Why Some Americans Are More Equal Than Others

The Daily Beast ^ | September 2, 2014 | Jedediah Purdy

[glasseye]

You know what...?

The federal government has actively discriminated against me my whole life. I was born white (*gasp), and male around 1960.

Affirmative action started when? Early-mid 70’s.

That means my entire working life I was discriminated against.

Never really thought about it until retirement came close.

When did picking and choosing the ‘winners’ become a proper function of government?

Aren’t we constantly told discrimination is bad?

Unless ‘they’ do it?

[griswold3]

Why some smart Americans believe really stupid stuff...

[Skepolitic]

Economic inequality— ... —has reached some of its highest levels ever

This is a statement that could only be made a a profoundly ignorant person. I see that the writer is a Duke professor of law, but he is profoundly ignorant of history if he thinks that US economic inequality even approaches that of antiquity up to the middle stages of the Industrial Revolution.

[greeneyes]

The fellow is purdy stupid if you ask me.

I just wonder how JP Morgon compared to the poor in his time. After all, Morgan bailed the US Government out at one time.

Comparing the rich to the poor is an insufficient measure anyway. It would be better to talk about how many people have been able to move up the ladder from poor to middle class and so forth, and then compare that to other countries to see which one has the most upward mobility.

[BuffaloJack]

> Americans pride themselves on an egalitarian society open to all.

No we don’t. An egalitarian society is a socialist society.
Americans are BORN with equal opportunity; what each person does to better himself is the American Dream.

[cherry]

our “poor” live and eat better than we do....the beer, the steaks, the brand names stuff....no, not the store brands or the day old bread or items on sale.....