The Rich Just Keep On Getting Richer and Richer…
The rich get richer is a phrase that many of us are familiar with, even more so now due to the recent election. This phrase refers to the economic sentiment that those who are wealthy are put in a position to make more money, and those who are not are doomed to stay on that path as well. In a study done by the Congressional Budget Office about a year ago it was observed that between the years 1979 and 2007, the after-tax incomes of the top 1% of households grew by 275%, while the after-tax income for the 20% of the population with the lowest incomes saw only a 18% increase. In an article in the New York Times this past March, Steve Rattner writes about an “ever-more starting divergence between the fortunes of the wealthy and everybody else-and the desperate need to address this wrenching problem.” He references data from a study done by two French economists and discusses how in this day and age, with certain industries such as technology as financial services growing at a rapid pace, there is a higher need for more skilled workers. As a result, those who were fortunate enough to go to college are being paid significantly more than those who were not, and therefore have the opportunity to send their children to college. So those kids who were wealthy enough to go to college grow up to make significantly more money. And the cycle continues on and on. The rich get richer dilemma is also exacerbated by things such as the Bush tax cuts, which as Rattner says, “caused Warren E. Buffet’s secretary to have a higher tax rate than he does.” While the rich get richer phenomenon is in play, it is close to impossible for someone in a lower bracket to work their way up.
This issue is mirrored in networks and the popularity associated with a web page. In Chapter 18 we learn that the probability that a certain web page has an increase in popularity is directly proportional to the current popularity of the page. Therefore, it is very unlikely that a scarcely visited page will become popular in the future. Reversely, it is very likely that a page that is very popular now will continue to grow in popularity. Let’s take google.com for example. Google is definitely not the only free search engine available on the internet. However, when someone wants to search for something online, the first thing that comes to mind immediately is Google. Whether or not Google is necessarily the website that will get you the results you are looking for, you use it because you know what it is and you know that your friends use it. And then the next time someone tells you they are searching for something online you will simply reply “Google it!” And so the cycle repeats. This phenomenon is also mirrored in social media-the more popular someone is, the more they are spoken about and the more their pictures are shared, and then as a result the more people want to “friend” them or “follow” them”.
The rich get richer model is an unfortunate reality of many aspects of life. While this phenomenon is less detrimental with Web pages than it is with human wealth, it creates an interminable cycle that deters the upward mobility of those who are currently less fortunate. As Rattner says in his article, “the only way to redress the income imbalance is by implementing policies that are oriented toward reversing the forces that caused it.” We know the forces that cause it, and we must find a way to reverse the rich get richer model. Otherwise, those who are in a lower tier, whether in terms of income or popularity, will be doomed to stay that way forever.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/27/business/la-fi-rich-poor-20111027
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/opinion/the-rich-get-even-richer.html