Guess which country has the largest gap between rich and poor?

[Jay ay Beee]

Ten percent of America‘s families control two-thirds of the wealth.

[Woodrow]

Ten percent of America‘s families control two-thirds of the wealth.

Proof?

I'd think Mexico would be much higher.

[Trauma-san]

America has the richest people in the world.  It also has people who have 0 income.  Therefore, OF COURSE America has the largest gap between the rich and the poor, any country blessed with wealth would, LOL.  By The way... WHAT IS WRONG with 10 percent of Americans having 2/3rds of the money? You suggest we take it from them and give it around? That's communism, are you a communist?  

[Woodrow]

Here are some quotes for you Jay...

"Wealth, when you get right down to it, is not the cause of poverty." --Mitchell B. Pearlstein, paraphrasing George Gilder

"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it."-- Thomas Sowell

"One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain." -- Dr. Thomas Sowell

 "If concern for human poverty and suffering were one's primary motive, one would seek to discover their cause.  One would not fail to ask : Why did some nations develop, while others did not?  Why have some nations achieved material abundance, while others have remained stagnant in sub-human misery?  History and specifically the unprecedented prosperity-explosion of the 19th century would give an immediate answer : capitalism is the only system that enables men to produce abundance - and the key to capitalism is individual freedom." -- Ayn Rand, "Requiem for Man", Chapter 24 of Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

"Most Americans living below the official poverty line have air conditioning, microwaves and VCRs. About half have a car or truck. Moreover, most of the people in the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution in 1975 have also been in the top 20 percent at some point since then. ... People who are genuinely poor all their lives still exist, but only about 3 percent of the American population remains in the bottom 20 percent for as long as a decade." -- Dr. Thomas Sowell

"Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded -- here and there, now and then -- are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty."  -- Robert A. Heinlein

[Shin]

Is it true that 31.1 million people live below the poverty line in the US?

[Trauma-san]

Statistics say that, yup.  I don't know if it's true, but those are the statistics I heard.  

[Jay ay Beee]

Your opinion?

[Trauma-san]

On the statistics? Well, I think they don't represent anything.  Take this for instance;
 

In america, people have many opportunities to gain and lose wealth.  In any one year, 35 million people may be below poverty; but statistics ALSO show that only one seventh of the people below the poverty line are still there 10 years later.  So what you're getting, is not an accurate representation of how people are living.  

The entire poverty rate is based on income.  If a banker takes a year off, he might only have 10 grand income from interest for the year; or maybe almost all of his money is tied up in stocks.  that year, he doesn't earn a dime; does that mean he's living in poverty? Hell no, he's living a rich lifestyle.  Of course, he's counted as one of the 35 million.

So, if only one seventh of people in poverty one year are still in poverty 10 years later, that shows me we have a static poverty rate of about 7 million people, that's about 6.5% of the total population = not that bad.  

Most people that make less than 13 thousand a year consider themselves to be having a bad year... for instance, last year, I didn't have a job for about 8 months out of the year.  I sat around doing nothing, waiting on a good job.  I only earned about 14 thousand dollars, which puts me in the poverty level.  Meanwhile, I live in a house worth well over a hundred thousand dollars, have 6 cars, make money on the side selling coin-op equipment, etc. etc.  I'm not living at a poverty level, but yet I was counted as one of the 35 million.  

Also, when you factor in how americans REALLY LIVE, the number gets even smaller.  Studies show that americans at the lowest level of income report spending 2.37 dollars for every 1.00 they earn.  Why? How's that possible? Because they're buying more than they can afford, either borrowing money and paying it back later, or if things don't get better,they end up declaring bankruptcy.  Either way you look at it, many americans are living way above their means... which means that yes, they're spending more money than they make, but they're still not living in poverty, because they're buying plenty of food, and even nonsense items they don't need.  

Of course, there's also people that are just dirt poor living in poverty.  I feel sorry for those people, and there's probably plenty of them that will still be that way in 10 years.  The number's just not 35 million people.  

[ZILLA THA GOODFELLA]

Sounds about right....

I think West Coast (Cali) in particular has tha biggest gap....We have da most bums and at tha same time all tha rich computer & dot com companies....