Comments on: Is Global Income Inequality Growing or Declining?

By: McGehee

McGehee — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 22:12:38 +0000

Economic measurements devoid of context -- like such one-dimensional measures as "income inequality" -- are useless except for making political arguments that can only survive when devoid of context.

By: Hal

Hal — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 21:50:44 +0000

Uh, actually capitalists. If you care about your investments, then you pay pretty decent attention to the gap between the rich and the poor. According to that bastion of liberal thinking known as the RAND corporation, the gap between the rich and the poor is a strong indicator of how unstable the country will be, and therefore, BAD FOR YOUR INVESTMENT.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 19:25:20 +0000

Well, Dodd, when was the last time you saw a news report or article about middle-class Africans or South Americans? Given the way the rest of the world is covered, the media's focus in Iraq becomes much less surprising.

Of course income inequality is probably the wrong thing to be looking at, anyway. If things are getting steadily better for the folks on the bottom, who cares if things are getting much better for the folks on the top? (Oh, wait - I know the answer to that question - Socialists and Liberals.)

By: Dodd

Dodd — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 19:00:09 +0000

Looking only at the USA line, I find it very interesting that (smallish) majorities see Economic conditions in the World and in the Country as getting worse, yet a wide margin see their own getting better. You'd think more people would exptrapolate their own circumstances to others, instead of, as the data seems to suggest, concluding that they're the exception.

All that left-wing "talking down the economy" last year seems to have had an effect after all.