- The piece discusses income inequality and how it has become a topic that politicians avoid discussing
- Income inequality is shown to be a growing problem in the United States and globally
- The piece highlights how policies have disproportionately benefited the wealthy and the belief in the American dream that anyone can succeed with hard work
- The federal estate tax is brought up as an example of a policy that is constantly threatened despite only affecting a small percentage of the population
- The existence of the estate tax has not prevented the passing on of wealth to future generations.

- Approximately one third of billionaires on the Forbes 400 list inherited their wealth
- This perpetuates a disparity, with only 0.25% of the Forbes 400 being African-American
- The current system of wealth distribution is like a lottery of birth
- Practical advice on financial matters is often dismissed or ignored in favor of dreaming about winning the lottery
- American wealth is becoming increasingly divided into two different games
- The video demonstrates this division through a lottery game, highlighting the difference between those with inherited wealth and those born poor
- The video emphasizes the depressing reality of the situation and the need to acknowledge it.

John Oliver discusses America's growing wealth gap and why it may be a problem in the future.

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-♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ Our main story tonight is income inequality.

A good way to figure out which side of it you're on is whether you're currently paying for HBO or stealing it.

Last December, some of you laughed a little too hard at that.

LAUGHTER Last December, the president made it clear that income inequality was going to be a big priority.

The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around

I believe this is the defining challenge of our time.

Well, 1 of the 2 defining challenges of our time, the other being Candy Crush Level 97.

I've got a lollipop hammer, and I still can't.

The point is that the president said the word inequality 26 times in that speech, which everyone took to mean 1 thing.

Income inequality is going to be the thrust, 1 of the major themes in 2016.

Members of the Senate Democratic leadership team, that's Harry Reid on Dan, are clearly going after this income inequality issue.

For Democrats, it's an all-out assault on

You better watch your ass, income inequality, because you're about to get violently ameliorated.

Or you would have been, if they hadn't almost immediately backed down.

A new article says President Obama appears to be shifting strategy on tackling income inequality.

The Washington Post reveals Democrats are split on the issue, leading President Obama to shift talk away from the subject.

So basically, income inequality has become just another topic of conversation we prefer to avoid in America, like Japanese internment camps or that time that we gave Roberto Benigni an Academy Award.

You know, national tragedies, equally wrong.

There is a key reason why no politician wants to talk about it, and that's because every time someone tries to, this happens.

Is President Obama engaged in class warfare?

Trying to drive a class warfare argument.

That all sounds silly, but the phrase class

warfare is so toxic, the president actually had to stop talking about the thing he describes as a fundamental threat to the American dream.

And this was so predictable, that 3 years ago, he actually gathered a group of historians and told them, what you could do for me, is to help find a way to discuss the issue of inequality in our society without being accused of class warfare.

To which they presumably said, yeah, we can't really help you with that, although we can tell you what Warren G.

But just because politicians can't talk about income inequality doesn't mean we shouldn't.

And before we do, let me just say, no 1 is arguing for complete, perfect equality.

We are not going to live in a world where we pretend that all Baldwin's are equally talented.

I mean, look, there's Billy and there's everyone else.

You definitely want to have a little of it to spice life up a bit, but too Much of it can be very dangerous.

♪ And make no mistake, we are at cinnamon dangerous levels right now.

A new analysis shows the richest Americans, the top 1%, made nearly 20% of all the available income in America last year.

That's the widest income gap since the Roaring Twenties.

The roaring 20s were famously the party that never ended.

And the thing is, income inequality affects everyone.

And just to be clear, income inequality is by no means just an American problem.

Globalization and technology means that the gap is rising all over the developed world.

In fact, in the United States, the income ratio between our richest and poorest 10 percent is now 16 to 1.

At this point, the rich are just running up the score.

If our economy was a Little League game, someone would have called it by now.

But what sets America apart is that in this time, we have actively introduced policies disproportionately benefiting the wealthy, like cutting income tax and capital gains tax rates for the richest in half, as well as that weird tax rebate for orgies with fancy eyes-wide-shut masks.

-♪ Fidelio ♪ -♪ Fidelio ♪ You would think...

You would think in a democracy, policies that benefit very few people at the expense of very many would not be able to succeed, but they have.

And I think the reason for that may lie somewhere in America's greatest quality, optimism.

