Book club: The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution

[*michaelsean*]

(05-23-2018, 05:04 PM)Belsnickel Wrote:

I purposefully tried to discuss some of the ideas and themes to see if it intrigued anyone. I doubt many, if any, will read this book as well. But there are some interesting talking points.

For instance, there was apparently a book a couple of years ago that estimated Gini coefficients (look it up if you don't know what it is) for historical times. They found that the Gini coefficient in 1774 America was .441, .409 removing slaves from the equation. The coefficient runs from 0 to 1, with 0 being a completely egalitarian society with no income inequality and 1 at the opposite end. So the closer to one, the more unequal the society. Our Gini coefficient for the US in 2012 was .463.

We are experiencing higher economic inequality than what existed during the days of slavery!

It's interesting, but I'm probably a better spectator.  I mean in my head we can talk about income inequality from the days of slavery, but virtually everybody has a hand held computer that would embarrass any computer found on an Apollo spacecraft.  I understand that's quality of life vs income inequality, but still...things can't be that bad.