Hacker News with Generative AI: Inequality

Waiting 100 years for a home isn't a housing crisis, it's a moral collapse (architectsjournal.co.uk)
Waiting lists for socially rented family homes in places like London are indefensible. We all need to work to fix this, argues Kunle Barker
Housing Crisis, Social Housing, London, Inequality
88 points by microflash 8 days ago | 196 comments
Americans die earlier at all wealth levels, even if wealth buys more years (theconversation.com)
Americans at all wealth levels are more likely to die sooner than their European counterparts, with even the richest U.S. citizens living shorter lives than northern and western Europeans. That is the key finding of our new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Health, Inequality, United States, Europe, Life Expectancy
39 points by rntn 16 days ago | 14 comments
Why does Britain feel so poor? (martinrobbins.substack.com)
Britain is a rich country with the world’s 6th largest economy and the highest tax income for decades, which raises a simple question - why do we seem so broke?
Economy, Britain, Politics, Inequality
186 points by prawn 22 days ago | 389 comments
America Has Never Been Wealthier. Here's Why It Doesn't Feel That Way (nytimes.com)
America is more prosperous than ever.
Economy, Wealth, Inequality, Perception, United States
11 points by littlexsparkee 25 days ago | 3 comments
Decent living standards for 8.5B would require 30% of current resource use (sciencedirect.com)
Some narratives in international development hold that ending poverty and achieving good lives for all will require every country to reach the levels of GDP per capita that currently characterise high-income countries.
Sustainable Development, Resource Management, Economics, Inequality
51 points by isomorph 32 days ago | 26 comments
How the Education Department cuts could hurt low-income and rural schools (npr.org)
President Trump's efforts to shutter the U.S. Department of Education are in full swing.
Education, Politics, Inequality, Rural Communities
7 points by donsupreme 36 days ago | 0 comments
Gary Stevenson on taxing the rich and why you're getting poorer [video] (youtube.com)
Politics, Economics, Inequality
5 points by gizzlon 45 days ago | 3 comments
The top 10% owns 87% of the stocks (awealthofcommonsense.com)
The top 10% owns 87% of the stocks in this country.
Wealth Distribution, Economics, Inequality, Finance
354 points by jasdi 54 days ago | 585 comments
The housing theory of everything (2021) (worksinprogress.co)
Western housing shortages do not just prevent many from ever affording their own home. They also drive inequality, climate change, low productivity growth, obesity, and even falling fertility rates.
Housing, Economics, Inequality, Climate Change
301 points by lifeisstillgood 56 days ago | 342 comments
Inheriting is becoming nearly as important as working (economist.com)
Work hard, children are told, and you will succeed. In recent decades this advice served the talented and the diligent well. Many have made their own fortunes and live comfortably, regardless of how much money they inherited. Now, however, the importance of hereditary wealth is rising around the rich world, and that is a problem.
Economics, Inequality, Wealth, Family, Social Mobility
678 points by pseudolus 56 days ago | 904 comments
50 years of tax cuts for the rich failed to trickle down, economics study says (cbsnews.com)
Tax cuts for the wealthy have long drawn support from conservative lawmakers and economists who argue that such measures will "trickle down" and eventually boost jobs and incomes for everyone else. But a new study from the London School of Economics says 50 years of such tax cuts have only helped one group — the rich.
Economics, Politics, Inequality
104 points by paulpauper 61 days ago | 19 comments
From Germany, a bold political push for a billionaire-free future (inequality.org)
From Germany, a bold political push for a billionaire-free future.
Politics, Germany, Inequality, Wealth Distribution
11 points by geox 62 days ago | 10 comments
A World Without Elon Musks. From Germany, a push for a billionaire-free future (inequality.org)
From Germany, a bold political push for a billionaire-free future.
Politics, Inequality, Germany, Billionaires
10 points by Traces 64 days ago | 0 comments
The 3-ladder system of social class in the U.S. (archive.org)
Typical depictions of social class in the United States posit a linear, ordered hierarchy. I’ve actually come to the conclusion that there are 3 distinct ladders, with approximately four social classes on each. Additionally, there is an underclass of people not connected to any of the ladders, creating an unlucky 13th social class. I’ll attempt to explain how this three-ladder system works, what it means, and also why it is a source of conflict.
Social Class, Sociology, United States, Hierarchy, Inequality
6 points by oidar 79 days ago | 1 comments
In Farewell Address, Biden Warns of an 'Oligarchy' Taking Shape in America (nytimes.com)
President Biden on Wednesday warned that an “oligarchy” of the ultrawealthy was emerging in America, sounding the alarm about unchecked power as he gave a farewell speech to the nation just days before he surrenders office to a man he disdains.
