Economists agree: You’re not crazy for feeling like the rich get richer, and the poor are doing worse. Welcome to the ‘K-shaped economy’
https://fortune.com/2025/11/07/what-is-the-k-shaped-economy-wealth-inequality-explainer/Open linkView original on reddthat.com
16 replies
They're allergic to talking about wealth tax. The thing that will actually fix this.
As usual the solution is for individuals to make more money than others. Just keep perpetuating the problem.
Productivity has risen in spades since the 80s with no corresponding wage increase. There's zero reason to believe being yet more productive would change that.
This feels like the end result of any system that places money before people.
People place money before people. This isn't a system problem, it's a human problem.
It's a systemic problem created by people which produces people prone to encouraging the systemic problem. We're actively in the acceleration phase which results in a bloody reset. People are a product of their environment and the systems that bind them.
And the system was made by.....
You got this.
Are you saying human nature changes depending on the economic system? Are you aware of an economic system where people do not fuck one another over money?
And I'm not talking about communism in a tribe of a couple hundred. That's natural and efficient. I want to know how you propose to manage the economic activities of 10s of millions without people fucking each other over for money. Hell, dial it in to several thousand people.
they don't.
they have no answer other than vague hopes and beliefs that human nature is inherently good and that the 'right system' will prevent people from being people.
capitalism scales very well. collectivist action doesn't. it's best in small communities really. it doesn't do well beyond a few dozen people unless you start having really rigid social codes and structures...
Asked many times on here for an economic system that does not eventually funnel money to the top. Haven't got a single answer to this date. 🦗🦗🦗
I agree with your point about the difficulty of designing a good system for millions of humans to play well together.
I just have a small nitpick. People do not place money over other people, they place their own needs and wants over other people, money is just one tool for it.
Whichever ideal system we could design would need to take that into consideration. And sociopaths, which is a whole other thing.
I don't like calling it a "K-shaped" economy because it sounds like "ok-shaped economy" if you talk to people, and the economy is very much not OK.
I'd rather call it a "R-shaped economy", where "R" stands for republicans but also for ruin.
I can think of another R word the economy reminds me of.
K shaped economy they're trying to wedge into your ass, while you're asking why your back hurts.
Welcome to the Reagan economy...
Tourniquet shaped economy.
Wow these economists sure are a sharp bunch. /s
Fuck these clowns and all their theories that never ever incorporate human greed.