This article seems to be an attack towards Donald Trump's campaign. The article includes a bunch of statistics that show how great the US economy is, meanwhile Trump claims that the US is a very poor country. There were some interesting facts that stood out to me. First, the US government has a negative net work of -$12.3 trillion, and this is largely due to the high national debt. Another interesting fact is that households, businesses and non-profit organizations combine for a net worth of $98 trillion, and America's net worth as a whole is $99 trillion, which includes that $19.3 trillion of national debt. Also, the US disposable income per household is higher than any country in the world. However, the article does explain that the distribution of wealth is very uneven in the US. Overall, this article brings up some very interesting facts. However, it is very biased against Donald Trump, which can cause some of these number to be misleading.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/america-is-rich-extremely-wealthy-not-poor-201627319.html
The full article expressed a slight mentality against the Trump campaign but primarily seemed to defend the overall strength of the US economy to naysayers. The most important takeaway that seemed to imply that while the article had several points against Trump it was still a reflection that focused more on the economy, was what was printed in italics at the bottom. This final paragraph mentioned non financial corporate businesses that seemed to have a small total number, however this was due to the fact that they are accounted for in financial assets. Additionally, in the financial corporate business section, the negative net worth could be accounted for by the offsetting that loans and securities do to their assets.
ReplyDeleteThe distribution of wealth is obviously very clear and prevalent in the U.S today, which highly contributes to this wealth. It is concerning to know that such a small percentage of America owns such a large portion of income. Trump has been very extreme and often outlandish in his statements, promises, etc. However, it is very interesting to see that even with our extremely high debt, we are still worth $99 trillion, which obviously negates Trump's sayings, if the article is using real statistics without bias.
ReplyDeleteI think the uneven distribution of wealth is crazy. So many people are in poverty in the U.S. while a few are swimming in solid gold. Many people such as Bill Gates have donated a small fortune of their earnings to many places, which I applaud them for. For the others that have not donated a good amount of money, shame on them. This country made them wealthy why not give back? Also, I wonder if the disposable income per household is thrown off by the small percentage of people who make a huge amount of money, because that would really raise the average.
ReplyDeleteI find this article very interesting, however, i don't feel the need or point in brining Trump into the argument. To start the article off by stating an argument with Trump supporters is irrelevant to the fact that there are income problems in America. This political season, proved by this article, has gotten out of hand. Presidential candidates and the media need to stop creating entertainment and start sharing the important facts of the current status of our country.
ReplyDeleteClearly, when Donald Trump says that our country is "very poor", he must be referring to the U.S. Government itself, which would make sense from his stand point. The US. government and our high national debt is the entity holding back America's net worth. Seeing the $99 trillion net worth of America as a whole, with the included national debt, is very refreshing. It makes me feel a little bit more comfortable with our country's economic standing during this nerve wrecking presidential election. What makes it hard for some people to realize that our country is in decent shape financially is the fact that our country's wealth is very spread out and widely distributed. This article is indeed, extremely biased toward Trump's radical allegations.
ReplyDeleteAs several people have mentioned, the uneven distribution of wealth in America is a major issue to continue to watch. The disappearing middle class has been a large concern for several years, as it was badly hurt during the 2008 recession. As we have seen in the past, trickle down economics has not been successful, so I really think we should be focusing more on actually targeting the lower-income citizens which are really struggling.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree with all the the above comments. It would be interesting to see data that gives a more accurate picture of how the wealth is distributed and how poorly individuals in the lower class are living. Maybe remove some of the top earning individuals with who are extremely wealthy, and see what the average income is among the us population. This may be much more accurate regarding what peoples living standards are. I am okay with any article that attacks Donald Trumps campaign, if they didn't I'd be concerned about objectivity of reality.
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