Should government correct inequality?

I say no, not directly at least. In his book "On Inequality," Harry Frankfurt argues, "Our most fundamental challenge is not the fact that incomes of Americans are widely unequal. It is, rather, the fact that too many of our people are poor."

He argues, therefore, for "sufficiency," not "equality." The short of it is that it doesn't make any difference if I have more than you. Unless you are starving. The book needs a chapter on how to reduce hunger, but overall I agree with his arguments.

 

Except nobody is starving in America.

In fact only six people died of starvation during the Great depression.

And there were good reasons why that happened.

 

They aren't starving no, but too many are "food insecure." (Without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.)

We have a large voluntary food bank in my region (north Texas) that helps, but even here I'm not sure that "inequality" is the issue. I dont know what to do but encourage voluntary but tax deductible contributions to such "banks."

 

Harry is paid handsomely to write this via the filthy RAVEL ! The Zionist that control the money. We had a great system until 1984 put in place by FDR. It worked, leveled the playing field, made sure all americans got a fair working wage. The RIGHT WING and all the money from the very rich would rather spend 100M a year to lie and propaganda you with BS news, fake inflation numbers, etc. than to share the 40 Trillion dollars they have taken from the working class people. I dont allow it to happen to me, But everyone else I come in contact with allows it. So do most on this site, they believe the right when they talk. Just like they preach fiscal conservatism when Dems are in control and say not a work when republicans are in control. They are Puppets to the pulpit

 

Good thing there was no inequality under the democratic presidents huh?

 

Zionist? WTF?

 

Government should only concern itself with the perception of inequality. If you have a king that controls everything and everyone thinks it's fair you got yourself a stable government. If you got more than half of the population who don't contribute but think they should be paid more, you may get yourself a revolution.

 

According to the Center for Disease Control at least 3,000 die every year from malnutrition in the USA!!!!

 

We currently have record homelessness in the USA both in veterans and students as well as the public in general.

 

Society considers homelessness an acceptable standard of living. Go to LA or Seattle... they allow them to sleep right on the sidewalks. There should be programs to get them off the street rather than handing them fresh needles so they can shoot themselves up. A society of tolerance has created the problem. Intolerance is the cure.

 

The government should implement any policy that has a highly positive outcome for the general population. Income inequality is a problem when most of the growth is going to the rich. When this is happening, we should look into why this is happening and adjust our policies to fix it.

What is very distressing is that even though we have had 5 years of record low unemployment and a extremely tight labor market with good growth, wage growth is very mild and below that in any other growth period. Since about 1980, 66% of new economic growth has gone to the top 1%. This is very bad for the general population and should be fixed.

 

Equality will fail without equal effort. Good luck enforcing that.

 

Oh really? I look around and the only thing I see is the growing obesity problem. Is that "food insecure"? I mean, you could make the argument that it takes more food to feed a land whale than someone who isn't a 200 pounds overweight....so by some stretch of the imagination I guess that could be considered "food insecure".

 

Everyone in the First World has access to rice, beans, and fresh, in-season (and therefore inexpensive) vegetables. EVERYONE. It's the cheapest diet on earth, and also happens to be one of the healthiest. Want some protein? Buy low sodium cans of tuna, or bags of beef bones from the butcher to use in soups and stews.

Food insecurity is when you don't know if you'll eat AT ALL, not "I can't be arsed cooking from scratch, so I'll buy processed foods instead". And before you suggest that some people don't have the time to cook because they're working 3 jobs (or whatevs), I say BS. If they're spending time each week watching tv, gaming, going out, surfing the web, etc etc etc, then they have the time to cook a week's worth of highly nutritious meals made from all fresh ingredients. Do it all in one go and put them in the freezer.

 

You sit down with a poor person for a couple hours, there are a number of blaring reason why they are poor! And many of those reason will never be cured with subsidies, and all the subsidies in the world will just feed the addiction to be nothing in life!

 

Sooner people turn their attention from what other have and direct that bad habit to working for what they need they will always live in the shadows of other that have more then they do

 

People already work pretty hard. Most of us have full time jobs and many others are in school trying to get a good career.

 

If you starve in this country then it was prolly for the best! It's like saying people die because they fail to breath

 

I agree, but they work hard and not smart A saying I was taught very early in life and has served me well!

 

How do you suggest people work smart?

 

Come on! You really need to ask a question like? If so then you are putting yourself out there as an example of how not to approach life People have to access there skill set and set goals to match. They also have to be realistic on what types of employment that is best suited to provide disposable income. Then apply that stored wealth to some dream/idea and then work to make it successful. Not really that difficult!

 

Problem is that most growth is going to the top 1% and wage growth for even the middle class with valuable skills is still lackluster as well and falling behind the top 1%. Also its impossible for everyone to get great high paying jobs because there aren't enough of these jobs to go around.

 

Don't let that concern you, you have to make your own way, unless you think old Uncle Sam is going to think for you too? The minute you adopt the idea something is impossible then you are your own worst enemy

 

Yeah, I can make my own way and have a good career, but I'm never going to be rich unless I start a business or become a doctor. I do see a dangerous lack of wage growth for the general population and most of it going to the wealthy. Today more people are going to college than they ever have. Now its common for both parents to work 40 hour jobs. More people than ever are high skilled and are going into medicine, engineering, accounting, software development, and business. Yet wage growth is declining and inequality increasing decade by decade.

I think this problem is a result of the skills gap, corporatization, automation, and outsourcing, and not one that we are ever going to solve completely. We can solve the problem by increasing taxes on the wealthy to pay for programs that benefit the general population from all that growth that went to the wealthy.

 

All true, but you don't need to be rich, right?