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Friday, September 09, 2011
Distribution of wealth
While people may talk about the top-end, what people are really meaning to talk about is the low-end.
There are two things you have to decide:
1. What kind of world do you want to live in, for those at the bottom?
2. What kind of world do you want to live in, for the median?
I think most of us can agree that there is too many people living below the poverty level in this country. Someone linked to a great chart a few months ago that showed that other countries (I don’t remember exactly which ones, but I think it was Norway, Canada, Great Britain, and a couple of others) that had fewer people living below the poverty level than USA. For a country as great as America (greatest nation in the world?), I think you’d want to finish #1 in fewest below the poverty line.
At the same time, there’s a cost to do that. If you transfer the wealth to the very poorest, the median level will likely go down. Unless you change your financial and social structure. Again, I think Norway has a median above USA.
Of course, Norway is also not a target the way USA is a target. So, USA has a huge expenditure that the other nations don’t have: military (I presume anyway). Indeed, the idea that USA spends so much on security can even make it more palatable to do business here.
In any case, going back to Phil’s article: I don’t think the real issue is about how many people own wealth here. It’s how many people are below the poverty line. And, if that’s simply an unavoidable by-product to live the American Dream.
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