From: yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu (victor yodaiken)
Newsgroups: sci.econ
Subject: Re: Libertarians, slaves and company towns
Date: 17 Apr 92 15:09:58 GMT
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst

In article <JACKSON.92Apr17090917@kaos.stsci.edu> jackson@kaos.stsci.edu (Bob Jackson) writes:
>And Victor said:
>
>In my naive opinion, the current distribution of wealth in the US, as in other
>nations, is in no way the result of voluntary contracts, but is largely the
>result of violence and deceit.
>
>And I wondered:
>
>What is the current distribution of wealth?
>I would like to see some numbers which factor in:
>	Pension fund assets being owned by the current and future pensioners
>	Corporation, mutual funds, etc., assets being owned by the shareholders
>	Bank assets being owned by the stockholders and depositors

Well, you could look it up, but fortunately someone else already has.
  |
  |
  |dabbott@augean.eleceng.adelaide.edu.AU (Derek Abbott) writes:
  |
  |I don't know but here's the only data I've been able to find:
  |APPENDIX I
  | 
  |U.S. WEALTH DISTRIBUTION BY PERCENTILE AND ASSET TYPE, 1983
  | 
  |Source US Congress Joint Economic Committee "The Concentration 
  |of Wealth in the United States Trends in the Distribution of 
  |Wealth among American Families" Washington Joint Economic 
  |Committee 1983 p. 24.  Some figures are provided to us by the 
  |Federal Reserve Board  following publication of the Joint 
  |Economic Committee Report.
  | 
  |                        Total           Top     Top     Top
  |Type of asset           Amount(1)       .5%     1%      10%
  |Trusts                     495.7        77.0    81.6    95.1
  |Corporate stock(2)       1,005.0        45.6    58.4    89.8
  |Bonds                      328.1        41.3    49.6    88.0
  |Business assets          2,274.6        39.0    51.6    90.9
  |Money market accounts      285.0        15.9    22.5    58.8
  |Real estate              5,355.0        14.9    19.3    49.2
  |Land contracts             111.0        13.9    15.2    50.4
  |IRAs and Keoghs            142.2        13.0    21.1    67.3
  |Checking accounts          115.9         9.7    17.2    46.3
  |Insurance cash value       259.0         6.7    10.5    34.9
  |Certificates of deposite   383.1         4.8    10.7    49.9
  |Savings accounts           189.5         2.1     5.2    31.1
  |Automobiles                359.5         1.6     3.0    20.1
  |Miscellaneous              201.1        15.2    22.1    70.2
  |Gross assets            11,486.4        24.6    31.6    63.5
  |Net worth               10,038.9        28.7    34.3    67.92   
  | 
  |(1) In billions of dollars
  |(2) Including stock owned directly or thorough mutual funds but 
  |excluding holdings of pensions and trusts
  | 
  |In 1985, the accuracy of the above table was challenged by the 
  |Federal Reserve Board whose estimates indicated a more even 
  |distribution of wealth.  In 1991, independent studies based on 
  |the 1990 census indicated that the Federal Reserve Board's methods 
  |were inaccurate and significantly underestimated the skew in wealth 
  |distribution by percentile.  At present, the Federal Reserve is the 
  |dominant source of data on wealth distribution in the U.S. with 
  |only 2 comprehensive independent studies having been  conducted in 
  |the last 20 years, both indicating wealth is more concentrated than 
  |typically indicated by the Federal Reserve.  This checkered history 
  |indicates a serious gap in the credibility of wealth distribution 
  |estimates.
  | 

>What fraction of the wealth was acquired by violence and deceit?

Being generous, let's say that only 50% of the real-estate and 50% of the
mineral wealth was out and out stolen from the previous inhabitants (gross
underestimate).
Factor in the wealth from slavery and slave trading, the wealth that the oil
companies got when out tax dollars were used to put the Shah in power,
protect Exxon's tankers, and keep the Saudi's on their thrones. Toss in
the padding of the "defense" contracts over the last 30 years. Maybe even
a couple of billion for such well known corporate scams as the one in which
RCA used it's economic and political clout to demolish Armstrongs FM radio.
And, then there's pollution profits. Don't know about you, but I think that
Hooker Chemical, Union Carbide, and oh so many others, got away with the
loot, after leaving others to pay their costs.

How much does it add up to? More than loose change, that's for sure.

>	What is the criteria for determining that an economic transaction 
>	is non-violent and non-deceitful?

Sometimes the criteria is a simple dictionary criteria. For example, the
US government still has a treaty with the Lakota giving them title to the
Blakc Hills of South Dakota. The US, and some of its citizens have 
violently and deceitfully taken the hills from the rightful owners. 
For an example of straighforward deceit, how about Dow-Corning which
neglected to inform women purchasing their implants of research indicating
that the implants spilled chemicals into body tissue every now and again.
In my humble opinion, every penny Dow-Corning or its executives earned
from the sale of those implants, plus a big punitive fine should be
returned to the folks who were defrauded. Unfortunately, Dow-Corning has
the ability to spend millions of tax deductable dollars to keep this from
ever happening. Want more examples? 




-- 


yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu
Newsgroups: sci.econ