Tuesday, October 23, 2007

On Equality

If we take money from the rich to achieve equality, shouldn't we depress the happy and sicken the healthy for the same reason?

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you read the article in Monday's WSJ. It was a good one and discussed the concept of "eqaulity".

Denis Navratil said...

Yes anon, I did read that article and found it interesting. That is where the idea originated. I probably should have mentioned the article.

Anonymous said...

The wealth is already transferred to the uppermost decile...1%-10%...

This is a false assumptive statement...

Denis Navratil said...

Tell me about this wealth transfer to the rich anon. How does it happen? How do the poor, who have little or nothing, transfer wealth to the rich? It would seem far easier to transfer wealth between the rich and the rich, as they are the ones with something to transfer.

Anonymous said...

Come on. Get real.




1.)The created 'wage market', where jobs are given lower wages, is one.

2.)The transfer thru ownership of stock, real estate is another.

3.)The shifting of priority to more and more profit for the stockholder, at the expense of the worker, is another.

4.)Cost increases to the lower income percentiles which flow $$$ upward...

There is so much info on this is is difficult to think that you do not see it!

Anonymous said...

Economic Policy Institute http://www.epinet.org/

Responsible Wealth http://www.responsiblewealth.org/

Brookings
http://www.brookings.edu/

Many other links at these sites...

Who We Are

We are leaders in business, community, government, philanthropy, academia and finance. We are among the wealthiest 5% of Americans, the primary beneficiaries of the robust growth of the American economy. We are united by our common concern that despite a booming economy, many are not sharing in the prosperity.

Founded in 1997, Responsible Wealth is affiliated with United for a Fair Economy (UFE), a national non-profit devoted to putting a spotlight on the dangers of excessive inequality of income and wealth in the United States.

Our work is focused on four areas:

* We advocate fair taxes.
* We support a living wage for all.
* We call for greater corporate accountability.
* We promote broadened asset ownership for all Americans.

Denis Navratil said...

Anon, forget Chomsky, Trotsky, the Brookings Institute, Eugene Kane and whoever else influences your thinking, or parroting, and think for yourself for just one moment and try to answer this question. Isn't extracting wealth from the poor a bit like extracting water from a rock?

Anonymous said...

Your use of the names of Chomsky and Trotsky as some form of denigration show that you are a card carrying right wing extremist.

There is no discussion on this blog, as you, sir, just parrot right wing rhetoric.

Try thinking for yourself for a change, instead of right wing talking points...

Denis Navratil said...

So you can't answer the question eh anon? If you figure out how to squeeze money out of the poor, let me know. Maybe we can go into business together.

Conscious Thought said...

anon, expecting mr. navratil to actually think for himself is like expecting George Bush to have a high IQ, just won't happen.

Check out consciousthoughtworld.blogspot.com where real free thinking occurs, not veiled conservative rhetoric. I'd like to have your input on my latest post and the infamous "racists vs. gangbangers" post.

Anonymous said...

Sir,
What is not to answer? ESOP's and other structures would be eminently more fair than the wage structure we employ now.

Here is a group that is conservative in nature, http://www.cesj.org/ , and thinks we have an unfair wage system. Mr. Kurland is a wonderful man whom worked with Mortimer Adler and Louis Kelso for a fair economy.


---Welcome to the Web site of the Center for Economic and Social Justice, also known as "CESJ." We are building this site as a portal to a new economic vision of the future, which we call the "Just Third Way." To turn vision into reality, CESJ offers capital homesteading ideas and strategies for structural reform of economies, and justice-based management concepts for building organizational cultures of ownership, servant leadership, and justice.---

Denis Navratil said...

Still can't tell me how to extract money from the poor, can you anon? All you seem able to do is quote from various web sites and such. Sorry, but that is not thinking. It is regurgitating.

CTW, maybe you would like to take a shot at that very simple, plainly stated question?

Anonymous said...

Your ploy does not work here.

Regressive taxation.

Regressive pricing of staple goods.

A rigged wage market.

Stockholder profiteering at the expense of wages and benefits.

Downsizing to younger workers, forcing older workers into low pay jobs.

Higher cost of insurances and other necessities which outpace income gains.

Etc...etc...etc...

This is tiresome right wing baiting here...

Anonymous said...

http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/abs.html?ID=1132

Family Income Mobility-How Much Is There and Has It Changed?
Publication Abstract

Gottschalk, Peter, and Sheldon H. Danziger. "Family Income Mobility-How Much Is There and Has It Changed?" PSC Research Report No. 97-405. September 1997.
We use longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics for the period from 1968 through 1991 to measure the level and trend in family income mobility using annual and multiple-year income measures. Using a variety of measures, we document that there is substantial mobility across income classes. However, the extent of mobility has not increased over the past two decades. As a result, the rising inequality of annual income that has been so widely documented has been accompanied by rising inequality of multi-year income as well.

Anonymous said...

http://oep.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/58/3/531

Trends in income inequality, pro-poor income growth, and income mobility
Stephen P. Jenkins* and Philippe Van Kerm{dagger},

*Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex
{dagger}CEPS/INSTEAD, B.P. 48, L-4501 Differdange G.-D. Luxembourg

Correspondence: e-mail: philippe.vankerm@ceps.lu

We provide an analytical framework within which changes in income inequality over time are related to the pattern of income growth across the income range and the reshuffling of individuals in the income pecking order. We use the framework first to explain how it was possible both for the poor to have fared badly relatively to the rich in the USA during the 1980s (when income inequality grew substantially), and also for income growth to have been pro-poor. Second, we contrast the US experience with that of Western Germany, where there was a much smaller rise in inequality. This is accounted for by income growth that was more pro-poor than in the USA.