Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Wish One of 'Em was a Video Game Playing Economist
Very interesting chart in The Economist couple issues back. I figure .1% of the top income earners, given roughly half of the population works, which means there's 140 million income earners, so that's the top 140,000 income earners in the US. At least one of them HAS TO BE A SEXY VIDEO GAME PLAYING ECONOMIST BABE!!!
While I can certainly understand why this chart would be interesting, I can't believe that The Economist is still printing this stuff... the very idea of "income inequality" is so problematic and so socialistic, not to mention fallacious, that it borders on the absurd. Why would a neoliberal mag like The Economist still have an interest in this?
ReplyDeleteThey write about it because among other reasons, income inequality and the resulting jealousy has contributed to many communist revolts and progressive tax schemes.
ReplyDeleteThe key thing to notice is that it doesn't matter if the poor's lot is improving (as is the case in the US). In the US everybody has been getting richer in the past 50 years, but the rich have been getting richer FASTER, which begets jealously and since we live in a democracy, voters who will vote themselves a pay raise at the expense of the rich.
Understand The Economist most likely agrees with you and I that income distribution shouldn't matter as long as standards of living are increasing for everybody, they're just acknowledging the fact that if relative income distribution widens too much people will have a tendency to revolt or implement socialist policies.
I wrote a post once that addresses income distribution, titled "When it all starts to sound like rap" Good stats there any capitalist should have on hand to defeat socialism.