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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: combjelly who wrote (464637)3/18/2009 1:23:59 PM
From: i-node1 Recommendation  Read Replies (1) of 1576918
 
Sure there is. Just track the Gini and compare it to social conditions. In this country, for example, times when the Gini was high there were also times of greater social problems than when it was low. In addition, as has been pointed out, high Ginis are usually followed by an economic collapse..

Well, first of all the Gini has been trending upward in the USA for many years -- easily since the 60s. So, one could say, "Oh, social conditions have deteriorated over the period from 60-'09, and the Gini has been increasing, therefore, reduced income dispersion causes social problems".

But I'm almost certain you've studied regression and correlation sufficiently to understand that one cannot draw this kind of conclusion as you have (i.e., causation).

We could make precisely the same argument substituting "national debt" for Gini. Or, "Population growth". Or any of 100 other statistics that mean nothing.
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