In the stagnant days of the Carter administration, when inflation was approaching 13.5% and interest rates were peaking at 21.5%, income was more evenly distributed than in any period in 20th-century America. Since the days of that equality in misery, the measured income of the top 1% of income tax filers has risen over three and a half times as fast as the income of the population as a whole.
This growth in income inequality is largely the result of three dynamics:
1) Changes in the way Americans pay taxes and manage their investments, which were a direct result of reductions in marginal tax rates.
2) A dynamic shift in the labor-capital ratio, resulting from the adoption of market-based economies around the world.
3) The flourishing of economic freedom and technological advances in the Reagan era, which were the product of lower tax rates, a reduced regulatory burden, and an improved business climate. These changes have not only raised the measured income of the top 1%, they benefited the nation and the world.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577305302658158454.html
Read this whole article, and I'll be re-reading it.
Lies, damned lies and statistics; does this analysis help you decide which ones are which?
Powerful analysis highlighting what is to me the most important issue - how rich the richest are isn't nearly as important as how likely it is that, regardless of what quintile of wealth/income you are born into, you will work you way to higher quintiles. You being rich does not hurt me. You gaining control over the coercive power of the government to get rich does hurt me. That there is any lack of clarity about this topic amazes me.
This growth in income inequality is largely the result of three dynamics:
1) Changes in the way Americans pay taxes and manage their investments, which were a direct result of reductions in marginal tax rates.
2) A dynamic shift in the labor-capital ratio, resulting from the adoption of market-based economies around the world.
3) The flourishing of economic freedom and technological advances in the Reagan era, which were the product of lower tax rates, a reduced regulatory burden, and an improved business climate. These changes have not only raised the measured income of the top 1%, they benefited the nation and the world.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577305302658158454.html
Read this whole article, and I'll be re-reading it.
Lies, damned lies and statistics; does this analysis help you decide which ones are which?
Powerful analysis highlighting what is to me the most important issue - how rich the richest are isn't nearly as important as how likely it is that, regardless of what quintile of wealth/income you are born into, you will work you way to higher quintiles. You being rich does not hurt me. You gaining control over the coercive power of the government to get rich does hurt me. That there is any lack of clarity about this topic amazes me.
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