3 ms·
The concept of a 'historical baseline' is nonsensical. As you extend your timeline, inequality is going to decrease because most human societies have not had th
by AlotOfReading 6y ago
The concept of a 'historical baseline' is nonsensical. As you extend your timeline, inequality is going to decrease because most human societies have not had the kinds of disparity we measure today. Moreover, we're not beholden to historical norms of any sort. Collective action can change things. It's happened quite a lot historically.
If you insist on a specific citation, check out Ten Thousand Years of Inequality. The editors (whose detailed reasoning I ultimately disagree with) have spent years doing papers on this subject.
- fullshark 6y agoI think it's worth considering the post WW2 period as possibly exceptional in the planet's history, and understanding why that may have been, and what can be done policy wise to extend the best parts of it.
- jandrese 6y agoIt was exceptional for the US because the infrastructure wasn't bombed out and were very well poised to supply goods to a rebuilding Europe. International shipping wasn't efficient enough to outsource the jobs to countries with low wages so there was actual opportunity for the middle class to grow and get ahead.
- leereeves 6y agoAnd now, the US is more unequal that any country in Europe, according to UN rankings. [1] 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq...
- mattmanser 6y agoExceptional as in there are no longer slaves and a bunch of rich people with swords killing anyone who disagrees with them? As that's not "exceptional", that's justice.
- positr0n 6y agoExceptional as in "unusual, not typical" not as in "awesome, outstanding"