It's basically in how susceptible Americans are to this.

We have never been a nation of haves and have-nots.

Economically, mathematically, or even grammatically.

And there's a poll that I think explains why.

A few months ago, Pew Research revealed that 65% of Americans believe the wealth gap is increasing, and 60% believe our system unfairly favors the wealthy, but, and here's the key, 60% also believe that most people who work hard enough can make it.

Or in other words, yeah, I can clearly see this game is rigged, which is what's gonna make it so sweet when I win this thing!

is 1 of the things I love the most about this country.

I love that you line up around the block for TV talent shows for talents you objectively don't have.

And everyone feels bad when a person who is inevitably and revealingly British does this to you.

It sounded like 2 three-year-olds who've got flu trying to sing.

I didn't find it funny, and I like to laugh.

Without any doubt, the worst act I've probably ever seen.

You may want to be f***ing smart and start acting like an arrogant b****.

A British person just told you that your mashed potatoes were bland.

The reason a British person has to do that is that we're raised in a rigid class system where we have all hope beaten out of us.

And your optimism is overwhelmingly positive, Except, except when it leads you to act against your own best interests.

That's the tax that gets paid on inherited wealth.

It helps to limit the terrible possibility of a permanent landed gentry.

The idea that a house can be passed down through the generations until some dipshit blows the fortune on a Canadian railway company, you fucking moron!

♪ And yet, the estate tax here is routinely on the verge of being abolished.

Politicians call it the death tax and get applause for saying things like this.

My own view is we ought to kill the death tax.

You paid for that farm once, you shouldn't have to pay for it again.

Except it's almost impossible that a farmer would ever have to do that.

The federal estate tax does not apply to 99.4% of all farm estates.

It also doesn't apply to 99.86% of anyone's estates.

Basically, if you're not comfortable calling your accumulation of shit an estate, the estate tax probably doesn't fucking apply to you.

-...a man worth a quarter of a billion dollars gets applause for saying, let's get rid of it.

Under current federal law, heirs don't have to pay taxes on the first 5.3 million that you leave them.

Meaning that you and your wife can leave your kid more than 10 million dollars tax-free.

And relax, that is more than enough to turn Chauncey into the world's biggest piece of shit.

-♪♪♪♪ The tax on estates over $5 million applies to almost nobody.

But 1 reason it's constantly threatened is that people assume that it will 1 day apply to them.

But if I work all my life and I pay my taxes on my income, and then I die and I want to pass on what would be great if it were a 5000000 dollar estate to my kids, why should I pay the government again?

In fact, This is the practical embodiment of everything you want.

This is the government literally taking your money over your dead body.

estate tax has not prevented Americans from passing on a fuck load of wealth.

Of the billionaires on the Forbes 400, 71 inherited their fortune, and another 56 inherited at least a portion of it.

And our habit of handing money down from generation to generation perpetuates another disparity, perhaps explaining why, of the Forbes 400, only .25 percent are African-American.

And to answer your question, yes, it's Oprah.

America now has a system where wealth is essentially dispersed as a lottery of birth.

And maybe the reason we seem to accept that is that even though we know the odds are stacked against us, we all think we're going to win the lottery.

Experts even appear on TV, advising us how to handle our future winnings.

Well, I think the first thing should be to create a plan.

Set up a trust, probably hire a couple security guards.

Do you take the lump sum payment or the 29-year annuity payment over time?

I would take the one-time cash chunk, because it allows you to do a whole bunch of things that you might want to do in your life.

If you win that kind of money and you still have young children, make sure you put it in a trust.

Because it is never too early to start protecting your imaginary lottery winnings from crippling estate taxes.

You might as well do an eight-minute segment on how to handle being attacked by a shark while scoring the winning touchdown at the Super Bowl.

Or things to say on your third date with Beyoncé.

There's a chance, technically there's a chance.

And watch how depressed we get by useful, practical advice.

Would you tell people, maybe take your 5 dollars you're gonna spend on the jackpot and put it elsewhere?

can invest that money 20, 30 years down the road, that is gonna be a much better, There'd be much better odds of having a secure retirement than hoping on the lottery.

Please don't mess up this financial segment with practical advice.

We're dream weavers here at News Team 12.

Look, look, the whole point is, if American wealth is a lottery, we are increasingly playing 2 different games.

