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There's a chart I saw recently

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that I can't get out of my head.

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A Harvard business professor and economist

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asked more than 5000 Americans

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how they thought wealth was distributed

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in the United States.

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This is what they said they thought it was.

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Dividing the country into 5 rough groups

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of the top, bottom, and middle three 20%,

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they asked people how they thought

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the wealth of this country was divided.

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Then he asked them what they thought

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was the ideal distribution, and 92%,

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that's at least 9 out of 10 of them,

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said it should be more like this

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in other words, more equitable than they think it is.

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That fact is telling, admittedly, the notion

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that most Americans know that the system

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is already skewed unfairly.

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What's most interesting to me is

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the reality compared to our perception.

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The ideal is as far removed from our perception

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of reality, as the actual distribution is from

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what we think exists in this country.

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So, ignore the ideal for a moment.

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Here's what we think it is again,

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and here is the actual distribution,

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shockingly skewed.

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Not only do the bottom 20% and the next 20%,

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the bottom 40% of Americans,

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barely have any of the wealth --

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it's hard to even see them on the chart --

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but the top 1% has more of the country's wealth

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than 9 out of 10 Americans believe

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the entire top 20% should have.

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Mindblowing.

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But let's look at it another way

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because I find this chart kind of difficult

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to wrap my head around.

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Instead, let's reduce the 311 million Americans

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just to a representative 100 people.

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It's simple. Here they are:

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Teachers, coaches, firefighters,

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construction workers, engineers, doctors,

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lawyers, some investment bankers,

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a CEO, and maybe a celebrity or two.

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Now, let's line them up according to their wealth,

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poorest people on the left, wealthiest on the right,

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a steady row of folks, based on their net worth.

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We'll color-code them like we did before,

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based on which 20% quintile they fall into.

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Now let's reduce the total wealth of the U.S.,

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which was roughly 54 trillion dollars in 2009

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to this symbolic pile of cash,

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and let's distribute it among our 100 Americans.

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Well, here's socialism, all the wealth of the nation

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being distributed equally -- we all know

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that won't work

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We need to encourage people to work,

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and work hard, to achieve that

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good old American dream

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and keep our country moving forward.

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