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

To: i-node who wrote (922813)	2/23/2016 5:17:33 PM
From: combjelly	1 Recommendation Recommended By bentway Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571245

While people complain that the US has a high GINI coefficient, the reality is it hasn't change that much over time. I suppose it depends on how you define "that much". It has increased, and increased a lot, since the end of WWII. Granted, there was one other time when the GINI was close to where it is now. That resulted in the Great Depression. individuals enjoying the fruits of their own labor, something Adam Smith himself would have appreciated. No and no. People at the top don't labor. Most have never done so. Most are similar to Trump. They were handed all kinds of advantages by their parents including money, education and most importantly, connections. And Adam Smith hated wealth concentrations. Saw them as perverting the free market. If for no other reason, the very wealthy mainly engage in rent seeking. Adam Smith's perfect market, like many of our Founder's ideal, consisted of a large number of small merchant and/or farmers who had roughly the same amount of wealth and competed on equal footing. Both loathed the very wealthy.