What is "socialism"? - An attempt to clear up myths/misconceptions

[Locknuts]

Leadified said:

Locknuts said:

Have you heard of the Pareto Principle? Peterson explains it better than I could, but essentially in all areas of human productivity the square root of the total number of people produce approximately 50% of whatever it is they are producing. It's true in all areas of human productivity. This is why I doubt your claim that a smaller group of people are getting more of the wealth. The percentage will most likely remain the same.

Also, remember that the 'top 1%' or whatever figure you want to throw out there is an ever changing group of people. There is serious income mobility in the USA. It's only in dictatorships (which are mostly Communist or Socialist at the moment) where the people at the very top are disgustingly wealthy and the people at the bottom are starving.

1. You need to support your counter argument with evidence not mere principles. This site contains some handy graphs, don't think it has a wealth graph so I have provided one separately. 

2. According the 2014 Gini Index, Vietnam and Laos (both self proclaimed socialist states) are more equal than the US which has the same inequality level as China. In fact the worst performing countries are capitalist.

1. Ok, I have read your data and some other stuff and I now agree that the rich appear to be getting richer in the USA. I don't think wealth inequality is necessarily a bad thing though. It depends on the reasons for it. Poverty is however a problem in the USA but it appears to be decreasing: https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-current-poverty-rate-united-states -  please note - this data is from 2015.

2. http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Cost-of-living/Average-monthly-disposable-salary/After-tax - Laos and Vietnam are abominably poor. Are you trying to make an argument against socialism? The 'worst performing' countries? In terms of equality? Who cares about equality if everyone's in poverty?