Quote:
Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
I think you're completely wrong in what you've just said. (Not about who cares how much the rich get, but in your rejection of the concept of a growing gap.)
There is at least one other factor to consider . . i.e. how much does the important shit cost as time goes on? How much are the prices for housing, health care, insurance, higher education, etc. rising each year?
That is why a person whose income goes from 100 to 110 isn't necessarily making any progress, and may be worse off. It is also why: (a) the relative and absolute gap between the bottom half (or pick a group) and the top 5-10% (which includes most all of us) has been notably increasing in the past 30 years; and (b) why the gap matters.
S_A_M
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Every year basic commodities decrease in real dollars in this country. Thanks to companys like Walmart and Costco. The only thing that keeps food prices in this country up are farm subsidies. But of course food is much cheaper here than in Western Europe or in Japan. Every other developed country I have ever lived in: France, Italy, Britain, and Japan have a much higher cost of living. Mainly due to market regulations that limit cost cutting businesses access to the market.
In the US our incomes are now higher and the costs of almost everything are lower in the United States. Housing in the big cities is really expensive, but there is no consitutional right to live where housing is expensive. There are many places in this country (Arizone, the South) where housing is incredibly cheap (much cheaper than the rest of the developed world).
In any event, no one has ever shown me a system that works better than ours (or at least the free market model).
The Gap is not the issue. It is a distraction used by politicians to get elected. The issue is the standard of living of the bottom third of the society. If it is getting better then great, and if it is not then you have a problem.
