[stetrain]

Personally I think absurd wealth inequality indicates at least two issues:

1) A lack of re-investment of positive economic activity into the “common good” (infrastructure, education, social services, etc) that were almost certainly instrumental in creating the environment for that wealth to grow in the first place.

2) An undemocratic concentration of political power in a small number of individuals

[pjscott]

> 1) A lack of re-investment of positive economic activity into the “common good” (infrastructure, education, social services, etc) that were almost certainly instrumental in creating the environment for that wealth to grow in the first place.

The amount of money spent on those things, adjusted for inflation, has been going up over time in the US. Are we actually under-investing in those things? And how does wealth inequality indicate under-investment?

[stetrain]

Is it increasing per capita?

I think we are definitely under investing in infrastructure.

Amazon builds an empire on cheap-to-use interstate highways and we can’t take a train across the country in less than 3 days.

Bridges falling down, power grids starting wildfires, levees failing, towns with abysmal drinking water quality.

We spend more on healthcare with worse results than other countries, with private profits being skimmed at every step.

We have normalized needing a college degree on your resume for “entry level” jobs and graduating with tens of thousands in debt to achieve this checkmark.

I think it’s an indication because if you were paying back society as you prospered, these black-hole pockets of increasing wealth wouldn’t be so large or common.

Economic prosperity is great. But that was generated in the framework of our society and should be re-invested in it.

[pjscott]

You're pointing at something real and important, but I think you've misdiagnosed the problem. We are spending more -- but we're getting a lot less bang for the buck, because costs in those sectors are spiraling out of control [1]. There's some structural reason why things like education are increasing in cost way faster than inflation, and that is what we really need to fix. Spending more money on those things is like bailing water out of the Titanic; it just makes the ship sink a little slower.

[1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/02/09/considerations-on-cost...