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I've been thinking a lot about the #SavingsGlutOfTheRich on a personal level, really for the last 10 years (since I became rich), but especially given the new work by @profsufi + @AtifRMian + @ludwigstraub.
I grew up very middle class, like 50k/year middle class.
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I grew up very middle class, like 50k/year middle class.
\\begin{thread} https://twitter.com/profsufi/status/1280165094761156609
Right now I make several-X more than my dad, a math professor in Arkansas whose real salary may have even gone down since I was a kid.
Aside: for those who need to hear this, tenure has already largely disappeared at universities like my dad's, replaced by low-paid adjuncts.
Aside: for those who need to hear this, tenure has already largely disappeared at universities like my dad's, replaced by low-paid adjuncts.
I have some frugality cred. It's a point of pride that my husband and I lived for six years on my grad student stipend in Boston, and we actually lowered our spending once I became a wealthy professor in St Louis. But in the meantime, my bank account swelled.
As a finance professor, it's embarrassing to hold so much savings in cash. But then I realized that a lot of the sharpest corporations in the world also hold billions in low-yield assets, so that assuaged my feelings of irrationality (a little).
As a human being, it's embarrassing to hold so much wealth when so many in my own country and around the world have been suffering needlessly this whole time and failing to share in the manna of capitalism.
I've tried to give it away. So has this guy 6/XX. 
https://twitter.com/jialanw/status/1260744619228377088
https://twitter.com/jialanw/status/1260744619228377088
Me + Bill Gates are both still insanely rich. I've fallen behind on giving (and have done a lot more spending) since having kids. But in the COVID crisis I've tried to give with renewed energy.
But charitable giving is just not the answer. Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas ( @AnandWrites) is a good on why. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37506348-winners-take-all
The new research on the #SavingsGlutOfTheRich tells us that my huge bank account has not only failed to do good, but has been actively indebting the poor. This is shameful, and we need to do something about it.
I wrote this FB post March about how all of America's failures during the COVID-19 crisis have been a long time coming, and that every social class has contributed to them. I feel even more strongly about that now. So, what can we do?
Turning this ship around will be a massive, difficult undertaking. I don't think that the odds are in our favor to succeed. But we have to try.
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Phew - this thread is longer than I thought it would be!
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Phew - this thread is longer than I thought it would be!