First up, the draw for people with inherited wealth.

You should all have a ticket at home with a number between 1 and 3 on it.

Congratulations to almost everyone at home.

OK, so now the lottery for those who were born poor.

Hello to all of you watching at home or through a Best Buy window.

LAUGHTER You should all have a card with a number between 1 and 3.5 million on it.

And You've probably noticed that a disproportionate percentage of these balls are black and brown.

Now, as you can see, for the third consecutive week, this machine is still broken.

So I can't currently get a ball out of there for you, but let's all agree that technically, you did all have the hypothetical chance to win.

Hey, remember how much fun we were having over there?

And don't worry, poor people, if you're getting sad, you're just thinking of this the wrong way.

Remember, when it comes to the wealth lottery, America is a nation of winners and soon to winners.


Speaker 0: -♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ Our main story tonight is income inequality. A good way to figure out which side of it you're on is whether you're currently paying for HBO or stealing it. Last December, some of you laughed a little too hard at that. LAUGHTER Last December, the president made it clear that income inequality was going to be a big priority.

Speaker 1: The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around

Speaker 2: the globe.

Speaker 1: I believe this is the defining challenge of our time.

Speaker 0: Yes, the defining challenge of our time. Well, 1 of the 2 defining challenges of our time, the other being Candy Crush Level 97. That is hard. I've got a lollipop hammer, and I still can't. The point is that the president said the word inequality 26 times in that speech, which everyone took to mean 1 thing.

Speaker 3: Income inequality is going to be the thrust, 1 of the major themes in 2016.

Speaker 4: Members of the Senate Democratic leadership team, that's Harry Reid on Dan, are clearly going after this income inequality issue. For Democrats, it's an all-out assault on

Speaker 5: the issue of income inequality.

Speaker 0: An all-out assault. You better watch your ass, income inequality, because you're about to get violently ameliorated. Or you would have been, if they hadn't almost immediately backed down.

Speaker 3: A new article says President Obama appears to be shifting strategy on tackling income inequality. The Washington Post reveals Democrats are split on the issue, leading President Obama to shift talk away from the subject.

Speaker 0: So basically, income inequality has become just another topic of conversation we prefer to avoid in America, like Japanese internment camps or that time that we gave Roberto Benigni an Academy Award. You know, national tragedies, equally wrong. There is... There is a key reason why no politician wants to talk about it, and that's because every time someone tries to, this happens.

Speaker 3: Is President Obama engaged in class warfare?

Speaker 6: Class warfare. Class warfare.

Speaker 4: The politics of class warfare.

Speaker 5: Trying to drive a class warfare argument. Use that hashtag class warfare. Okay, okay. That all sounds silly, but the phrase class

Speaker 0: warfare is so toxic, the president actually had to stop talking about the thing he describes as a fundamental threat to the American dream. And this was so predictable, that 3 years ago, he actually gathered a group of historians and told them, what you could do for me, is to help find a way to discuss the issue of inequality in our society without being accused of class warfare. To which they presumably said, yeah, we can't really help you with that, although we can tell you what Warren G. Harding named his penis. It's not what you're thinking.

But just because politicians can't talk about income inequality doesn't mean we shouldn't. And before we do, let me just say, no 1 is arguing for complete, perfect equality. We are not going to live in a world where we pretend that all Baldwin's are equally talented. I mean, look, there's Billy and there's everyone else. That's a fact.

Inequality is a bit like cinnamon. You definitely want to have a little of it to spice life up a bit, but too Much of it can be very dangerous. -♪ I'm a big, proud big... ♪ -♪ I'm a

Speaker 7: big, proud big...

Speaker 0: ♪ -♪

Speaker 7: I'm a big, proud big...

Speaker 0: ♪ And make no mistake, we are at cinnamon dangerous levels right now.

Speaker 6: The wealth gap is getting worse. A new analysis shows the richest Americans, the top 1%, made nearly 20% of all the available income in America last year. That's the widest income gap since the Roaring Twenties.

Speaker 0: Oh, okay, Nothing ominous there, then. The roaring 20s were famously the party that never ended. That's what made the 30s so great. Just more 20s. And...

And the thing is, income inequality affects everyone. It can actually hinder overall growth. And just to be clear, income inequality is by no means just an American problem. Globalization and technology means that the gap is rising all over the developed world. It's just rising faster here.

