own stock of pie. This kind of distribution isn't good for the economy because people with less wealth actually tend to spend their money, but the top wealth holders get to stash a lot of their pie in the freezer.
Less pie means wasted potential in upward mobility, education, and more. Also, the wealth distribution in the US is the worst it has been for 50 years. NOBODY says wealth creators shouldn't get more pie. It's fair to say they shouldn't get ALL the pie.
Give Me Feedback or PIE
Do you still favor the GOP tax plan because you think it will help you? I'm interested in what you have to say! Please offer me some feedback or just send me some more pie.