"Why the rich are angry, and why you should worry about it"

Makes some fine points including this one:

For there to be an economic recovery in this country, some people are going to have to create businesses that grow and create jobs. If those businesses grow enough because customers want what they are selling, the entrepreneurs who created them become rich, just like Apple's Steve Jobs or Google's Sergey Brin.

The President or the press can insult those people or try to jack up their taxes and give their money away to other people. But if we want recovery and growth rather than redistribution and recrimination, a better approach would be to stop treating rich people as though they are the cause of America's problems and start concentrating instead on what can be done to create more of them.

Darn right. Reminds me of an old story. Two poor, down-on-their-luck people are talking. One says to the other, "I hate the goddam rich." The other one says, "I don't." The first one asks, "Why not?" And the second one replies, "No poor man ever offered me a job."

Comments

[spencer]

Great theory, but according to your theory with the rich now having the greatest share of income in US history it implies we should be also be having the greatest job creation in history.

Care to explain why the facts do not support your theory.

As a matter of fact, if you look at the data over the past 60 years there appears to be a negative correlation between income inequality and job creation.

[spencer]

Maybe it is like the Laffer curve in that once income equality passes a certain level greater inequality makes the economy worse off.

[Dirac]

@ Spencer: Link please.

[Mike]

Spencer, just two variables among thousands. You might as also note the increase in popularity of NFL, or the decline of the California Condor as correlating to lack of jobs. Both issues you mention are complicated enough to write libraries on, that doesn't mean one is the sole contributing factor to the other. If you study economics, you would know the theory is sound and wholely supported by much better controlled examples.

[Mike]

Lack of work incentive is the single biggest factor explaining why production and quality of life failed to keep up in North Korea and East Germany compared to their capitalist counterparts, after splitting up. People need incentives, not parachutes, to drive an economy. Though, you'll notice despite the low standards of living in the two nations I mentioned, there was mind-blowingly low inequality. Is that really the right objective? No need to fear the rich, we are the richest country in the world and be grateful you can afford more bountiful excess than anyone in any other country with a similar career. Our problem starts with people's irrational fear of the rich; a derivative of jealousy.

[jorod]

People work about 40 to 50 years of their lifetime. During this time, people must accumulate enough wealth to maintain and even increase their standard of living and to support themselves and their children and for retirement. Higher taxes make accumulating wealth difficult. Why is this important? Wealth provides the foundation for economic growth. Unless wealth is formed and economic growth is achieved, the succeeding generations will have less chance of finding work, accumulating wealth and increasing their standard of living. The Socialist policies of government will insure that our children and grandchildren will have a lower standard of living. They will work not to accumulate wealth, but to pay the taxes for the spending excesses of our government.

As part of this shift to socialism, politicians use the class warfare tactics of rich against poor to generate support for policies. The fact is, most people start out with nothing and accumulate wealth over time. Many people move from poverty to being millionaires. Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs...all started with nothing and accumulated wealth that created well paying jobs so that others may accumulate wealth and so forth. The current economic and political policies will destroy this process of improving living standards for generations to come.

[Ken]

Spencer,

We were "having the greatest job creation in history" until Pelosi, Reid, and Obama decided to "spread the wealth". Check the stats. Things didn't start to go wrong till 2007 and things really started to go wrong in 2009. Can you guess what happened in 2007 and 2009?

Regards,
Ken

[TheBigHenry]

"No poor man ever offered me a job."

Such an obvious fact; so infuriatingly difficult to convince the free-lunchers that they are their own worst enemies. Sigh.

[Scotty]

hmmm.. Imagine how much higher your university's NRC ranking would be, if unthinking dolts, such as yourself Craig, retired. Do consider it.

[Scotty]

Your problem, Mike, starts with the specious assumptions your economics is built on, as recent history has unfortunately demonstrated.