Politics, United States, Inequality, Wealth
9 points by whack 99 days ago | 0 comments
Bank of Mum and Dad: why we all now live in an 'inheritocracy' (2024) (theguardian.com)
Family wealth dictates our life choices. So is the Bank of Mum and Dad now behind so many of society’s growing inequalities?
Economics, Inequality, Family, Social Issues, Inheritance
26 points by herbertl 102 days ago | 28 comments
The cod-Marxism of personalized pricing (pluralistic.net)
The social function of the economics profession is to explain, over and over again, that your boss is actually right and that you don't really want the things you want, and you're secretly happy to be abused by the system. If that wasn't true, why would your "choose" commercial surveillance, abusive workplaces and other depredations?
Economics, Social Commentary, Capitalism, Inequality
11 points by lapcat 104 days ago | 2 comments
It's Still Easier to Imagine the End of the World Than the End of Capitalism (astralcodexten.com)
No Set Gauge has a great essay on Capital, AGI, and Human Ambition, where he argues that if humankind survives the Singularity, the likely result is a future of eternal stagnant wealth inequality.
Capitalism, Artificial Intelligence, Economics, Future, Inequality
6 points by toomuchtodo 114 days ago | 1 comments
McKinsey, technocratic management, and structural inequality (theatlantic.com)
Technocratic management, no matter how brilliant, cannot unwind structural inequalities.
Management, Inequality, Business, Social Issues
40 points by lifeisstillgood 118 days ago | 13 comments
Remote Work Is Increasingly a Right of the Rich (nytimes.com)
When it comes to remote work, the C-suite wants workers to do as they say, not as they do.
Remote Work, Inequality, Work-Life Balance, Corporate Culture
5 points by mooreds 126 days ago | 0 comments
How the 1980s Engineered the Collapse of the Working Class (thewalrus.ca)
Forty years later, policies to prop up the super rich are still going strong
Economics, History, Inequality
13 points by xyst 128 days ago | 2 comments
The science behind winning a Nobel Prize? Being a man from a wealthy family (theguardian.com)
A lot of talent is wasted in a world where more than half of laureates come from households in the richest 5%
Nobel Prize, Inequality, Science, Gender Bias, Wealth
7 points by xqcgrek2 139 days ago | 3 comments
How the 1980s Engineered the Collapse of the Working Class (thewalrus.ca)
Forty years later, policies to prop up the super rich are still going strong
Economics, History, Social Issues, Inequality
16 points by pseudolus 150 days ago | 3 comments
How the Ivy League Broke America (theatlantic.com)
The meritocracy isn’t working. We need something new.
Higher Education, Social Issues, Inequality, Meritocracy
25 points by chrisaycock 163 days ago | 16 comments
The data hinted at racism among white doctors. Then scholars looked again (economist.com)
BLACK BABIES in America are more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday than white babies. This shocking statistic has barely changed for many decades, and even after controlling for socioeconomic differences a wide mortality gap persists. Yet in 2020 researchers discovered a factor that appeared to reduce substantially a black baby’s risks.
Healthcare, Race, Inequality, Statistics
15 points by like_any_other 165 days ago | 2 comments
The silly rule that keeps housing costs high (nytimes.com)
In too many American cities, numerous downtown office buildings sit barely used, their absence of workers gutting nearby businesses. Meanwhile, hundreds of residents, too poor to afford shelter, sleep on the streets. Addressing these problems is within our grasp.
Housing, Urban Planning, Economics, Inequality
3 points by dr_dshiv 170 days ago | 0 comments
Billionaires are 'ultimate beneficiaries' linked to €3B of EU farming subsidies (theguardian.com)
The European Union gave generous farming subsidies to the companies of more than a dozen billionaires between 2018 and 2021, the Guardian can reveal, including companies owned by the former Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš and the British businessman Sir James Dyson.
Agriculture, Business, Politics, Inequality
13 points by rntn 173 days ago | 1 comments
Scurvy in the Age of Billionaires (jacobin.com)
Once banished to history books, scurvy is making a comeback in wealthy countries thanks to soaring economic inequality.
Health, Inequality, Social Commentary
4 points by Pfhortune 190 days ago | 0 comments
My Country Is Cruel to Anyone Outside of a Car (oliverobscure.xyz)
My country is cruel to anyone outside of a car.
Social Commentary, Transportation, Inequality
13 points by oliverobscure 191 days ago | 0 comments
Off grid is a win for some, but a threat for poorer families and the environment (theconversation.com)
How would you like to never have another electric bill? Advances in technology have made it possible for some consumers to disconnect from the power grid — a move that was once only available to the ultra-wealthy who could afford the associated costs, or survivalists willing to trade convenience for freedom. This is no longer the case.
Energy, Sustainability, Inequality, Environment
9 points by gnabgib 195 days ago | 0 comments