[rwcarlsen]

As an engineer and computational scientist, drawing conclusions from correlations like this is absurd. Maybe Reagan was good for income inequality or maybe he was bad for it. Did you control for the other variables before drawing your conclusions? What about:

* The governments' legislation and economic policies in countries like the USSR, China, etc. in the 80s

* Changing technology especially communication technology

* Changing levels of education in the world.

* Lingering/diminishing trends/effects from wars like: Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War, etc.

* Changing age distribution of humans in western countries,

And on and on. The world economy is extremely complex with heavy nonlinear feedback effects. How can you possibly state things like Reagan caused X w.r.t. the world wealth distribution with such confidence?

[boomboomsubban]

>As an engineer and computational scientist, drawing conclusions from correlations like this is absurd. Maybe Reagan was good for income inequality or maybe he was bad for it. Did you control for the other variables before drawing your conclusions?

Drawing absolute conclusions in this area is nearly impossible, and we can't say with any certainty that Reaganomics caused this problem. The evidence does seem to suggest that the policies are not fixing the problem, which is a far easier claim to make. They might not be the cause, but it seems very likely they aren't the solution.

[setr]

Given that you don’t know what would occur without reagonimics, even that much isn’t safe to say. It’s quite possible that reagonimics is in fact helpful, just not enough to overcome other negatives in the environment (so in sum, a loss). Removal may very well increase the rate of inequality.

In other words, with just the evidence provided, you can’t safely say much of anything beyond “it started getting worse in the 80’s”

[boomboomsubban]

>Given that you don’t know what would occur without reagonimics, even that much isn’t safe to say.

Yes, I can. The current situation seems undesirable. While it's possible that the situation would be worse without Reaganomics, the actual situation is still undesirable. Looking towards the future, it seems unwise to continue a plan that led to undesirable results.

[JoshuaDavid]

Your argument proves too much. Consider the following example:

> You are diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. Your doctor tells you to monitor your blood sugar and take insulin. This situation seems undesirable. While it is possible that the situation would be worse without monitoring your blood sugar and taking insulin, the actual situation is still undesirable. Looking towards the future, it seems unwise to continue a plan that led to undesirable results.

[boomboomsubban]

If Reaganomics came from a trained professional who were basing their recommendations on the best theory science had developed through experimentation, I would not advocate changing the policy. That is not the case though, as we both agree that reliable evidence is scant.

Going forward, there isn't a great theory showing that Reaganomics is worth continuing, and the hypothesis that different policies would provide a better outcome seems worthy of testing.

[eecc]

“As an engineer and computational scientist, drawing conclusions from correlations like this is absurd.”

Tell that to Ruby developers... duck typing (if it quacks like a duck and walks like one, it’s definitely a duck)

[eecc]

Oh, and while throwing all sorts of alternative world scenarios in the wild hope one might make a reasonable argument that Neoliberal policies aren’t the driver of inequality...

you forgot Occam’s Razor.

[rwcarlsen]

I didn't throw out any "alternative world scenarios". I was just pointing out that a lot of things were going on in the world that could easily have had a very significant impact on things such as income inequality. There are also many examples in economics where a simple/obvious solution actually has the opposite of the intended effect. Rent price control would be an obvious example (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_regulation#Economists'_vi...).

If you want to dig in to the gory details of reaganomics, economists have researched and debated about its effects for decades. There are many economists who make cases both for and against it having appreciably affected income inequality in various ways.