this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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Source: Federal Reserve

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[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 43 points 2 days ago (3 children)

The weirdly comforting thing here is that more than half of the wealth is still in the bottom 99%. That means the masses still have economic power. The problem, of course, is that they cannot deploy it with the same coordination as the smaller group.

[–] Ziglin@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago

Those last 9 percent might be hard to convince since they're already doing quite well.

[–] Krono@lemmy.today 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I don't think it's comforting at all.

If you remove the top 1%, the remaining wealth is concentrated in the top 10%. This group of people is highly invested in the status quo; their wealth and power is usually used to prop up the current system.

These people are reffered to by many names: petit bourgeoisie, professional managerial class, small business tyrants, etc.

[–] tisktisk@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago

It's almost doubly comforting to that 10% though, right?

How much land does this top 10% need? 🤔

[–] birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago

don't forget oligarchs

[–] tisktisk@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Power that can't be deployed is by definition not power at all though, right?

Odd observation

[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes, but "the masses" are able to deploy concerted power, like in the instance of the harm done to Tesla sales lately. It's just more difficult to coordinate it.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh good, our dollars can go to another massive corporation that will do the exact same thing. Sometimes choice really isn't choice at all.

[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Eh. If you're just not buying any new car, you've already paid off the one you have, then that is a choice - and no corporation is getting any more money from you as a result of it. But I feel the pain of what you're saying. The case you're describing really rears its head for things like groceries where you actually do need to just keep buying them forever, and you may not have a farmer's market around. But I think people could truly cut down on their car consumption a lot. Some Americans are getting new cars every three years or so.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Totally agree, I have never purchased a new car and probably never will. We try to car pool whenever possible as well. If public transportation was better I would consider using it more often.

[–] birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

These are federal statistics. I wouldn't trust those, especially not since Trump tries his best to skim and remove anything he doesn't like.

The reality is way worse. The 1% holds far more than the graph shows.

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How is wealth defined? If debt is included then a lot of people are below zero even with good incomes.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

I am underneath the map

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Compost the rich

[–] Typhoon@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago

Capitalism working as intended. But it's not finished yet. Get back to work peasants.

[–] plyth@feddit.org 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The bottom 99% own 66% of the economy. That would be enough to control it.

[–] scholar@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

How many people are in each category?

[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 25 points 2 days ago

Curren population is 347.533.640

99.9 => 347.533 people

99 - 99.9 => 3.127.802 people

99 - 90 => 31.625.562 people

99 - 50 => 142.141.258 people

50 - 0 => 173.766.820 people

[–] Ziglin@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Multiply the population by the percentage? (I didn't find anything on that page suggesting that it wouldn't be the case.)

342 million * 0.5 = 171 million people who are in the bottom yellow line. The top darker green line is 342 million * 0.001 = 342 thousand people

I think you can do the others yourself if you like.