Illustrating inequality with Hundredville

It’s a pet peeve of mine when people obsess about income inequality. I’ve written about it before (see this for example). Here, I have a new way to illustrate why fear and loathing of inequality is overblown. Why do I care? Many reasons. Inequality isn’t a major problem. Obsessing about it is irrational. Envy isn’t …

Are middle-class incomes stagnant?

It’s a fairly common complaint that middle-class incomes have stagnated, or that the average worker is paid no better than in 1975 or 1980. How true is this? Let’s take a look. Hourly wage rate Let’s first look at the average hourly wage rate that gets a lot of press. The graph below shows average …

Another reason why focusing on inequality is flawed

I want to tie together two recent posts on the history of prosperity and economic inequality. The history of prosperity illustrates another reason why a focus on inequality is misguided. Historical norm was poverty For most of human history, almost everyone was poor by today’s standards. The graph below shows the percentage of world population living …

Why inequality is less of a problem than you think

Some people believe that economic inequality is literally the biggest problem we face. I will try to explain why such concerns are overblown. If you missed it, last week’s post discussed how much inequality we have in the US. Warped thinking Fixating on income inequality can warp one’s thinking. Strong words, but true. Income inequality is …

How much inequality does the US have?

There are some people who believe that economic inequality is literally the biggest problem we face. I generally disagree. This topic is too large for one post. In this one, I’ll cover how much inequality we have in the US. In the next one, I’ll explain why inequality is less of a problem than commonly …

Facts and flaws of the CEO pay ratio

You may soon read or hear media reports about a “CEO pay ratio.” Let’s look at the facts and flaws of this ratio. What is it? Each publicly traded US company is required to publicly disclose the CEO pay ratio. This requirement was included in the massive 2010 Dodd-Frank financial legislation, although it was delayed …

Crony Capitalism ≠ Capitalism

One reason people don’t like capitalism is because they think it is unfair. One reason people think capitalism is unfair is because they believe that crony capitalism is the same as free-market capitalism. It is not. In fact, crony capitalism is closer to the opposite of free-market capitalism. What is crony capitalism? Crony capitalism is …

Are CEO’s overpaid?

You may have seen headlines saying that CEO’s make 300 times more money than the average worker. These can be deceptive. The data may not be comparable, or cherry-picked for “wow” factor based on only the largest companies. I realize this post may be unpopular, even though it is not a full defense of CEO …