4 ms·

Rather than start a dialectic, let's consider concrete examples: is there any society with a large income inequality that also has a world-class standard of liv

by edko 10y ago

Rather than start a dialectic, let's consider concrete examples: is there any society with a large income inequality that also has a world-class standard of living for all of its members?

dsacco 10y ago
Yes: the United States. EDIT: This answer probably comes across as cavalier and perhaps dismissive without some sort of effort to substantiate my claim, so I'll edit this in: The United States ranks sixth in the world for median cost-adjusted household income. It ranks highly, along with many European countries, for overall quality of life, according to the Quality of Life Index (2016) - countries like Switzerland and Germany are higher, while countries like the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan are lower. Quality of life can be a vague and murky measurement, but pretty much every index attempting to measure it presents the same set of countries topping the list. The US is not perfect, and I'll accept arguments that it would be better off with less income inequality, but I'd like to see evidence that this is the case.
- edko 10y ago
  Every year, 3.5 million people in the US experience homelessness.
  - dsacco 10y ago
    I assume you're getting your data from here[1]. I'd counter by asking which modern society does not have homeless citizens. Particularly, which countries that rank more highly than the US in the Quality of Life or Human Development Indices? The other challenge I have is that homeless in America enjoy a quality of life patently superior to that present in nearly every class virtually everywhere else in the world. Sure, homeless in the US are not as well off as the middle class in Switzerland, but they're certainly better off than the median individual in India, Peru, Pakistan, Syria or Zambia (to name a few from what would be a long and saddening list). The resources consumed by, and available to, homeless citizens of the US make them look like citizens of Elysium in comparison to those nations. To flesh out one example - the bottom 5% of Americans are about as wealthy as the top 5% of Indians.[2] [1]: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/How_Many.html http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/How_Many.html [2]: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/the-haves-and-the-have-nots/?_r=0 http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/the-haves-and-t...
    - edko 10y ago
      Well, if being homeless in the US is such a privilege, then I must concede that income inequality must not be such a bad thing after all.
xhdjdjjxjs 10y ago
Yes, all of them.

by edko 10y ago

Rather than start a dialectic, let's consider concrete examples: is there any society with a large income inequality that also has a world-class standard of living for all of its members?

dsacco 10y ago

Yes: the United States. EDIT: This answer probably comes across as cavalier and perhaps dismissive without some sort of effort to substantiate my claim, so I'll edit this in: The United States ranks sixth in the world for median cost-adjusted household income. It ranks highly, along with many European countries, for overall quality of life, according to the Quality of Life Index (2016) - countries like Switzerland and Germany are higher, while countries like the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan are lower. Quality of life can be a vague and murky measurement, but pretty much every index attempting to measure it presents the same set of countries topping the list. The US is not perfect, and I'll accept arguments that it would be better off with less income inequality, but I'd like to see evidence that this is the case.

edko 10y ago
Every year, 3.5 million people in the US experience homelessness.
- dsacco 10y ago
  I assume you're getting your data from here[1]. I'd counter by asking which modern society does not have homeless citizens. Particularly, which countries that rank more highly than the US in the Quality of Life or Human Development Indices? The other challenge I have is that homeless in America enjoy a quality of life patently superior to that present in nearly every class virtually everywhere else in the world. Sure, homeless in the US are not as well off as the middle class in Switzerland, but they're certainly better off than the median individual in India, Peru, Pakistan, Syria or Zambia (to name a few from what would be a long and saddening list). The resources consumed by, and available to, homeless citizens of the US make them look like citizens of Elysium in comparison to those nations. To flesh out one example - the bottom 5% of Americans are about as wealthy as the top 5% of Indians.[2] [1]: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/How_Many.html http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/How_Many.html [2]: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/the-haves-and-the-have-nots/?_r=0 http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/the-haves-and-t...
  - edko 10y ago
    Well, if being homeless in the US is such a privilege, then I must concede that income inequality must not be such a bad thing after all.

xhdjdjjxjs 10y ago

Yes, all of them.