All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white working class

Re:All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white w... by anon4 on Tuesday January 19, 2016 @03:51AM (#10929431)

Well, of course inequality itself is not the problem. If a loaf of bread costs 0.20$ and rent is 50$/month, while keeping all salaries at their current level. However, inequality has a definite effect on economics and prices, so we can deduce that if the ratio of the two salaries were greater than it already is, while the job remains the exact same, then his mother would be in a worse position.

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Re:All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white w... by yummyfajitas on Tuesday January 19, 2016 @04:51AM (#10929625)

I should have clarified that I meant those dollar figures in real terms. In the scenario I'm describing one of them can buy 2x as many things while the other can buy 3x.

Inflation is a separate problem.

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Re:All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white w... by ACow_Adonis on Tuesday January 19, 2016 @05:52AM (#10929873)

Well of course inflation is a separate problem if you define figures in real terms...that's essentially a tautology, since real is defined as nominal minus inflation.

Back in the real world however, the relative price/value/production of things is not a separate problem...and since I'm guessing most people's objections to inequality is not its effects in some hypothetical world where all concepts are independent, but in the real world where they all connected, I'm not sure hypotheticals of this nature are often that useful...

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Re:All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white w... by yummyfajitas on Tuesday January 19, 2016 @06:47AM (#10930065)

Hypotheticals of this nature are useful for figuring out our terminal values. If the situation I described does not make the OP more sad, then inequality is not the ultimate problem.

If you want to claim that inequality somehow causes poverty (and poverty is the real problem), make that case.

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Re:All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white w... by sangnoir on Tuesday January 19, 2016 @07:07AM (#10930153)

>> However, inequality has a definite effect on economics and prices, so we can deduce that if the ratio of the two salaries were greater than it already is, while the job remains the exact same, then his mother would be in a worse position

> Inflation is a separate problem

It's not just inflation: supply/demand dynamics will be changed across income levels. For example bidding wars might cause rentals to go up, and the mother will be outbid (see: gentrification or recent news on San Franciso rents)

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