(April 18, 2015 at 2:03 pm)Heywood Wrote: What is being argued is the disparity between the rich and the poor...Are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? The truth is everyone is getting richer.
It's that "relative" thing, I suppose. It is possible for everyone to get richer while the gap between top and bottom increases. For instance, say the endpoints are $1000 and $4000 at time A, then $1500 and $9000 at time B. Everyone is richer at time B yet the gap has gone up from $3000 to $7500, and it's gone up in percentage terms, from 300% to 500%. This is what I believe is happening in the USA and probably worldwide as well, if wealth and income are measured in money terms.
There is a problem with that $ sign. The rich are subject to a lot of "paper" valuation that can balloon or vanish overnight while physical circumstances remain unchanged. I think part of the increasing disparity is in artificial monetary valuations that don't reflect realities of well-being and lifestyle. But monetary valuations do confer real political power. The building of a plutocratic stratosphere above the rest of society is an ill omen in a democracy, so I look at this trend with some fear.
