Never Mind the 1%. Mini-Millionaires Are Where Wealth Is Growing Fastest | Hacker News Reader

Never Mind the 1%. Mini-Millionaires Are Where Wealth Is Growing Fastest

wsj.com

Is this the 1% trying to make a new enemy for the poor and redirect the hate they get? I can't read the article, but the headlines certainly gives that feeling.

https://archive.ph/RwqvZ if you want to read the article

Always have and always will, but it's not mutually exclusive.

Are you kidding? The envious poor have always despised those with just a little more than them even more than them, even more than those who literally oppress them! Just look at how small landowners got treated and before then how freaking millers were literally demonized. Down that path of spite lies a road to madness where someone with a quarter more in their pocket is a mortal enemy.

I don't believe the Survey of Consumer Finance[1] includes questions that determine whether a family's wealth decreased over time. In particular, given the exhorbitant costs of college (elite or otherwise), even while chasing merit scholarships it feels that US families profiled as single-digit "millionaires" with college-aged children are the ones most likely to experience rapidly depleting wealth reserves (529, non-registered cash reserves, liquidation of stock portfolios, etc.), especially if they have multiple kids[2].

[1] https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scf_2019.htm

[2] https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2022/demo/families/cps-20...

whoopie. we arent geting richer ... money is worth less

These days a paid off house makes you a millionaire.

Remember when they used to call that like $40k for the house? Neither do I. I'm certain the use of the argument of zoning and Georgian taxation in addressing these issues is being employed to distract from the more pertinent variable of speculation and hording within metropolitan areas, in addition to the Airbnb cancer. I guess the actual humans that still own homes are the only ones that feel like they have a future, the preserved zoo-like animals of the alleged middle-class.

Jesus Christ, if the average net worth grew by 42% in a 3-year period, maybe we should use that as another possible quantification of inflation rates (which would work out to ~12% per year). Yes, the wealthy skewing it via net worth (unspent money) doesn't necessarily dictate prices of goods directly, but anecdotally a lot of people have seen their costs rise by about that much, which is obviously fine for people who A) have a financial cushion and B) the growth of that cushion keeps up with observed inflation.

Ideally I'd love to see laws that mandate retained employees must be given a raise of X% per year, where X is whatever the highest reasonable measurement of inflation is (maybe do something radical like actually survey working class people to see how their cost of living has changed). Probably paired with some mandatory severance and other employee protection laws.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com