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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (800377)	8/8/2014 2:15:41 PM
From: i-node	1 Recommendation Recommended By TideGlider Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577500

>> Our review of the data, as well as a wealth of research on this matter, leads us to conclude that the current level of income inequality in the U.S. is dampening GDP growth, at a time when the world's biggest economy is struggling to recover from the Great Recession and the government is in need of funds to support an aging population. You know, I really wouldn't argue against the idea that some of the most extreme wealth (Gates, Buffett, Waltons, etc.) is suboptimal, economically speaking. It could happen that the amount of investment available is overkill in a given economic environment. But the question becomes, "What do you do about it?" -- and that is difficult. Because there are really no examples of government doing a better job, economically speaking, of allocating resources than markets. Even when the motives are righteous, when government gets involved the waste and abuse sucks up so much of the capital that any beneficial value is lost in the translation. There are tons of examples, but since I do a lot of work with medical software the obvious one is Electronic Medical Records, which government put in excess of $30 Billion into and that has been a total productivity bust. The HealthCare.gov website is another example. You know about software development; and you realize that site should never have taken even a small fraction of what we spent on it and will continue to spend on it for years to come. The bill for fixing the problems at VA included a billion dollars for a new scheduling system. That is an absurd amount of money for it; even $100 Million would be. This is the reason Buffett said, when interviewed by 60 Minutes about giving his wealth to the Gates Foundation, that he thought the foundation could do a better job of allocating his capital (i.e., his estate) than government could. Of course it can. So, he's doing everything he can to avoid HIS money getting into GOVERNMENT hands. As he should. So, even if a mathematically suboptimal situation exists WRT inequality, it is not possible to improve on it, which makes it, practically, optimal. Because there is nothing you can do to improve upon it.