Hi MRB, I thought it was an interesting point that as Americans most of us are in the 1% for the world. But on later reflection, I think there is an important difference. The issue is not that rich people are richer than poor people. That has to be true by definition. The issue is that the gap is growing. (Few would even care if median incomes were growing.) The difference between Americans as a nation being in the top 1% is that the gap between the rich and poor internationally is decreasing as countries like China and India develop while the gap between the rich and the median earner in the US has grown by leaps and bounds. Krugman reported that since the eighties the earnings of the top .01% have increased by a factor of 5 while the those of the median earner have stagnated if not fallen. What do you make of that fact? Personally, I'm not sure what to make of it, and I'm not sure how to explain it. I suppose it has something to do with changes in the tax codes, but I don't think that isn't nearly enough to account for the widening income gap.
I'll go ahead and grant (for the sake of argument) that the top .01% of us is the most virtuous, hard-working, creative, and intelligent group in the US, but would you have me believe that the top .01% is now FIVE times MORE virtuous, hard-working, creative, and intelligent than they were 30 years ago? What is going on? And what should I make of it? It seems to me that the distribution of wealth has to be a concern for everyone at some point. Even if you aren't concerned now, where are we heading? What happens when a few hundred people own pretty much everything? Would even THAT be a problem for you? Best, Steve Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
