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by mandmandam 435 days ago
> Everyone is focused on how the rich are getting richer. This is inevitable in liberal societies. The goal should instead be to stop the poor getting poorer

These things are fundamentally connected. When the wealthy have too much power, they squeeze the middle and the poor too hard.

Unlike much else in life, the pool of money is a zero-sum game (though this is addressed in the paper, notably). When 3 Americans hold more wealth than 50% of the rest of us, that's a real problem. This historic and rising inequality leads nowhere good, and we are in existential crises which require that this be properly addressed.
1 comments
veltas 435 days ago
Focusing on 'wealth inequality' usually leads to policies that hurt the economy, and make us all poorer, and actually increase the inequality. It hurts poor people more than the rich when we make bad economic decisions, and this paper proposes just such a decision. What can we do that won't backfire? We need a strong economy to help poor people.
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antisthenes 435 days ago
> Focusing on 'wealth inequality' usually leads to policies that hurt the economy

When was the last time focusing on 'wealth inequality' was done in earnest? Not any time recently, given the complete lack of anti-trust regulation and the gutting of most unions and pensions.

Can you describe some of these policies with historical sources, please?

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mandmandam 435 days ago
When you say "the economy", do you mean "rich people's yachts"? ...

"Trying to address inequality makes us all poorer" - wow.

If you really believe that's true, at least say why, or bring a source (other than Ayn Rand please lol). What's the mistake you believe people are making? Because just declaring something like that is like saying, we can't address unsafe driving because it will make people drive worse. It's clinically absurd.

Here's what I think - economists don't talk about inequality because of the three reasons discussed here [0]. It's not in their models, and it's not in their class interest.

> What can we do that won't backfire?

Tax the wealthy. No it's not easy. Yes it can be done. Yes it has worked in the past.

0 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CivlU8hJVwc&embeds_referring...

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