Why Decry the Wealth Gap?

Max Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Tue Jan 25 09:23:39 PST 2000


. . . Demography is such bullshite. . . . The relationship between population numbers and income disparity is a fiction . . .

This kind of uninformed vociferousness in response to a simple point, not excluding criticism that takes the form of restating the very point that was being made, suggests a fear of unpleasant facts. There are some, you know.

You can't have it both ways, folks. If you want to rant about the wealth gap, you have to measure it. If you measure it, you must engage the "mysticism of numbers."

Numbers seem to have an inordinate impact in political discourse (except here, maybe). I agree this is undeserved, but it seems to be the case and accounts, incidentally, for the success of EPI. I'm not much of a numbers guy myself, compared to some of my colleagues. But their usefulness for serious politics is beyond question.

Yogi M



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