UK faces the highest inequality levels for 40 years

[Ziggy Stardust]

Actually, I never asked.

No but you used your cheeseburger analogy on me with two options.

1. Everyone gets the same
2. One guy gets all

If that's not thinking in extremes, I don't know what is. And you mentioned people tried to cheat when they divided the cheeseburger in parts. Well, you know what. Wealth is not binary. It can be divided. Another reason that analogy really is lacking.

Should all human beings receive an equal share of human wealth? Yes or no?
("Not sure" is also an acceptable answer if you're still thinking it over)

Again: no.

Either distribution of wealth is equal, or it is not. Either everybody gets the same amount of goodies, or they do not. If they should not, then where should the line be drawn? How big is an "acceptable" wealth divide? Why?

This big *holds arms at a certain distance*

You don't seem to grasp I am not talking about wealth divide. I am talking about what I believe is the minimum I am willing to pay taxes for. I am talking about that in my opinion that line is above food and rent. That's it.

For wealth divide I should also have an opinion on the absolute income or how much wealth the rich 'deserve'. I don't care about that. They can all have 10 gold Ferrari's as garden ornament for all I care. I am not arguing out of envy.

Those people live a lot better than the average medieval citizen did, yet they're less happy.

Are you arguing along the lines: what was good in medieval times is still good now?

If that's the case, we should have a little discussion on law-enforcement in another thread

 

[VX250]

The UK is in a sorry state.

My god help them all.

 

[JoeM]

Sorry I'm coming to this thread late and with 8 pages to catch up on can anyone say briefly;

1) Why is relative wealth a big issue?
2) Is there analysis of movement in the poorest quartile?
3) What's the evidence that the middle class is shrinking? (a few years ago it was the largest it had ever been, and how do you measure middle class anyway?)

 

[innonimatu]

Heheh. I made the mistake of saying that to my economics instructor in college. He levelled a scary stare at me (mostly because my comment revealed to him that I hadn't read the assigned chapter in our textbook!) and said "there's no such thing as 'needs' in economics".

To hell with economics. Life and society is not, and cannot be, explained solely by economics.

The problem with inequality is political, and psychological at an individual level. People always compare themselves with others on their society, and that is indeed the only relevant comparison to do. A very unequal society always leads to some people accumulation a lot of power over others. Not a good thing in any liberal view of society.

 

[BasketCase]

A "very unequal" society is unavoidable. As I already explained earlier, the bottom rung on the wealth ladder is always zero; there's no way to erase the zero.

Therefore, the only way to reduce the wealth divide is to chop down the people at the top. Which is unfair to those people at the top who got their on their own merits, without taking their wealth from others. And, you may find this hard to believe--but most wealthy people do not lie, cheat, or steal their way to the top. In a system where general human welfare is going up (and it always has--the downward trends are the exceptions), you can't raise the average wealth per person by taking it from somebody else. That's a zero-sum game. The wealth of the world is going up because the rich (most of them, anyway) build their wealth with work instead of stealing it.

No but you used your cheeseburger analogy on me with two options.

No. I never used the poll "on you". When I first brought up the Cheeseburger Poll in here, I didn't refer to you at all. I simply brought up the poll on its own merits.

Are you arguing along the lines: what was good in medieval times is still good now?

Nope. Re-read what I said. I argued along this line: that the poor today are better off than the poor of yesteryear.

 

[ComradeDavo]

The UK is in a sorry state.

My god help them all.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

No. I never used the poll "on you". When I first brought up the Cheeseburger Poll in here, I didn't refer to you at all. I simply brought up the poll on its own merits.

Ok, sorry about that, consider me unconfused.

Nope. Re-read what I said. I argued along this line: that the poor today are better off than the poor of yesteryear.

So? It's irrelevant to compare them.