That's really beautiful.

What's gotten into you, anyway? Did you go through this whole exercise with Ty just to get back to "do what you love / I'm responsible for myself"? Because that was the long way around.

actually the most disturbing posts today are Ty's "my soccer kids are picking up the ball and running with it." and the response "make them play rugby."

You know it's Superbowl weekend right? Some kids on Ty's fotbal team want to play real football- American football- and the only advice from all the big brains here is to push them to some other communist sport? Fuck that.

If, in your world, "rising income inequality" means that all poor people are growing poorer and all rich people are growing richer, then I can see how you would come decide that lefties are tossing about buzzwords. If leaving that intellectual world is a win for you, then take choose the blue pill and stay on this board -- it'll be a win for both of us.

In the world we share, of course it's more complex. That does not mean that inequality is not rising, in the aggregate. Once again, I invite you to tell me where inequality is decreasing and why that's significant. The fact that you cannot or will not do so suggests that your interest in this complexity is purely tactical.*

I think I've shown that Reynolds is a hack, if being a hired gun for Cato on this issue isn't enough. Meanwhile, you call Krugman a "whore," though I haven't mentioned him. Krugman is paid by the NYT and Princeton University. Who do you think funds Cato?

* Or, you're suggesting that because inequality is sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing, it's not really changing. A sort of complexity argument for simpletons?

Hank took me there. I can't say his hijacking was unwelcome.

I will hazard a guess that in Cuba and Venezuela it is decreasing. And that is significant because it shows the error of socialism.

Jesus, Ty. I cited that piece that said income inequality between white collar workers is decreasing, while among blue collar workers it is increasing.

Krugman is a King whore. The man's objectivity has ben gone since 2000. Every month the newly unemployed rolls don't meet his predictions, he accuses Bush of jockeying the numbers, or suggests its because the poor ware working in menial, atrocious jobs, the equivalent of being unemployed.

The simple answer is - yes, juxtaposing a mill worker and a CEO, the gap is widening. But that's a false juxtaposition which warps the conslusion the same way rainmakers' income warps PPP in a law firm. The parallels must be made more closely. I doubt you'll find a mill acountants' salary is grossly outpacing that of a foreman's. A better estimate of income inequality would be made by comparing the subtle different jobs in the middle. But tha doesn't create all that much of a gap does it?

I'm sorry -- who said that? Where?

And if so, so what?

I decline your invitation to drop our subject to kick Krugman around, both because I don't read him since the NYT put him behind the TimesSelect wall and because I'm enjoying kicking you around more.

Why is that a false juxtaposition? The point of the debate is the gap is widening, not same people (e.g., rainmakers) make more.

Why is that a "better" estimate? It's a pretty clear fact that the very rich have gotten richer much more than the rest of us in recent years. When the most striking changes are happening at the very top end, why do want to keep the focus solely on mill accountants and foremen?

Now you're not saying income inequality isn't happening. You're saying that you don't want to talk about it.

An unlucky veteran with friends in high places.
 

Equality of Opportunity - a good universal public education system

Equality of Outcome - Quota and Preferences in hiring, government contracts and I would argue college admissions.

If you screw up the Equality of Opportunity, you can't fix it by trying to change the quality of Outcome. You need to directly fix the the Equality of Opportunity.

An unlucky veteran with friends in high places.
 

Sure, but how do you measure equality of opportunity? For example, school spending in DC is higher per pupil than anywhere. On it's face, I'd say that's more than equal opportunity.

An unlucky veteran with friends in high places.
 

You have a hard time when you don't disaggregate education spending, old-fashioned jobs programs, and political patronage.

Not that that's easy.

better check quick. there aren't too many mills left.

bad news on global warming
 

That fact that someone even noticed this and wrote about it is absurd. Even more pathetic are the people who picked up on it and repeated the story. Would this really be so earth shattering if it did happen? So this search engine doesn't work, they can always go to the WWW, can't they? Talk about a non issue. Just another irrelevent issue for people to get worked up about.

bad news on global warming
 

Don't care for Orwell much? Hank says Keep the Aspidistra Flying is quite good.

An unlucky veteran with friends in high places.
 

even if you had a good universal education system, wouldn't the kid's relaive background/family etc. impact just a tiny teeny bit on opportunity being equal or unequal?

bad news on global warming
 

I was going to suggest sebby get Jr. a copy when he's 16, but was afraid the reference was too obscure.