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Originally posted by Spanky
1) If a poor person on average makes a hundred dollars a year and a rich person makes a thousand, and then ten years later a poor person makes two hundred and the rich person makes two thousand, do you consider the gap widening?
On a purely dollar term the gap is widening. That is where the statistics games begins that Sebby is talking about.
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Why do you think this is the essence of the disagreement -- such as it is -- about income inequality? And if so, why are conservative economists like Tyler Cowen and conservative politicians like President Bush fooled?
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2) As long as the poor are getting richer, who cares what the rich are making. Isn't that just the politics of envy. In any system where the poor get richer the rich get even richer. Over the long term there has never been a successful system where the poor get richer and the rich get poorer or even stay the same. When you equalize incomes you just equalize the misery.
The focus should be on how the bottom two quintiles are faring.
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This is a good question, one worthy of discussion on the new thread that's about to start.
