Wealth Gap: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Our main story

tonight

is income inequality. A good way to determine which side you're on is whether you're currently paying for HBO or stealing it. He lost

last

December. Some of you laughed too hard at what the president said

last

December. made it clear that income inequality was going to be a top priority. The combined trends of increasing inequality and decreasing mobility posed a fundamental threat to the American dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around the world. I think this is the defining challenge of our time, yes the defining challenge of our time, well one of the two defining challenges of our time, the other being Candy Crush level 97 which is hard.

I have a pallet hammer and I still can't, but the point is the president said. The word inequality 26 times in that speech, which everyone interpreted to mean one thing, income inequality will be the top issue in 2016. Members of the Senate Democratic leadership team, which includes Harry Reid onwards, are clear, literally, They pursued this income inequality. issued for the Democrats is an all-out assault on the issue of income inequality, an all-out assault, you better watch out on income inequality because you're about to improve violently or you would have if they hadn't backed down almost immediately. A new article says President Obama appears to be changing strategy to address income inequality.

The Washington Post reveals that Democrats are divided on the issue, prompting President Obama to steer the conversation away from the topic, so basically income inequality has become another topic of conversation we prefer to avoid. in America, like the Japanese internment camps, all that time we gave Roberto Benigni an Academy Award, you know, national tragedies are just as wrong, oh, there's a key reason why no politician wants to talk about This is because every time someone tries this happens. says Obama participated in class war last war class war the politics of class war trying to push a class war argument use that hashtag class war okay, okay, it all sounds silly, but the phrase war class is so toxic that the president had to stop talking about What he describes as a fundamental threat to the American dream and this was so predictable that three years ago he gathered a group of historians and told them that what you could do for me is to help find a way to discuss the issue of inequality in our country. society without being accused of class warfare to which they presumably said yes, we can't really help you with that, although we can tell you what Warren G.

Harding called his penis, not what you're thinking, but simply because politicians can't talk. about income inequality doesn't mean we shouldn't do it and before we do let me tell you that no one is advocating for perfect and complete equality, we are not going to live in a world where we pretend that all the Baldwins are equally talented, there is Billy and there are all . Otherwise, that's a fact, inequality is a bit like cinnamon, you definitely want to have a little bit of it to give life a little spice, but too much can be very dangerous and make no mistake, we are at dangerous levels cinnamon right now, the

wealth

gap is getting worse, a new analysis shows that the richest Americans, the top 1%, earned nearly 20% of all disposable income in the United States last year, that's the

wealth

gap widest income since the roaring 20s, well, nothing sinister, then the roaring 20s were famous for the party that never ended. that's what made 30 so great, just plus 20, and the thing is, income inequality affects everyone, it can actually hinder overall growth, and to be clear, income inequality is not at all Just an American problem, globalization and technology mean the gap is widening for everyone. in the developed world it is simply rising faster here, in fact in the United States the income ratio between our richest and poorest 10% is now 16 to 1, at this point the rich would simply be raising the score if our economy was a minor league game.

I would have called it already, but what sets the United States apart is that in this time we have actively introduced policies that disproportionately benefit the rich, such as halving income and capital gains tax rates for the richest, as well as like our weird tax refund for orgies. with stylish Eyes Wide Shut masks, the password is Fidelio, you would think that in a democracy policies that benefit very few people at the expense of many couldn't succeed, but they have and I think the reason for that may lie in somewhere. America's highest quality optimism is basically based on how susceptible Americans are to this.

We have never been a nation of rich and poor. We are a nation of the rich and soon we will have people who have made it and people who will make it. If I. I mean, no, no, wait, that sounds great, the problem is that it doesn't make economic, mathematical, or even grammatical sense, and yet we believe you, we believe you, and there's a survey that I think explains why. What a few months ago an investigation in the banks revealed that 65% of Americans believe the wealth gap is increasing and 60% believe that our system unfairly favors the rich, but and here is the key, 60 percent also believe that most people who work hard enough can achieve it or in other words, yes, I can clearly see that this game is rigged, which is what I'm going to do that will be so sweet when I win this.

The good thing is that this optimism is one of the things I love most about this country. I love that you line up around the block to watch TV talent shows for talents you objectively don't have and Everybody Feels Bad When a Person Who Is Unavoidably and Revealingly British Does This to You. It sounded like two three-year-olds with the flu trying to sing. I didn't find it funny and I like to laugh. And that wasn't fun. I don't know what that style was. It started out as food poisoning hands down, the worst date I've probably ever seen in my life.

