I think the main mitigating factor is that while inequality has increased, the poor today are better off than the poor fifty years ago. Real wages have gone up. From what I've read, they're less likely to have suffered periods of hunger, less likely to go without shelter, more likely to own a vehicle and television and have access to the internet. So long as that is true, increased inequality isn't a bad thing, it's simply a thing.
caveat: I can't quite suss out that information from the BLS, I'm running off memory of stats I've once read and can't verify, and might be remembering them completely wrong. So I'm a long way from advocating any course of action. But my point is that while these statistics are shocking, they aren't the statistics that we should concern ourselves with when discussing the plight of the poor. Historical real wages of various quintiles should be at the forefront, but it's noticeably absent and annoyingly hard to find.
Credits & Style Info
Talk Politics. A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 13/4/10 04:28 (UTC)caveat: I can't quite suss out that information from the BLS, I'm running off memory of stats I've once read and can't verify, and might be remembering them completely wrong. So I'm a long way from advocating any course of action. But my point is that while these statistics are shocking, they aren't the statistics that we should concern ourselves with when discussing the plight of the poor. Historical real wages of various quintiles should be at the forefront, but it's noticeably absent and annoyingly hard to find.