Re:What if incomes grew like GDP?
by wegs on Thursday December 24, 2020 @08:01PM
(#25533210)
No. Europe has lower income inequality, and higher wealth inequality.
Good numbers are hard to come by since:
1) Much of the wealth inequality in Europe does a nice job of hiding wealth. Old money doesn't talk about wealth. But there are families in Europe with fortunes dating back a half-millennium. A half-millennium of interest, even at the relatively low rates over most of history, is a lot of money.
2) The figures are biased by people with negative wealth (e.g. debt) in ways which are somewhat different from what one would hope to understand.
A model to follow is based on a modernized version of Islam -- a wealth tax.
Good numbers are hard to come by since:
1) Much of the wealth inequality in Europe does a nice job of hiding wealth. Old money doesn't talk about wealth. But there are families in Europe with fortunes dating back a half-millennium. A half-millennium of interest, even at the relatively low rates over most of history, is a lot of money.
2) The figures are biased by people with negative wealth (e.g. debt) in ways which are somewhat different from what one would hope to understand.
A model to follow is based on a modernized version of Islam -- a wealth tax.