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The distribution of income is a decision we’ve made as a society. Over the past few decades we’ve allowed more wealth and income to flow into a smaller number o
by matthewdgreen 7y ago
The distribution of income is a decision we’ve made as a society. Over the past few decades we’ve allowed more wealth and income to flow into a smaller number of hands, then we’ve enacted policies that reduce the effective tax rate on those particular taxpayers. This might be ok if we were collecting enough tax to fund our government, but in an environment where we’re running huge deficits, it’s not ok (nor is it fair, or particularly good for our democracy.) One or both of those things needs to change.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoIt’s also due to technology allowing fewer and fewer people to “own” more of the production in society.
- matthewdgreen 7y agoOver the past thirty years, a lot of the "technology" has been Chinese people building things overseas and shipping it to the US. There's technology in that, but it's mostly logistics and shipping, not robots or anything fancy. NB: I'm not saying automation doesn't matter, or that it won't matter going forward. I'm saying that if no automation had happened at all, we'd almost certainly still be in this situation. The bulk of the distribution changes result from human decisions, not tech.