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5 reasons why income inequality is a myth — and Occupy Wall Street is wrong
The American ^ | 10/18/2011 | James Pethokoukis

Posted on 10/29/2011 6:03:52 PM PDT by Beave Meister

Sorry, the story just doesn’t hold together. According to left-wing think tanks, columnist and bloggers—and, of course, the Occupy Wall Street radicals—the top 1 percent have been exploiting the 99 percent for decades. The rich have been getting richer at the expense of the middle class and poor.

Really? Just think for a second: If inequality had really exploded during the past 30 to 40 years, why did American politics simultaneously move rightward toward a greater embrace of free-market capitalism? Shouldn’t just the opposite have happened as beleaguered workers united and demanded a vastly expanded social safety net and sharply higher taxes on the rich? What happened to presidents Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, and Kerry? Even Barack Obama ran for president as a market friendly, third-way technocrat.

Nope, the story doesn’t hold together because the financial facts don’t support it. And here’s why:

(Excerpt) Read more at blog.american.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: communist; democrates; liberalfacist; liberals; lyingliers; obama; occupywallstreet; ows; socialist
I'm shocked, shocked I tell you....
1 posted on 10/29/2011 6:03:54 PM PDT by Beave Meister
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To: Beave Meister

bookmark


2 posted on 10/29/2011 6:17:15 PM PDT by Para-Ord.45
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To: Beave Meister

Jimmy’s right.


3 posted on 10/29/2011 6:21:12 PM PDT by griswold3 (Character is Destiny)
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To: Beave Meister

While there is a strong emotional appeal to Occupy Wall Street protests they are not realistic. Granted there are some despicable people who would take everything not nailed down and give nothing back in return but hopefully the Democrats will be out of office soon. As communists and socialists have found to their dismay, you can’t change human nature and much to their horror capitalism works because it embraces human nature. People work harder if they see a reward and are free to pursue their goals. Yes, you do need some rules to the game to avoid abuse, but government works best when it either helps or gets out of the way of business. I am not wealthy but I am thankful everyday that the people I work for are smart enough, have enough resources, and aggressive enough to create my job. You can’t drive an economy by trying to average things out to the lowest common denominator. The railroad doesn’t run without engines pulling the cars.


4 posted on 10/29/2011 6:22:07 PM PDT by dog breath
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks Beave Meister. G’night all!


5 posted on 10/29/2011 6:36:32 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: dog breath

Here here.


6 posted on 10/29/2011 7:07:08 PM PDT by Beave Meister (Die Hard Cubs Fan.....if it takes forever.)
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To: Beave Meister

I’m not familiar with other stories, but there are methodological problems with Gordon’s paper, see for example:

http://rwer.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/did-horse-vets-really-become-that-expensive-robert-j-gordon-on-inequality/


7 posted on 10/29/2011 7:20:23 PM PDT by M. Dodge Thomas
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To: Beave Meister

bflr


8 posted on 10/29/2011 7:50:39 PM PDT by Captain Beyond (The Hammer of the gods! (Just a cool line from a Led Zep song))
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To: Beave Meister

Barney Franks attempt to address income inequality is what crashed the worlds economy.


9 posted on 10/29/2011 7:57:14 PM PDT by NoLibZone (At the Occupy Los Angeles, free speech has been centralized, regulated & limited to a small area)
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To: dog breath

Well said!


10 posted on 10/29/2011 11:04:39 PM PDT by Sprite518
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To: Beave Meister

The Gini coefficient for the US individual hasn’t changed much from about 0.5 since 1994. That is the measure of income inequality. Complete inequality (one person has all the money) is a Gini Coefficient of 1. A Gini Coefficient of 0.0 corresponds to everyone has the exact same amount of money.

What has happened is the inequality of families and households has increased. That occurs because people make decisions to form families and households in a way where people with similar incomes are together. When a slightly above average income man and woman marry, their household has income that is significantly above average. When a family that is below average gets a divorce, the two households created from one is significantly below average.


11 posted on 10/29/2011 11:31:16 PM PDT by donmeaker (e is trancendental)
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To: dog breath
Granted there are some despicable people who would take everything not nailed down and give nothing back in return but hopefully the Democrats will be out of office soon.

*snicker*

12 posted on 10/30/2011 12:40:18 AM PDT by SuziQ
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To: Beave Meister

Socialist takeover is based on neither the majority’s desire nor truth.

It is simply lust for power, based on greed. Now you understand the New World Order ruling elite.


13 posted on 10/30/2011 5:59:42 AM PDT by RoadTest (For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.)
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To: Beave Meister

Bump.


14 posted on 10/30/2011 8:15:50 AM PDT by Sans-Culotte ( Pray for Obama- Psalm 109:8)
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