Has this video been seen here? I searched and didn't find it as a topic, but in my (once in a while) befuddled state, I may have put it up!
Anyhow, it explains in simple terms wealth inequality in the United States. I looked at criticisms and didn't find any that made much sense to me. My brother says this is one clear explanation of why so many Americans, especially the young, are cynical and feel hopeless. They know the game is rigged and that they are not going to win.
I'm back in Hawaii now and here wealth inequality is much worse than the mainland, due to the history of plantations, land ownership and business. Very few own very much. Most of the large landholdings were created during the 19th century period of freewheeling exploitation. And it continues, out of the average person's control or influence. For instance, two of the Big Five (called such for at least a hundred years) just made a deal: Castle and Cook sold downtown Kailua (my hometown on O'ahu and part of C&C's billion $ land portfolio) to Alexander & Baldwin for $264 million. Oracle Corp CEO Larry Ellison paid $300 million last year to buy the island of Lanai from Castle & Cook CEO David Murdock. And A&B just bought for $100 mil properties from Japanese billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto, and so on...
Not too many places have our land ownership to population ratios. In a very small state, only six owners control more than 100,000 acres each, thirty nine own estates of at least five thousand acres, more than 90% of the islands other than O'ahu are owned by the big guys, and O'ahu isn't much better, with 2/3rds of land owned by a handful, and expensive properties of course are all owned by the elite. I used to see regular Hawaiian families on beach front houses - but as prices and taxes went up and up, here on the Big Island those are now vacation rentals, homes of multi millionaires or vacation homes for elite from around the world. I'm looking for the statistic, it's truly scary, something like 97% of the land here is owned by a tiny fraction of 1% of the population.
The social ramifications from wealth inequality have been and are obvious in Hawaii. Ethnic Hawaiians are the poorest and of course highest in drug addiction and prison populations. Many people are apathetic, though the top heavy economy has created enough pressure to have universal health care and a social welfare system more generous I believe than any other state. The book Land and Power in Hawaii gets into the whole history, and some on how the inequality has lead to the high levels of corruption, ineffectual government with layers of bureaucracy, shitty unions, poor schools (1/3rd of high school students are in private schools so there is little incentive amongst the ruling class to fund education), shitty libraries, inadequate infrastructure, and a host of other problems.
The reaction from the elite in Hawaii to create a social welfare state is similar to me to Bismarck in Germany introducing housing, pensions, accident insurance, medical care and unemployment insurance and so on. He took the threat from the left very seriously (and workers leaving for the US) and convinced the wealthy conservatives that this would keep them in power, and it did.
The implications for the future of the US will be interesting, if horrid.
Here's the vid:
Anyhow, it explains in simple terms wealth inequality in the United States. I looked at criticisms and didn't find any that made much sense to me. My brother says this is one clear explanation of why so many Americans, especially the young, are cynical and feel hopeless. They know the game is rigged and that they are not going to win.
I'm back in Hawaii now and here wealth inequality is much worse than the mainland, due to the history of plantations, land ownership and business. Very few own very much. Most of the large landholdings were created during the 19th century period of freewheeling exploitation. And it continues, out of the average person's control or influence. For instance, two of the Big Five (called such for at least a hundred years) just made a deal: Castle and Cook sold downtown Kailua (my hometown on O'ahu and part of C&C's billion $ land portfolio) to Alexander & Baldwin for $264 million. Oracle Corp CEO Larry Ellison paid $300 million last year to buy the island of Lanai from Castle & Cook CEO David Murdock. And A&B just bought for $100 mil properties from Japanese billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto, and so on...
Not too many places have our land ownership to population ratios. In a very small state, only six owners control more than 100,000 acres each, thirty nine own estates of at least five thousand acres, more than 90% of the islands other than O'ahu are owned by the big guys, and O'ahu isn't much better, with 2/3rds of land owned by a handful, and expensive properties of course are all owned by the elite. I used to see regular Hawaiian families on beach front houses - but as prices and taxes went up and up, here on the Big Island those are now vacation rentals, homes of multi millionaires or vacation homes for elite from around the world. I'm looking for the statistic, it's truly scary, something like 97% of the land here is owned by a tiny fraction of 1% of the population.
The social ramifications from wealth inequality have been and are obvious in Hawaii. Ethnic Hawaiians are the poorest and of course highest in drug addiction and prison populations. Many people are apathetic, though the top heavy economy has created enough pressure to have universal health care and a social welfare system more generous I believe than any other state. The book Land and Power in Hawaii gets into the whole history, and some on how the inequality has lead to the high levels of corruption, ineffectual government with layers of bureaucracy, shitty unions, poor schools (1/3rd of high school students are in private schools so there is little incentive amongst the ruling class to fund education), shitty libraries, inadequate infrastructure, and a host of other problems.
The reaction from the elite in Hawaii to create a social welfare state is similar to me to Bismarck in Germany introducing housing, pensions, accident insurance, medical care and unemployment insurance and so on. He took the threat from the left very seriously (and workers leaving for the US) and convinced the wealthy conservatives that this would keep them in power, and it did.
The implications for the future of the US will be interesting, if horrid.
Here's the vid:
is from 
Comment