There was a 10 year period when every elitist liberal (myself included) was shouting about how the big study by Piketty & Saez concluded income inequality is the worst it’s ever been in US history—and so we should tax everyone until it’s fixed.
And then a few years later, it was reported that the study didn’t control... See more
Nikita Bierx.comIn the 1960s, the poverty rate was above 20 percent. Using the government’s official poverty measure, poverty has fallen to 11.1 percent as of 2023, the most recent year data are available. This measures poverty on a relative basis. Of course, a relative standard will always find relative poverty. But using an absolute standard finds that income... See more
Most economic debates are about income , not wealth. When we talk about income taxes, or welfare benefits, or labor’s share of national income, we’re talking about the amount of goods and services that get created every year, and how those goods and services get allocated among the various people in a society. But in the 2010s, we saw a lot of... See more
Noah Smith • There's not that much wealth in the world
7. The boom resumes, but it’s different than before. Between 1993 and 2012, the top 1 percent saw their incomes grow 86.1 percent, while the bottom 99 percent saw just 6.6 percent growth.
Nick Wignall • Outline.com
(3) When commentators give any attention to down-versus-up, they usually reduce the conflict to income disparities, but that is misleading. Down-versus-up is more attitudinal than economic. Sometimes the tension manifests itself along traditional class and wealth lines, with disputes focused primarily on money, but that’s only a small part of the
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