Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I agree with you that income inequality is a big problem, and it is a major cause of social discord, but to be fair, quality of life increased significantly across all percentiles since then.

e.g. which society is better to live in:

    (low inequality, less wealth)
    10th percentile average wealth: 100
    99th percentile average wealth: 1000
 
    (high inequality, more wealth)
    10th percentile average wealth: 1000
    99th percentile average wealth: 1000000
Of course this is an oversimplification, but you get the idea: income inequality is not the only important factor.


You have to consider purchasing power, not how much moneys you have in your wallet.

If the majority of people get 10x the money they used to, they're not getting 10x the purchasing power, because everyone needs a higher salary.

This is also an oversimplification. You can read more about the phenomenon here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease


Agreed. I intentionally didn't use units of my wealth numbers to indicate some "absolute" measure or wealth.

10x more food, land, or whatever.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: