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> Sure, everyone's quality of life has improved across the board but relative poverty is the important metric. I completely disagree — the total standard of li
by FakeComments 8y ago
> Sure, everyone's quality of life has improved across the board but relative poverty is the important metric.
I completely disagree — the total standard of living is the only one that matters. If you’re better off than you used to be, you’ll keep buying into society and things will keep getting better.
I think there’s four factors:
1. It’s hard to view your status in absolute instead of relative terms, because it requires historical context, so most people misuse relative poverty as a proxy for absolute poverty.
2. People have capitalized on that misperception to advance their political agendas, causing increased civil tensions.
3. There are many unaccounted for things in applied economic models, and their scale could easily call into question our broader choices — and people are routinely told to shut up and stop talking about it. (I usually quip that we have financial architecture, but not financial engineering.)
4. People are afraid that the spread in relative poverty will be used to extort wealth until they’re forced back into absolute poverty — which there are signs of happening.
I agree with your conclusion, broadly. The fix to relative poverty is changing market dynamics so that small businesses are more viable while colossal ones are less so.
- jhayward 8y ago> extort wealth until they’re forced back into absolute poverty — which there are signs of happening. ~~It is hardly sufficient to simply say that this outrageous claim requires enormous proof. Please, show me the billionaires who have been forced in to poverty by social program. Please.~~ Edit: I was misreading the above in exactly the wrong direction, wealth-wise. There is indeed quite a bit of evidence that the economic system, as a whole, is evolving to extract every single dollar of wealth from the lower classes, primarily transferring it to the top class. Health care (especially end-of-life), education, and wage stagnation vs productivity gains are the prime examples.
- FakeComments 8y agoI think I was unclear — I meant people who are relatively poor, but wealthier in absolute terms being extorted by the relatively extremely wealthy until they’re also poor in absolute terms.
- jhayward 8y agoAh, I was absolutely misreading it. Thanks for the clarification.
- AnimalMuppet 8y agoI believe you're misreading that line. I believe the claim is that The Rich will extort wealth from the Becoming Better Off until The Becoming Better Off no longer are becoming better off - until they are forced back to absolute poverty. I still think it's fair to ask for evidence on the "signs of happening" part...
- jhayward 8y agoYes, thank you. I've updated my response with some examples of where I think that very thing is happening.
- kodablah 8y ago> The fix to relative poverty is changing market dynamics so that small businesses are more viable while colossal ones are less so. I was with you until the very last part. Business counts are not zero sum and more often than not a rising tide lifts all boats, dinghies and yachts alike. The ills of colossal businesses can be debated in other areas, but not as a direct relation to poverty or at least not without including the benefits they provide.