[dmode]

I think you are forgetting the major difference between now and 70s - massive wealth concentration, and the complete destruction of sustainable middle class jobs. Look at the pandemic. 40 mn people were unemployed, but billionaire wealth continued to grow. Most people in the US are one paycheck away from bankruptcy. Poverty rates among minority population have soared, and the impact is starkly reflected in COVID related death rates. One can sit in an ivory tower and deflect all societies problems to be taken care of by some mythical concept of freedom. But more and more people are questioning why wealth in the US is not trickling down. And these are very valid questions today that should really span beyond political lines

[misun78]

People can question all they want about why wealth is not trickling down but that doesn’t change the underlying analysis or outcomes around why this is a bad idea. You may get income redistribution and trickle down but if it changes the underlying systems that create wealthy, those same people will just end up poorer but more equitable.

[dmode]

Is there any evidence for that assertion ? I mean you take any European country such as Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, and even France. Where taxes are remarkably high, and definitely far fewer billionaires per capita. Europe has better health outcomes, better income equality, and extremely low poverty rate compared to the US. [1] [1] https://data.oecd.org/netherlands.htm

[alentist]

Note: Income inequality [0] and poverty rate [1] are in-distribution relative measures, not absolute measures. You could “improve” these measures by making everyone worse off (i.e. a Pareto worsening).

[0] https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality.htm

[1] https://data.oecd.org/inequality/poverty-rate.htm

[gok]

Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Iceland all have more billionaires per capita than the US.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

Europe is not the egalitarian utopia most Americans seem to think it is. Germany's wealth gini coefficient is 79.1. The US is 85.9 (100% is complete inequality, higher is worse).

Sweden and Norway are both in the 80s also -- two countries people in the US constantly point to as places where things are "fair". But in terms of wealth (and income) inequality, it's not that much different.

https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/wealth-distr...

[apexalpha]

Well in defense of the European countries, the wealth might be unequally distributed here as well, but you also don't need wealth/money for education, health care, child care and/or pension.

[R0b0t1]

If you don't need money you need luck, especially for education. There are limited seats. And in Germany, you are on track for university or not when you are very young.

[inflagranti]

And both Switzerland and Norway have a wealth tax.

[gok]

True, though in the case of Switzerland there is no capital gains tax

[krigath]

Your answer reminds me of the book I am currently reading: https://www.amazon.com/Growing-New-Economy-Environmental-Des...

It reflects on free markets and the failure of trickle down economics.

Sadly, it was flagged as too controversial, and was taken down from Amazon for a limited period, but it's now available again.