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Pauls' Revere
10-19-2009, 01:39 AM
The USA came in at number three (3) !!

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/107980/countries-with-the-biggest-gaps-between-rich-and-poor

Gini score: 40.8
GDP 2007 (US$ billions): 13,751.4
Share of income or expenditure (%)
Poorest 10%: 1.9
Richest 10%: 29.9
Ratio of income or expenditure, share of top 10% to lowest 10%: 15.9

The share of income for the top percentile of Americans was 23.5% in 2007, the highest since 1928, according to Emmanuel Saez, a Berkeley economist who won the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal in April. Income for the top 0.01% hit a record-high 6.04%. And the recession may be exacerbating income inequality

hugolp
10-19-2009, 02:00 AM
Does it really surprise you? You have become a very socialistic country.

jt8025
10-19-2009, 05:21 AM
I think the more free market capitalist a country, the larger the gap would be because productive people are not held back by higher taxes and regulations on the productive sector and the lazy people would be allowed to have nothing if that is what they chose.

The more a government plays Robin Hood the lower you should be on this list. It somewhat surprises me that we are this high.

SelfTaught
10-19-2009, 05:38 AM
I think the more free market capitalist a country, the larger the gap would be because productive people are not held back by higher taxes and regulations on the productive sector and the lazy people would be allowed to have nothing if that is what they chose.

The more a government plays Robin Hood the lower you should be on this list. It somewhat surprises me that we are this high.

I think your thinking is a little flawed. Real free markets would make it more likely for a poor person to get rich. There would be more room for competition so big companies would find harder to maintain their market share. What we have right now is a system where regulations, subsidies, and bailouts help rich people stay rich and allow large companies stay large. It also makes it harder for a new player to enter the market and challenge the larger companies.

This is what happens in all socialist, communist, fascists countries. There are two classes: the politically well connected, and everybody else. It's pretty nieve for all the lefties to think that these systems work in the interest of the public at large. The rest is just rhetoric.

Fr3shjive
10-19-2009, 05:50 AM
Im no economist but I dont see how a wealth gap is bad. If you look at the list those are some of the best nations in the world. Sure there may be a big difference between the top and the bottom but the standard of living in all of those countries are pretty high.

specsaregood
10-19-2009, 05:50 AM
As usual, Dr. Paul already addressed and predicted this. And as usual, he found the same disease causing it.

Republican Debate Transcript, Detroit, Michigan
Published October 9, 2007

Congressman Paul, I think you have questions and concerns about the bonanza in the hedge fund industry. Do you?

PAUL: Yes. I think this is not a consequence of free markets. What's happening is, there's transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the wealthy.

PAUL: This comes about because of the monetary system that we have. When you inflate a currency or destroy a currency, the middle class gets wiped out.

So the people who get to use the money first which is created by the Federal Reserve system benefit. So the money gravitates to the banks and to Wall Street.

That's why you have more billionaires than ever before. Today, this country is in the middle of a recession for a lot of people. Michigan knows about it. Poor people know about it. The middle class knows about it. Wall Street doesn't know about it. Washington, D.C., doesn't know about it.

But it's because of the monetary system and the excessive spending. As long as we live beyond our means we are destined to live beneath our means.

And we have lived beyond our means because we are financing a foreign policy that is so extravagant and beyond what we can control, as well as the spending here at home.

And we're depending on the creation of money out of thin air, which is nothing more than debasement of the currency. It's counterfeit. And it is a natural, predictable consequence that you're going to have people benefit from it and other people suffer.

PAUL: So, if you want a healthy economy, you have to study monetary theory and figure out why it is that we're suffering. And everybody doesn't suffer equally, or this wouldn't be so bad.

It's always the poor people -- those who are on retired incomes -- that suffer the most. But the politicians and those who get to use the money first, like the military industrial complex, they make a lot of money and they benefit from it.

MATTHEWS: Thank you, Congressman.

(APPLAUSE)

Austrian Econ Disciple
10-19-2009, 05:58 AM
These rankings are meaningless. The monetary denomination doesn't matter. The purchasing power does. For example, the "ultra-wealthy" investors, in a free-market would, of course have the highest percentage of assets, and thus, wealth. Without these people there would be little capital to invest. Likewise, if you had a society that was largely equalized, there would be little capital to invest, thus, negative growth. Secondly, in a free-market society, your purchasing power wouldn't be wiped out by inflation like in every "modern economy" today. So, while yes, there would be income disparity, this is for good reasons, meanwhile the economy would be growing quite a bit steadily, and the AVERAGE PERSONS PURCHASING POWER would be increasing, not decreasing. So while the average person may not own near as much assets as the wealthy, they would enjoy a far better lifestyle than any other industrious nation.

Stupid rankings are stupid.

Kludge
10-19-2009, 06:25 AM
:eek: Market liberalism causes disparities in wealth due to disparities in success?! Shocking. I thought we were all equal!