this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2024
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[–] aberrate_junior_beatnik@midwest.social 48 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Are those graphs accurate? The modern one seems right, but I have no idea about pre-revolution France

[–] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 7 points 3 weeks ago

is the modern one right? Why are there two bars per quintile? Isn't the top 10% above 90% of the populations wealth?

[–] Vent@lemm.ee 40 points 3 weeks ago

Now show the top 0.01% as their own bar

[–] dcm@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

What does France's distribution look like these days?

[–] EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 29 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I found a couple of interesting graphs:

I dont really like how this first one divided their different groups (there's probably a fairly major difference between the lower end of "middle class" and the top which brings up their percentage) and the way percentages work really skews the scale, but it does paint a similar picture. This second one is the more interesting, I think, because it shows that income inequality is pretty similar across many countries - before taxes. Taxes seem to be the big equalizer in other countries, with France going from slightly worse than the US before taxes to roughly two times closer to "perfect equality," according to the metric they used, which puts it nearly on par with Sweden, who is miles ahead of every other country before taxes. This alone doesn't say anything about wealth inequality due to how the wealthy actually live and use their wealth, but it does paint a picture of how closing tax loopholes can work.

[–] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

You're mixing two different kinds of inequality here, The top graph is wealth (aka savings), while the bottom one is income. Wealth is the much harder one to crack, and Sweden actually has much higher wealth inequality than all of the other countries being compared.

It's worth noting that one of the main reasons that Sweden has relatively equal income before tax is because of the way the tax system works. Because social security contributions cap out at ~$70k/year, similar to the US, but there is no similar cut off for social security payroll taxes, employers generally pay their employees in dividends and private pensions instead of income, above that $70k level. Taxes are generally flat in Sweden, though.

- a swede

[–] tomi000@lemmy.world 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Pretty much the same. This kind of graph is basically useless because the axes are quasi-proportional to each other so it always looks similar.

[–] SuperSaiyanSwag@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 weeks ago

Also, France top 10% are at 60% and US top 10% are at 75%

[–] NegativeInf@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

So, who's gonna be Robespierre?

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 weeks ago

We don't need a Robespierre. No man can throw the One Ring into Mount Doom.

We need an organizing council that cannot take political power.

[–] manucode@infosec.pub 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] NegativeInf@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Isn't... Isn't he already dead?? Like 25 years ago?

[–] thurmite@lemm.ee 3 points 3 weeks ago

Depends on who you ask

[–] Smorty@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

So what is the hint we are dropping?

[–] BeanGoblin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 50 points 3 weeks ago

The French Revolution started in 1789.

[–] Senseless@feddit.org 20 points 3 weeks ago

The hint that we have way to few guillotines at hand.

[–] UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee 7 points 3 weeks ago

Naah he's 6 inches 4 cm.

[–] WldFyre@lemm.ee 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

What are China and Russia like, for comparison?

[–] koper@feddit.nl 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

>Open post criticizing the US

>Look inside

>Whataboutism

Every time

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 16 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

We can criticize both you know.

But a graph comparing authoritarian regimes would be nice as a reply to these dumb tankies shilling for dictators and imperialism.

[–] WldFyre@lemm.ee 4 points 3 weeks ago

It's a weak criticism without comparisons. As others in the comments pointed out, most countries around the world have similar numbers, and I don't think we're on the brink of a worldwide revolution lol

Plus it's not like France was some bastion of democracy after the French Revolution, we should really be trying to avoid past mistakes.

And since people who often post such hyper-fixated US-centric economic critiques usually argue in favor of China, I genuinely wanted to know how China's numbers look too. I'm certain Russia's numbers are fucking terrible but I wanted a laugh so I included them.

[–] N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 weeks ago
[–] simplejack@lemmy.world -4 points 3 weeks ago

I’ma need more than a sample size of 2.