Inequality

Regarding this last comment, many people in the US are not aware of the fact, but one of the major changes in recent years in the US regarding income distribution is that social mobility has substantially declined. Indeed, there are now quite a few western European countries, where mobility is now greater than it is in the US, although few are aware of this.

Did you read "The Bell Curve"? Highly meritocratic societies do not have good mobility, because IQ is highly heritable.

In the US, things are even more complicated by the disintegration of the family. It seems like IQ is interacting with cultural issues like out of wedlock childbirth, drug use, etc. to create a permanent underclass.

In both cases (IQ and culture) neither can be changed by government policy.

Rate of return is an interesting take. I prefer justice myself. It seems to me that, generally speaking, the winners are winning, the losers are losing, and most of us are doing what's expected of us well enough to live decent lives. I can imagine a better world, but I don't expect one, nor do I see much reason to spend much effort trying to build one.

I don't get this inequality stuff. Once a person has nutritious food, clean water, decent shelter, and basic health care, all else is just fluff. (Not that I don't like fluff.)

Basically, all who lean socialist these days are very shallow people. I could understand their point of view if folks were really hurting, but what they are really complaining about these days is that not everyone has a brand-new luxury car. I can't respect anyone whose political views respect envy, which seems to me to be at the core of the left.

Randy,

Do you even know any poor people? I know and have known many. (I grew up in a welfare community. The population of my former elementary school is "99% disadvantaged" according to the State of California.) In my experience, most "losers" in America choose to be losers. Very few poor people I've know were poor do to uncontrollable circumstances. I can't in any way feel sorry for them (except for those few); they have chosen their lives. (BTW, many of these people are quite happy, some much happier than some richer folks I know. Maybe materialism is nothing but vanity?)

It never ceases to amaze me at the ignorance of most people that discuss "poverty". Take the time to get to know some poor folks; they're more than just statistics and political footballs.

I’m currently stone-cold sober and have 20-20 vision, but feel like I donned a pair of bifocals and drank a 5th of Everclear while reading through this last comment. Did anyone else end up with a hangover, or should I just take a couple of Tylenol and shut up?

From reading the literature I am convinced that I have no clue whether inequality is increasing. Just as there is no benevolent social planner out there, I do not see a benevolent, omniscient, unbiased researcher telling the story of inequality.

In any case, I think the relevant political-economic question is whether privilege is increasingly being bestowed on the few at the expense of the many. Your questions are all subsets of this larger issue. As many more eloquent people have pointed out - lots of inequality will always be with us. The question is whether institutions in society are set up to exacerbate what inequality would have naturally prevailed in a world without privilege. I have no hard evidence, but my belief is that the answer is certainly yes that these institutions are pervasive. The question for me is whether they are becoming more pervasive and whether there are instruments, or rather emergent phenomena out there that may mitigate these troublesome trends.

Great Comments Bill!

Thanks, Mensarefugee!

Snark, your name says it all.

Bill,

Yes, I've known poor people. Been there, done that, still have a couple of the t-shirts. In my opinion, for most anyway, it isn't that hard to join the ranks of the middle class. In a nutshell, its a simple matter of study, work, and avoiding stupid behaviors. And what I saw in my time among the poor was that those around me had chosen to avoid one or all of these principles (personally, I had chosen to avoid all three). Yes, there is also bad luck, and that's why we have welfare programs. But social responsibility depends on the existance of personal responsibility. I'm all for "la vie boheme". I think everyone should spend a couple of years trying out alternatives. But in the end, we all have to make a choice - play the game by the rules, or accept the consequences.

In addition to studying the poor, we need to study the rich, as Dr. Thomas Stanley has done in many books, including The Millionaire Next Door. According to Stanley, about 85% of million/billionaires made their money growing a business with hard work and frugality. About 12% worked their way up the corporate ladder, and only about 3% inherited their wealth. Most proposals to reduce inequality would punish the 85% for being frugal, hard working and smart.