It already basically IS the next Versailles. Versailles was built as a huge, ostentatious show of wealth and power over the aristocracy, so Louis XIV could show that he held all the power. By making all these fancy nobles drag their asses out to the middle of nowhere (at the time - the city effectively grew up to support the palace) and stay there for weeks or months at a time, often without proper accommodations (quite literally you would set up camp in the gardens or wherever you thought you could get away with it - if you stayed in the palace proper, you were quite high in status), you flexed serious power over them, especially when they felt they NEEDED to attend all these balls and galas and symposiums and concerts that were constantly happening there so you could stay in the King’s favor.
From the 2021 Census, that’s estimated at about 10%, or 1/5 of that bottom 50%.
So that means the bottom 10% have negative net wealth, the next 40% have some positive number (zero is a postive number rofl), and all that amalgamates to just a bit over 2%.
… and uh, now the entire economy is crashing so hard that net wealth, overall, broadly, is falling.
(ignore the editorializing, just sourcing the data)
Oh right, and every now has to pay back their student loans, and food stamps are getting cut to the bone, and no more medicare, and massive cuts to Section 8.
So basically, that bottom 10%?
Homeless, dead, extremely literal debt slave of some kind, or imprisoned for crimes due to trying to not die while also having no money, something like that.
Its possible by the end of this year, end of next year, that 50% bottom overall wealth figure for the US could be around or under 1%… from the poor accumulating cost and debts, and the wealthy seeing their stock portfolios ‘melt up’, as the dollar falls against other currencies further than the ~10% its already fallen halfway through 2025.
Mar-a-lago is on track to become the next Versailles. When he hoards enough, the people will go in and reclaim it.
It already basically IS the next Versailles. Versailles was built as a huge, ostentatious show of wealth and power over the aristocracy, so Louis XIV could show that he held all the power. By making all these fancy nobles drag their asses out to the middle of nowhere (at the time - the city effectively grew up to support the palace) and stay there for weeks or months at a time, often without proper accommodations (quite literally you would set up camp in the gardens or wherever you thought you could get away with it - if you stayed in the palace proper, you were quite high in status), you flexed serious power over them, especially when they felt they NEEDED to attend all these balls and galas and symposiums and concerts that were constantly happening there so you could stay in the King’s favor.
Any of this sounding familiar?
https://www.cadtm.org/The-evolution-of-wealth-inequalities-over-the-last-two-centuries
http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/equality/pdf/F4.pdf
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualized-the-1s-share-of-u-s-wealth-over-time-1989-2024/
Wealth held by top 1%:
Pre-Revolutionary France; ~60%
Current Day USA; ~31%
Wealth held by bottom 50%:
Pre-Revolutionary France; ~3%
Current Day USA; ~2%
…
Now you may notice that modern day US doesn’t seem as bad as Versaille, the ratio isn’t as bad, right?
Well…
A lot of that bottom 50% has negative net wealth. They are ‘underwater’ on not their house, but their entire life.
https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2023/demo/p70br-183.pdf
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/thirteen-million-us-households-have-negative-net-worth-will-they-ever-move-from-debt-to-wealth/
From the 2021 Census, that’s estimated at about 10%, or 1/5 of that bottom 50%.
So that means the bottom 10% have negative net wealth, the next 40% have some positive number (zero is a postive number rofl), and all that amalgamates to just a bit over 2%.
… and uh, now the entire economy is crashing so hard that net wealth, overall, broadly, is falling.
(ignore the editorializing, just sourcing the data)
https://www.investopedia.com/us-household-wealth-fell-for-the-first-time-in-2-years-here-s-why-it-s-not-a-big-deal-11757054
Oh right, and every now has to pay back their student loans, and food stamps are getting cut to the bone, and no more medicare, and massive cuts to Section 8.
So basically, that bottom 10%?
Homeless, dead, extremely literal debt slave of some kind, or imprisoned for crimes due to trying to not die while also having no money, something like that.
Its possible by the end of this year, end of next year, that 50% bottom overall wealth figure for the US could be around or under 1%… from the poor accumulating cost and debts, and the wealthy seeing their stock portfolios ‘melt up’, as the dollar falls against other currencies further than the ~10% its already fallen halfway through 2025.
Then we have the Versaille ratio.