≈35 minutes to read. Why do some people earn more money than others? The overly simplistic answer from neoclassical economics is that people earn what they produce. If a doctor earns four times as much as her pastor it is…
Blog Archives
An unearned wealth tax would help stop rising inequality.
The main source of rising inequality in the US has been the rising incomes of the top 1% richest Americans relative to everyone else. Sure, the top 25% highest-income households have been doing fine, but their incomes haven’t been rising…
Posted in Inequality, Public Finance
Prejudice is inefficient and often hurts the people with the prejudices — sometimes as much or more than their targets.
Inequality due to discrimination is inefficient and can even hurt the people at the top. For example, the slave states were economically backward and although the white elites were rich, they weren’t growing the size of their economy as much…
Posted in Discrimination, Inequality
The minimum wage is nearly dead
The federal government has just set the record for the longest period of time without an increase in the minimum wage to keep up with inflation. The minimum wage has now been ignored for over a decade and Kevin Drum…
Capital in the 21st century
Thomas Piketty’s blockbuster bestselling economics 816-page brick is about capital which he defines broadly as all sorts of wealth. Wealth is anything that earns money for its owner and it is extremely unequally distributed. The richest 1% own almost half…
Posted in Inequality
1/3 of Bloomberg articles are written by artificial intelligence!
Artificial intelligence and automation is taking over more and more jobs. Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo recently produced research confirming that: the recent stagnation of labor demand is explained by an acceleration of automation, particularly in manufacturing, and a deceleration…
Posted in Globalization & International, Inequality
World inequality updates
Last month the World Inequality Lab, located at the Paris School of Economics, released their first World Inequality Report. Here is one result: The top 1% richest people saw their income growth skyrocket and the poorest people in the world…
Posted in Inequality
Medianism 