On 17 Dec 2012, at 22:41, Roger Clough wrote:
To try to clear up my mistaken interpretation of the gini coefficient,
namely that USA inequality is not decreasing, it is actually
increasing,
I find that the per capita wealth is also increasing, so
let's see what effect that will have.
Although the fairness index (gini coefficient) has
grown linearly with time in the USA,
:
<USA gini_index.jpg>
The real per capital wealth has also increased, but exponentially:
(Real means inflation-adjusted)
:
<USA-per-capita-gdp-1790-2005.png>
By eyeball, it looks as though the real per person income GDP
increased over the range
of the time duration of the gini coefficient growth by about 5/1.5 ~
3.3 .. The gini
coefficient only increased from .4 to .47 or is about 1.17 times
larger, or is essentially
constant in comparison with the growth in real GDP by a factor of
3.3. So I would say that
everybody- the poor as well as the wealthy-- is getting appreciably
richer, even
though there has been a minimal increase in wealth inequality.
The growth rate is not within our control. The questiion then is
whether or
not the gini coefficient is in control of the growth rate. If not,
then
the debate on taxation ends there.
But if the gini coefficient can actually change the growth rate,
artificially lowering
the gini coefficient by increased taxation of the rich
(redistributing the income)
hurts the growth rate, so we all get poorer. Actually, a lot poorer.
The data above shows that decreasing the gini coefficient a small
amount will produce a much larger decrease in the per capita GDP,
because the latter decreases exponentially with a linear decrease in
the gini coefficient.
So, in either case, taxing the wealthy can do no good.
I think you are right. But we have to defend the individuals against
corporatism, clubism, clientelism, special interest, etc.
Money should not been used to make money based on lies. Press should
be more diverse, and banks better regulated, etc. The powers should be
better separated, and some domain should be out of the political, like
religion and health, food, sports, etc.
As long as drugs are not legal, I will not trust a politician (unless
he says so).
Being against drugs means being brainwashing, or being brainwashed, or
both.
Bruno
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Everything List" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en
.
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Everything List" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