Maybe you want to be smart and start acting arrogant. Your mashed potatoes are behind. Wow Wow, a Brit. The person who just told you that your mashed potatoes were tasteless, that has to hurt. The reason a Brit has to do that is because we grew up in a rigid class system where all hope has been taken away from us and your optimism is overwhelmingly positive, except when it leads you to act against your best interests look at federal tax The estate tax, which is the tax paid on inherited wealth, helps limit the terrible possibility that the landed gentry permanently ruin the fortunes of a Canadian railway company.

Young King Laura, how could you do that? Lord Grantham, the family was counting on you, how could you, and yet the estate tax here is routinely on the verge of being abolished? Politicians call it a death tax and get applause for saying things like this, my opinion is that we should eliminate the inheritance tax you paid for that farm, a student should have to pay it again, except it is almost impossible for a farmer to ever You may have to make the federal estate tax not do it. applies to ninety-nine point four percent of all agricultural property, it also does not apply to ninety-nine point eight and six percent of anyone's property, basically, if you don't feel comfortable calling your accumulation and wealth, the estate tax probably won't appoint him, and yet I think a man worth a quarter of a billion dollars gets applauded for saying, "let's get rid of that under current federal law, since you don't have to pay taxes on the first 5.3 million you leave them, which means you and your wife can leave." your son, over 10 million dollars tax free and relax, that's more than enough to turn Chelsea into the biggest big company in the world, see, no 16 year old has a birthday party in the destination, the tax on properties over five million dollars does not apply to almost anyone. but one of the reasons it is constantly threatened is that people assume it will one day apply to them.

I don't have a five million dollar estate that I would like to have someday, but if I work my whole life and pay taxes on my income and then I die and I want to pass on to my children what would be great if it was a five million dollar estate of dollars. Why should I pay the government again? But you won't pay for it. You will leave. In fact, this is the practical solution. embodiment of everything you want, this is the government literally taking your money over your dead body and also unbelievable, let's be clear, let's be clear, the existence of a wealth tax has not stopped Americans from passing on a burden of wealth of billionaires on Forbes 471. inherited their fortune and 56 others inherited at least some of it, which is almost a third of the list, and our habit of passing money from generation to generation perpetuates another disparity, which perhaps explains why the Forbes 400 only 0.25 percent are African American and to answer your question yes, it's Oprah Oprah is the person you're going to run into with a guess.

I guess America now has a system where wealth is essentially distributed like a lottery of birth and maybe the reason we seem to accept that is that even though we know the odds. They are against us We all think we are going to win the lottery The experts even appear on TV advising us how to handle our future winnings I think the first thing we should do is create a plan, set up a test, probably hire a couple of security guards , TRUE? Take a lump sum payment or a 29 year annuity payment over time. I would take the lump sum cash payment because it allows you to do a lot of things that you might want to do in your life if you make that kind of money. you still have young children, be sure to put it in a trust, oh absolutely, because it's never too early to start protecting your imaginary lottery winnings from devastating estate taxes.

You could also do an eight-minute segment on how to handle a shark attack while scoring the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl or things to say on your third date with Beyoncé and what look how that would be cool that would be cool oh, technically there's a possibility , there's a chance and watch how depressed we get for useful practical advice Would you tell people to maybe take the five dollars you're going to spend on the jackpot and put it somewhere else? If you can invest that money twenty thirty years from now, that will be much better, there will be a much better chance of having insurance. retiring than waiting on the lottery is not as fantastic although no it is not much more practical please don't ruin this financial segment with practical advice we are dream weavers here at news team twelve take that about news team five look look , the point is that if American wealth is a lottery, we are increasingly playing two different games.

In fact, I'm going to show you who wants to play American ball, as always, we have two draws first in the draw for people with inherited wealth that everyone should have. a ticket at home with a number between 1 and 3, so let's pick 2 balls, let's pick two balls, turn it on here we go 3 the first number is 3, let's pick another ball 1 congratulations to almost everyone at home ok, now now the lottery for those who were born poor, ok tank, hello to everyone watching at home or through a Best Buy window, everyone should have a card with a number between one and three and a half million and you probably notice that a disproportionate percentage of these balls are black and brown.

Ignore that it is not illustrative of anything. I can't emphasize this enough. Now it's okay, tank, yeah, that's right, yeah. Now, as you can see, for the third

week

in a row, this machine is still broken, so I can't. Currently, I get a ball out of there for you, but let's all agree that technically everyone had a hypothetical chance to win, so this is depressing, hey, remember how much fun we were having there, just one more heist if you get in. I think this is the only way to remember when it comes to the lottery of wealth.

The United States is a nation of winners and soon of winners.