[extropy-chat] Tax Burden Gap

[Matthew Gingell]

Spike writes:

 > Lets get some perspective. Some will always be way richer than
 > others, that isn't going away. But today our poor have hamburger
 > and TVs. Modern poor people face far greater danger from obesity
 > and alcoholism than from starvation and disease. That's progress,
 > is it not? OK bad example. But let us measure our success or
 > failure by comparing our lives to those of our ancestors. Better or
 > worse?

 This isn't the point though - the article is making an argument that
 we're see a widening gap between rich and poor and a shrinking middle
 class. Pointing out that most people most places are better off in
 material terms than they were a couple of generations ago is beside
 the point.

 I guess there might be a case that, in the long run, countries with
 very lopsided income and wealth distributions eventually do better
 for everyone than countries with a big middle class. I can't think of
 an obvious historical argument though.

 Matt