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I love a story that has two of my favorite things, economics and candy corn. In this short audio clip the income growth of poor, middle income, and wealthy (top one percent) Americans is explained. Are you surprised by which groups income has grown the most?
This is a topic that is looked at often in Public Economics courses if you are interested. One measure of income equality is the Gini coefficient. If the Gini coefficient is 0, then income is completely equal, and if it is 1 then it is the highest possible inequality. For the record the USA has a Gini coefficient in the .45-.49 range (according to Wikipedia). In your opinion should the Gini coefficient be 0? Or, is some inequality a good thing? I'll admit that the Occupy Wall Street campaign has lasted a lot longer then I expected it would. This article gives a little bit of a background on the "conflict", but is also cool because of the what percent are you tool. So, let's assume you have a monthly budget of $1,500 dollars that comes from either working, your parents, loans/scholarships, or a combination of all three. Work that out to cover a year and it looks like you make $18,000 a year. Plug that into the calculator (along with your actual "income") and see where that puts you. Are you suprised by this? Do you feel ashamed that about a fifth of America makes less than you (in this scenario)? If you could, would you go join the movement? As a sidenote, Steve Jobs was comfortably in the top 1%. Are you happier that he created the iPhone, iPad, iEtc. or can you not "tolerate the greed and corruption" of this top percenter.  |
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