Saturday, November 19, 2011

Yes, Inequality is Growing But It Doesn't Matter

This article (via Manan Shukla) is by a leading conservative economist. Its a long article but it may be interesting to those who want to understand the ways in which the conservative mind works. I suggest that you read the last paragraph which concludes that we should not be concerned about the rising incomes among the top 1%. If you have the time and patience you can then list all of the reasons provided in the article why is should not be a concern. Unlike many conservatives who attempt to deny that inequality is growing, Tyler Cowen agrees with the data in support of rising inequality and he turns his attention to all of the reasons why it does not matter. I would like to give a name to this tactic. Lets call it the rat hole tactic. Each of the points that Cowen raises is a rat hole. Some of the points might be interesting to explore and dispute, but each one sends us into a rat hole that distracts us from what we are attempting to deal with. This often happens in meetings when a group is trying to solve a particular problem. Someone in the group will raise another question that drives us down a rat hole and distracts us from our job. We never get around to fixing the problem,

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