Locknuts said:
1. Ok, I have read your data and some other stuff and I now agree that the rich appear to be getting richer in the USA. I don't think wealth inequality is necessarily a bad thing though. It depends on the reasons for it. Poverty is however a problem in the USA but it appears to be decreasing: https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-current-poverty-rate-united-states - please note - this data is from 2015. 2. http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Cost-of-living/Average-monthly-disposable-salary/After-tax - Laos and Vietnam are abominably poor. Are you trying to make an argument against socialism? The 'worst performing' countries? In terms of equality? Who cares about equality if everyone's in poverty? |
There are reasons to be concerned about inequality. IMF makes the case that inequality hurts economic growth and apparently inequality is also correlated with increasing health issues. Poverty could also be linked to inequality but I didn't really find a solid case for it. Typically inequality has been a bipartisan issue with each side arguing that if it's an issue best tackled by state intervention or the market. I find it an interesting development if people stop talking about inequality because to me this seems like society has run out of ideas to solve it.
I'm not sure why Vietnam (or Laos) would be representative of all socialism but alright let's take a look at Vietnam. Article on 'Nam by the World Bank. So what we see here is that poverty has actually decreased dramatically while Vietnam also has one of the highest GDP growths in the world, life expectancy is almost as high as the US. The nation master link you posted is interesting because Zambia is listed at #3 (and a country which suffers from extreme inequality) but Zambia has much worse poverty than Vietnam. (64% in extreme poverty in Zambia vs 3% for Vietnam)
Last edited by Leadified - on 02 February 2018
