I want to keep this short and not devolve this thread into a huge economic debate. But, let's get some things straight here. I don't think ANYONE is arguing against the merits and mechanisms of capitalism and wanting for the state to own the means of production. So starting from that perspective, I also believe that the private sector is much more efficient than the state at managing resources, implementing ideas, etc. And I surely don't pretend to be an expert in economics with a poorly remembered undergrad course in macro-econ, nor do I advocate any specific economic or tax platform or policies. The global market and financial "system" is probably much too complicated for any one mortal to understand completely.
With the fear of sounding too abstract and idealistic, all I really know is that the widening gap between rich and poor in this country is too large, with the middle class getting screwed and many basic needs (read: healthcare) of all the citizens not being properly met. Meanwhile tens and even hundreds of billions of dollars are being squandered on illegitimate war, an enormous global military complex, vast corporate subsidies and corporate welfare, and an unimaginable volume of non-merit based and incredibly wasteful pork barrel spending projects. That said, I am not advocating total socialism and I recognize that there are many systemic problems with the current system of social welfare, from medicare/medicaid inefficiency and waste to the rampant abuse of the welfare and unemployment systems.
I am not going to pretend to have all the answers to these major problems, but everyone needs to recognize that the primary cause of all of this is the sheer laziness and apathy of American citizens that precludes them from getting involved in political affairs or even being responsible citizens by being knowledgeable about important issues and doing proper research on who is the best candidate for the job. Much too often, people are driven by single ideological issues or political party affiliation. This creates a hostile environment where even the worst of characters can repeatedly get re-elected, all the while continuing to vote against the interests of all Americans and maintaining this environment of waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayers money, where only the politicians and their special interest corporate cronies win, and every American loses.
The Gini Index is a complex statistical measure of a society's equality of wealth distribution. Basically, it reveals how the middle class compares to the poorest and richest in the country, and the level of income disparity between the citizens. It is not a simple equation, and there are many elements involved in determining the final number, which is a number between 1 and 100. (For a quick overview of how it works, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_index )
Now, remember that this index is a relative measure of income distribution, so a country with a higher average standard of living can have a higher Gini number than a poorer country. In essence, this means that the relative gap between the richest and poorest in that country is a larger or "the rich are richer and the poor are poorer".
The United States Gini Index and thus the inequality and concentration of wealth has been increasing since the figure was measured starting in the 1960s. For the most recent reporting year (2007), the United States CIA-reported estimated Gini index is 45. To see how this compares to other countries, I have pasted in a list. This list is sorted by the CIA's reported Gini Index from low (good) to high (bad).
Here's a portion of the list surrounding many western countries:
- Sweden 23
- Denmark 24
- Slovenia 24
- Iceland 25
- Luxembourg 26
- Czech Republic 26
- Finland 26
- Slovakia 26
- Austria 26
- Albania 26.7
- Norway 28
- Hungary 28
- Germany 28
- France 28
- Belgium 28
- Cyprus 29
- Croatia 29
- Belarus 29
- Serbia 30
- Kyrgyzstan 30.3
- Pakistan 30.6
- European Union 30.7
- Netherlands 30.9
- Ukraine 31
- Romania 31
- Bulgaria 31.6
- Ireland 32
- Spain 32
- Canada 32.1
- UK 34
.....
And here is the portion surrounding the United States of America:
- Burundi 42.4
- Singapore 42.5
- Iran 43
- Nicaragua 43.1
- Guyana 43.2
- Turkey 43.6
- Nigeria 43.7
- Kenya 44.5
- Philippines 44.5
- Cameroon 44.6
- Côte d'Ivoire 44.6
- United States 45
- Uruguay 45.2
- Jamaica 45.5
- Uganda 45.7
- Ecuador 46
- Mexico 46.1
- Malaysia 46.1
- Rwanda 46.8
I don't pretend to have all the answers, I am just trying to raise awareness. For more information, see:
UN institute of development economics research:
http://www.wider.unu.edu/research/Database/en_GB/wiid/
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/bg1791.cfm
http://econ-www.mit.edu/faculty/download_pdf.php?id=445
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States
