Conservative Students

[JayHecht at aol.com]

There was an interesting piece in Barron's tracing out the ratio of the
mean/median income and citing a wall street economistr who claimed that the
earnings inequality was related to tech change, exports, and (something else I
can't recall).  Hacker's proposal to tax incomes above 200K at 100% was also
ridiculed.

I handed out the article and wanted to get my students reaction (this was a
banking and financial institutions course).

Except for the +40 year old, nobody was buying the Hacker argument.  I brought
up Doug's SCF FRB data and they were pretty shocked that 90% of bonds were
owned by those with +$135,000 in income.  Even those getting poor grades
defended cutting taxes and not limiting earnings.  An accounting major did
suggest taxing passive income like inheritance.

Jason