I’m not really sure why I watched this video – it was pretty obvious the direction it was slanting from the get-go, with the idea being to redistribute Halloween candy from kids with lots to kids who have less.
Surprise, surprise – kids didn’t like getting their candy given away to other kids, but the more I thought about it, I realized that there was a fundamental flaw because the vast disparity between the 99% and the 1% wasn’t really being framed properly.
This makes a big difference – the whole argument that started last year with Occupy Wall Street wasn’t simply, “Give me some of yours because you have more than me!” The idea, which was overlooked by most conservatives who apathetically denounced the protests, is actually focused on the super wealthy with the belief that the methods many of them use to amass their fortunes haven’t really been fair to the vast majority of citizens who can’t buy what they need in the political atmosphere to achieve similar results.
So let’s adjust our candy example to more accurately define our two groups here:
In 2010, the average household in America had a net worth of $57,000. In terms of trick-or-treating, let’s call that 1 pillow case full of candy.
Likewise, the top 1% of households had an average net worth of $16,439,000. Or 288 pillow cases full of candy.
With that in mind, maybe we present the question to the kids in the proper light – it’s not a matter of being forced to share with your neighbor because your bag is a little fuller than his, it’s forcing the kid who needs a dump truck to carry his candy home to share because WTF?! How in the world was he able to collect that much candy in just a single night?!?!?!
Something tells me that if you show the kids pillow case full of candy vs. dump truck full of candy, this little video would’ve turned out just a wee bit differently. 😕