Does Income Inequality Hurt Countries? w/ Richard Wilkinson

Read a review of 'The Spirit Level': http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/13/the-spirit-level

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Epidemiologists
• Richard
• Wilkinson
• Kate
• Pickett
• research
• society
• income
• inequality
• rich
• poor
• polarized
• poverty
• health
• money
• developing
• industrialized
• uk
• england
• us
• united
• states
• britian
• japan
• Scandinavia
• nordic
• northern
• european
• countries
• sweden
• finland

[dangerouslytalented]

The lower classes and middle classes BUY THINGS. When they BUY THINGS, these things must get made. They spend 90% of their money.

If the poor and middle classes do not have money, how are business supposed to get profit? I mean legitimate profit, not this fucking around with dirivitives and making a paper profit.

[DeusMortemEst]

It will take ages before most americans will ever accept such ideas as presented by Wilkinson, no matter how much evidence is presented in support of it. After all, it's full of people who can't even see the difference between communism and social democracy. It's sad, methinks.

[NearAbbeyRoad]

@tatomuck18

The rich did steal. The tax system is geared towards. Progressive taxes do not work. Land Valuation Tax and no Income Tax is the way forward. That is:

1. Socialized wealth is socialized - Tax values of land (the values in land was not created by the landowner, but by the community).

2. Private wealth is kept private - no income tax.

[NearAbbeyRoad]

The key is "fair" distribution, not equal. Geoist economics does that. Based on Land Valuation Tax it promotes an unrigged free-market, taxing all extraction of common land resources and abolition of speculation of the land and its resources. e,g., no copper derivatives.

It works, look at Hong Kong.

[bioman888]

STduying things is nto a bad thing. ignorance is tno agood thing. Hvaing credital to prove that you studied is not bad. Arrogance is abd in teh creditailed or the ignorant.

[benandreas369]

Wow using credentialism... Nice

[hollaboutit]

@benandreas369 child, you have no idea of what you're talking about? i am a socialist, and i call for socialism. i also have a history minor to back up the fact that cooperation is seen as socialsm to the common idiot.

[benandreas369]

@hollaboutit Is Finland socialist? No.. Is Japan socialist? No. Are the states of Wiscosin or Iowa socialist? No... Typical ignorant boy who puts labels because of his lack of knowledge... What you just said is like saying a resource based economy is the same as a Utopia...

[tehKap0w]

@tatomuck18 lots of poor people have food stamps. it's a huge market that retailers fight over, just not in the open. ((barely eat+govt subsidies) * millions of mouths = mega dollahs. Just ask walmart where poor people spend their money.

[ohmyliver01]

@tatomuck18 by being paid better for their jobs. Possibly there should be a law saying that the best paid in a company cannot being paid more than 50x the lowest. Which would mean that if a company was profitable (no doubt due to hard work by all levels of the company) then if the CEO wanted to pay him or herself more then they'd have to increase all wages. This would also incentivise all in the company to work harder.