\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA groundbreaking 2019 study\n by four economists, \u201cCapitalists in the Twenty-First Century,\u201d analyzed\n de-identified data of the complete universe of American taxpayers to \ndetermine who dominated the top 0.1 percent of earners.
The\n study didn\u2019t tell us about the small number of well-known tech and \nshopping billionaires but instead about the more than 140,000 Americans \nwho earn more than $1.58 million per year. The researchers found that \nthe typical rich American is, in their words, the owner of a \u201cregional \nbusiness,\u201d such as an \u201cauto dealer\u201d or a \u201cbeverage distributor.\u201d
This\n shocked me. Over the past four years, in the course of doing research \nfor a book about how insights buried in big data sets can help people \nmake decisions, I read thousands of academic studies. It is rare that I \nread a sentence that changes how I view the world. This was one of them.\n I hadn\u2019t thought of owning an auto dealership as a path to getting \nrich; I didn\u2019t even know what a beverage distribution company was.
Who is this guy who would write this???
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz received a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard in 2013. His work focuses on using big-data sources to uncover previously hidden behaviors and attitudes. He is at work on a book based on his research. He is a former quantitative analyst at Google.
So much for ivy league education, economics doctorate programs, big data, google, and I guess literacy
I didn\u2019t even know what a beverage distribution company was.Imagine admitting to this level of lack of\u2026 vocabulary? as a Harvard PhD in the national newspaper of record. Lmao.
when you get to that level, and even when you just aspire to get to it, publically admitting with your cock out that You Didn\u2019t Even Know What X Was is not a statement about a deficiency in yourself, but a deficiency in X. if X was worthy surely you would have heard about it by now?
If you paid attention and read the label on your fucking Coca-cola you\u2019d know, FFS! If you were even mildly awake and ever worked anywhere that sold soda? If you read the back of the Pepsi truck in the convenience store parking lot or in traffic?! If you ever drove through an industrial area and read the sign with a soda company logo you recognized?! Like, how fucking oblivious do you have to be to not know what a beverage distribution company is?!
I will freely admit I immediately assumed \u201cbeverage distribution company\u201c is what Americans call an alcohol shop. It\u2019s a really generic term!
What do you refer with the labels, do Coca-Cola bottles labels have like \u201cDenver Brewage Distributor Inc.\u201d on them?
we are all aware that this guy didn\u2019t literally not know what a beverage distribution company is, he\u2019s just
lying*cough* taking artistic freedoms *cough* for emphasis, right?
I\u2026 one of my father’s associates was a beer distributor. Local elite, of course he was. Under the 21st Amendment and post-Prohibition doctrine states have significant latitude in alcohol regulation and \u2013 like car dealerships! \u2013 they’ve significantly used that to empower a local elite with regional monopolies (which is why alcohol distributors are part of suburban growth machines, because more population = more sales and consumption, ultimately through you.
So I have a sense of that, and if you had hospitality industry management experience I could see where you’d get a sense of that, but honestly I’m baffled where you’d expect the average person \u2013 who is not even a significant drinker! \u2013 to even be aware of them from. The distributor name written on the door of the big Budweiser-branded beer truck unloading kegs at the bar at noon?
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