In my eyes it comes down to the possibilities of building up and maintaining some modest wealth. Most prominent examples are housing prices. With rising prices as we’ve seen in the past 2 decades, many people are forced to remain renters instead of being able to buy their own house or appartment. That’s wealth distribution upwards.
If you have some modest amount of money, say some 10k EUR, trying to invest that such that it doesn’t loose value is close to impossible. The whole finance industry seems to be set up to suck up any gains that these investments can get. As soon as you can juggle a few 100k EUR, a whole other range of investments opens up to you. That’s wealth distribution upwards.
In Germany (I don’t know about other countries) if you work to live and earn little, you’re taxed little, but you don’t earn enough to save anything anyways. If you earn more, you are taxed much more heavily than someone merely lives off a passive income. That’s wealth distribution upwards.
I wouldn’t be surprised, if this graph doesn’t concern itself with passive income anyways.
redballooon@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Rough image. And here in Western Europe I’m concerned about wealth distribution from bottom to top.
But maybe that’s different, because this chart says income distribution.
bouh@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I feel the same. I suspect the rich in Europe develop other ways to get their income to avoid taxes.
redballooon@lemm.ee 1 year ago
In my eyes it comes down to the possibilities of building up and maintaining some modest wealth. Most prominent examples are housing prices. With rising prices as we’ve seen in the past 2 decades, many people are forced to remain renters instead of being able to buy their own house or appartment. That’s wealth distribution upwards.
If you have some modest amount of money, say some 10k EUR, trying to invest that such that it doesn’t loose value is close to impossible. The whole finance industry seems to be set up to suck up any gains that these investments can get. As soon as you can juggle a few 100k EUR, a whole other range of investments opens up to you. That’s wealth distribution upwards.
In Germany (I don’t know about other countries) if you work to live and earn little, you’re taxed little, but you don’t earn enough to save anything anyways. If you earn more, you are taxed much more heavily than someone merely lives off a passive income. That’s wealth distribution upwards.
I wouldn’t be surprised, if this graph doesn’t concern itself with passive income anyways.