In fact, in the United States, the income ratio between our richest and poorest 10 percent is now 16 to 1. At this point, the rich are just running up the score. If our economy was a Little League game, someone would have called it by now.

Speaker 2: -...by now.

Speaker 0: -...by now. But what sets America apart is that in this time, we have actively introduced policies disproportionately benefiting the wealthy, like cutting income tax and capital gains tax rates for the richest in half, as well as that weird tax rebate for orgies with fancy eyes-wide-shut masks. The password is Fidelio. -♪ Fidelio ♪ -♪ Fidelio ♪ You would think... You would think in a democracy, policies that benefit very few people at the expense of very many would not be able to succeed, but they have.

And I think the reason for that may lie somewhere in America's greatest quality, optimism. It's basically in how susceptible Americans are to this.

Speaker 2: We have never been a nation of haves and have-nots. We are a

Speaker 5: nation of haves and have-nots. We are a

Speaker 7: nation of

Speaker 2: haves and soon-to-haves. Of people who have made it and people

Speaker 0: who will make it. Yes! I mean, no, no, hold on. That sounds great. The problem is, it makes no sense.

Economically, mathematically, or even grammatically. And yet, we believe him! We believe him! And there's a poll that I think explains why. A few months ago, Pew Research revealed that 65% of Americans believe the wealth gap is increasing, and 60% believe our system unfairly favors the wealthy, but, and here's the key, 60% also believe that most people who work hard enough can make it.

Or in other words, yeah, I can clearly see this game is rigged, which is what's gonna make it so sweet when I win this thing!

Speaker 2: Whoo! That... And it's good. That's a good thing. That optimism

Speaker 0: is 1 of the things I love the most about this country. I love that you line up around the block for TV talent shows for talents you objectively don't have. And everyone feels bad when a person who is inevitably and revealingly British does this to you.

Speaker 2: It sounded like 2 three-year-olds who've got flu trying to sing.

Speaker 8: I didn't find it funny, and I like to laugh. And that wasn't funny to me.

Speaker 2: I don't know what that style was. It started off like bad food poisoning. Without any doubt, the worst act I've probably ever seen. You may want to be f***ing smart and start acting like an arrogant b****. Your mashed potatoes are bland.

Wow. Wow. Hold on.

Speaker 0: A British person just told you that your mashed potatoes were bland. That has got to hurt. The reason a British person has to do that is that we're raised in a rigid class system where we have all hope beaten out of us. And your optimism is overwhelmingly positive, Except, except when it leads you to act against your own best interests. Look at the federal estate tax.

That's the tax that gets paid on inherited wealth. It helps to limit the terrible possibility of a permanent landed gentry. The idea that a house can be passed down through the generations until some dipshit blows the fortune on a Canadian railway company, you fucking moron! How could you do

Speaker 2: that, Lord Grantham? The family was counting on you!

Speaker 7: How could you? -♪ ♪ -♪ APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Speaker 0: ♪ And yet, the estate tax here is routinely on the verge of being abolished. Politicians call it the death tax and get applause for saying things like this.

Speaker 4: My own view is we ought to kill the death tax. You paid for that farm once, you shouldn't have to pay for it again.

Speaker 0: Except it's almost impossible that a farmer would ever have to do that. The federal estate tax does not apply to 99.4% of all farm estates. It also doesn't apply to 99.86% of anyone's estates. Basically, if you're not comfortable calling your accumulation of shit an estate, the estate tax probably doesn't fucking apply to you.

Speaker 2: And yet, the thing is...

Speaker 0: -...a man worth a quarter of a billion dollars gets applause for saying, let's get rid of it. Under current federal law, heirs don't have to pay taxes on the first 5.3 million that you leave them. Meaning that you and your wife can leave your kid more than 10 million dollars tax-free. And relax, that is more than enough to turn Chauncey into the world's biggest piece of shit. -♪♪♪♪

Speaker 2: Fuck you, Chauncey! No 16-year-old

Speaker 0: has a destination birthday party. -♪♪♪♪ The tax on estates over $5 million applies to almost nobody. But 1 reason it's constantly threatened is that people assume that it will 1 day apply to them.

Speaker 8: I don't have a 5000000 dollar estate. I'd like to someday. But if I work all my life and I pay my taxes on my income, and then I die and I want to pass on what would be great if it were a 5000000 dollar estate to my kids, why should I pay the government again?

