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>> the gap between the poor and mega-wealthy doesn't matter as much as the actual conditions of the poor. I expect that when most people talk about the gap the

• roenxi 6y ago
  Then they don't mean inequality. That is talking about a living standards. Inequality problems can be very effectively by taking stuff away from the wealthy. That doesn't work for a living standards problem because there isn't enough real stuff for it to work. Look at the real amount of resources consumed by the mega wealthy and divide it by the number of poor people - the results aren't very impressive. Not the paper wealth, but real consumption. Jeff Bezos for example may make billions on paper, but his actual personal consumption isn't going to be anywhere near that amount in goods and services. Distribute his real consumption to the poor in New York and it won't make much of a difference, especially over the long term. But absolute inequality would noticeably drop. The poor would appreciate it, but it isn't going to solve systemic living standards problems.