<story><title>How the .0001% Made Its Money</title><url>http://priceonomics.com/how-the-0001-made-its-money/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>programminggeek</author><text>&amp;gt; The economic story of the past decades is supposed to be the death of the American Dream. Income inequality has risen, the wealth of the middle class stagnated, and stories of the poor working their way to prosperity became just stories.&lt;p&gt;I think the article doesn&amp;#x27;t really do a good job to change that view. The inequality has risen and the wealth of the middle class has stagnated. This is absolutely true.&lt;p&gt;Things like raises are no longer the norm, bonuses in many jobs have disappeared, prices and debt have risen much faster than the rise in income. At the same time, wealthy people continue to grow their wealth.&lt;p&gt;The fact the top 0.0001% gained their wealth not by inheriting it doesn&amp;#x27;t change what is happening to the poor, middle class, etc. as a result.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bedhead</author><text>The widening wealth inequality as it relates to inheritance can be explained mostly by one simple concept, something Buffett himself call the most powerful force in the universe: compounding. Wise people with money, given enough time, will rocket to become insanely wealthy. Compounding does nothing for the middle class who generally spend most of their income, and it works the opposite way for the poor who are debtors. Over time this force will make the wealth gap worse and worse, which is exactly what&amp;#x27;s happened.</text></comment>
<story><title>How the .0001% Made Its Money</title><url>http://priceonomics.com/how-the-0001-made-its-money/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>programminggeek</author><text>&amp;gt; The economic story of the past decades is supposed to be the death of the American Dream. Income inequality has risen, the wealth of the middle class stagnated, and stories of the poor working their way to prosperity became just stories.&lt;p&gt;I think the article doesn&amp;#x27;t really do a good job to change that view. The inequality has risen and the wealth of the middle class has stagnated. This is absolutely true.&lt;p&gt;Things like raises are no longer the norm, bonuses in many jobs have disappeared, prices and debt have risen much faster than the rise in income. At the same time, wealthy people continue to grow their wealth.&lt;p&gt;The fact the top 0.0001% gained their wealth not by inheriting it doesn&amp;#x27;t change what is happening to the poor, middle class, etc. as a result.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Samuel_Michon</author><text>&amp;gt; The top 0.0001% gained their wealth not by inheriting it&lt;p&gt;How did you come to that conclusion? I looked for that in the figures, but I couldn’t find what percentage came into money from an inheritance. Perhaps it’s placed in the 12% ‘Diversified&amp;#x2F;Other’ category, but the impression I got from the article was that they tallied how the money was earned in the first place, not where the ones holding the purse got it from.&lt;p&gt;I believe your interpretation of the article in this aspect is incorrect. For instance, 4 of the top 10 spots are taken up by members of the Walton family. Those people inherited their wealth from Bud and Sam Walton, the founders of Wal*Mart.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walton_family&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Walton_family&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>