Speaker 2: But you won't be paying it!

Speaker 0: You'll be gone! In fact, This is the practical embodiment of everything you want. This is the government literally taking your money over your dead body. -...over your dead body.

Speaker 7: -...over your dead body. And also... -...over your dead body. -...over your dead body. Also,

Speaker 2: let's be clear.

Speaker 0: Let's be clear.

Speaker 2: The existence of an

Speaker 0: estate tax has not prevented Americans from passing on a fuck load of wealth. Of the billionaires on the Forbes 400, 71 inherited their fortune, and another 56 inherited at least a portion of it. That's nearly a third of the list. And our habit of handing money down from generation to generation perpetuates another disparity, perhaps explaining why, of the Forbes 400, only .25 percent are African-American. And to answer your question, yes, it's Oprah.

Oprah is the person. You were right. Good guess. Good guess. America now has a system where wealth is essentially dispersed as a lottery of birth.

And maybe the reason we seem to accept that is that even though we know the odds are stacked against us, we all think we're going to win the lottery. Experts even appear on TV, advising us how to handle our future winnings.

Speaker 9: Well, I think the first thing should be to create a plan.

Speaker 4: Set up a trust, probably hire a couple security guards.

Speaker 9: Do you take the lump sum payment or the 29-year annuity payment over time?

Speaker 7: I would take the one-time cash chunk, because it allows you to do a whole bunch of things that you might want to do in your life. If you win that kind of money and you still have young children, make sure you put it in a trust.

Speaker 0: Oh, absolutely! Because it is never too early to start protecting your imaginary lottery winnings from crippling estate taxes. It's... That's crazy. You...

You might as well do an eight-minute segment on how to handle being attacked by a shark while scoring the winning touchdown at the Super Bowl. Or things to say on your third date with Beyoncé.

Speaker 2: And watch... Watch how...

Speaker 0: It would be great, that would be great. There's a chance, technically there's a chance. And watch how depressed we get by useful, practical advice.

Speaker 3: Would you tell people, maybe take your 5 dollars you're gonna spend on the jackpot and put it elsewhere?

Speaker 2: If you

Speaker 9: can invest that money 20, 30 years down the road, that is gonna be a much better, There'd be much better odds of having a secure retirement than hoping on the lottery.

Speaker 3: It's not nearly as fantasy, though.

Speaker 9: No, it's not.

Speaker 3: So much more practical.

Speaker 0: Please. Please don't mess up this financial segment with practical advice. We're dream weavers here at News Team 12. Take that shit over to News Team 5. Look, look, the whole point is, if American wealth is a lottery, we are increasingly playing 2 different games.

In fact, I'll show you. Who wants to

Speaker 2: play America Ball? CHEERING AND APPLAUSE OK. As always, we have 2 drawings.

Speaker 0: First up, the draw for people with inherited wealth. You should all have a ticket at home with a number between 1 and 3 on it. So let's pick 2 balls. Let's pick 2 balls. Fire it up.

Here we go. 3. The first number is 3. Let's pick another ball.

Speaker 2: 1. Congratulations to almost everyone at home. OK, that was

Speaker 7: fun. That was fun.

Speaker 0: OK, so now the lottery for those who were born poor. OK. Tank? Hello to all of you watching at home or through a Best Buy window. You should...

LAUGHTER You should all have a card with a number between 1 and 3.5 million on it. And You've probably noticed that a disproportionate percentage of these balls are black and brown. Ignore that. It's illustrative of nothing. I can't stress that enough.

Isn't that right, Tane? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Now, as you can see, for the third consecutive week, this machine is still broken. So I can't currently get a ball out of there for you, but let's all agree that technically, you did all have the hypothetical chance to win.

So, this is depressing. Hey, remember how much fun we were having over there?

Speaker 2: Let's go back over! There's still a ball in there! Let's get that last ball out of there! Just 1 more! Oh, number 2!

You're all winners!

Speaker 7: All of you, you can't lose! The system works!

Speaker 2: And don't worry, poor people, if you're getting sad, you're just thinking of this the wrong way.

Speaker 0: Remember, when it comes to the wealth lottery, America is a nation of winners and soon to winners. Yes!

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Wealth Gap: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)