The "law" of wealth concentration

[kelley]

At 03:36 PM 8/16/00 -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Carl Remick quoted:
>
>>Every country in the world has a few rich people and then a long tail of 
>>poorer and poorer people. In fact, not only does a filthy-rich minority 
>>always hog most of the wealth, but the mathematical form of the 
>>distribution is the same everywhere.
>
>"Almost the same" is a bit overstated. I'm curious what data they use on 
>wealth distribution, since there's not much in the way of internationally 
>comparable data. There is with income distribution, the Luxembourg Income 
>Study, and there are some differences between countries that are less 
>trivial than this piece would lead you to believe.
>
>For example, I just happened to be reading a study by Chicago Fed 
>economists comparing income distribution in five countries 
><http://www.frbchi.org/pubs-speech/publications/periodicals/ep/2000/2qep1.pdf>. 
>In the U.S., the income of a household (after taxes and transfers) at the 
>80th percentile is 9 times that of one at the 20th. In Canada, it's 6; in 
>Germany, 5; in Sweden and FInland, 4. Those aren't minor differences.
>
>Apropos of a thread the other day, the article also makes the point that 
>the U.S. has the most progressive income tax of the 5 countries, with 
>Sweden and Finland having a near-proportional (flat) income tax. But the 
>tax system has only a minor effect on the distribution of after-tax 
>income; what matters is the transfer system. Nathan had a hard time 
>believing this, but it's right there in black & white.

transfer system?  what's that?  the way those tax revenues are dist and 
used in programs?