[quote]massive wealth inequality is very detrimental and very inevitable in our current, capitalist structures[/quote]Wait, is that supposed to be controversial?
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That statement alone is pretty controversial, yeah. Proponents of the system we have now look at that wealth as a) the result of extremely hard work by a few people and b) a way for those people to help others by reinvesting the money. The money that broadens the wealth gap is a [i]good[/i] thing because it's the reward for the most hard-working people and the tools for them to use their experience to make the world better. A more blatantly controversial point is Piketty's solution: a worldwide, progressive tax on wealth that goes from 2-80%.
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Edited by Le Dustin xddddd: 4/13/2014 6:01:45 PM[quote]The money that broadens the wealth gap is a good thing because it's the reward for the [u]most hard-working people [/u]and the tools for them to use their experience to make the world better.[/quote]Even before Piketty, it was well known that the outcomes of one's success relies on much more than "hardwork." Take any factor (quality of education, quality of healthcare, quality of parenting), and compare the bottom and top economic groups with it. You can see that those born rich have very high quality education, healthcare, and parenting, and those born poor have very low quality education, healthcare, and parenting. Sure, Piketty's solution is controversial, but inequality is a fact, regardless of whether it is denied or not. Plus, "European nations in general have highly unequal incomes from market activity, just like the United States, although possibly not to the same extent. But they do far more redistribution through taxes and transfers than America does, leading to much less inequality in disposable incomes."
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Hey, you don't have to convince me. Rightly or wrongly, that's just what people think.
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Well then can I ask your opinion on something? Is inequality sustainable? Can society continue to live with it, however unethical it may, and still keep afloat in the long term?
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[quote]Well then can I ask your opinion on something? Is inequality sustainable? Can society continue to live with it, however unethical it may, and still keep afloat in the long term?[/quote] Depends on the size of the middle class. Small middle class with extreme wealth inequality prevalent in the society usually has bad outcomes. I say usually -- not always.
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Edited by Bistromathics: 4/13/2014 6:53:16 PMI dunno if I'm really qualified to answer it. I think massive wealth inequality can and should be regulated, if only because having so much wealth concentrated at the top hurts the democracy. Wealth inequality isn't inherently unethical, but I do think that promoting inequality while also suppressing equality of opportunity [i]is[/i] unethical- and that's what we're doing today.