Paul Krugman wrote an op-ed about how terrible inequality is, but he forgot to make the case that inequality actually causes anything negative. Most of his argument is that inequality coexists with a bad economy.
Well, no. First of all, even if you look only at the direct impact of rising inequality on middle-class Americans, it is indeed a very big deal. Beyond that, inequality probably played an important role in creating our economic mess, and has played a crucial role in our failure to clean it up.
What a damning indictment of inequality. It's a very big deal. (unadulterated opinion). Inequality probably played an important role... Well, if it probably did, we better get rid of it right away.
Inequality is rising so fast over the past six years it has been as big a drag on ordinary American incomes as poor economic performance.
How can inequality be a drag on incomes? Inequality doesn't cause lower incomes. Lower incomes cause inequality. What is he talking about?
The single argument he makes that inequality is bad, is that rich people make bad laws. So inequality creates more bad laws.
I encourage you to carefully read this column. You might think that when a Nobel prize-winning economist makes a statement about how inequality is harmful, he might have some economic arguments to back him up.
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