The Wrong Reply From Phil Gramm and John F. Early to Income Inequality Complainers

Phil Gramm, former chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and John Early, who served twice as assistant commissioner at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are out with an essay in The Wall Street Journal,The Truth About Income Inequality.

They argue against the income inequality complainers, but they respond incorrectly.

They argue that there is already a significant amount being done to shrink income inequality:

Any debate about further redistribution of income needs to be tethered to these facts. America already redistributes enough income to compress the income difference between the top and bottom quintiles from 60 to 1 in earned income down to 3.8 to 1 in income received.

But this "micromanaging of income equality" answer is not the correct answer if one has in mind an increase in the general standard of living.

As I have explained before, there is nothing wrong with income inequality. In fact, there are a lot of good things to be said for it:




-RW