Here comes the war on income inequality!

[spence]

Originally Posted by detbuch

Is Quantitative Easing organic growth? Is redistribution of wealth (money) organic growth? If money is wealth, and it can be printed at will, then, indeed, wealth is infinite.

QE can certainly enable organic growth, but infinite quantitative easing would invalidate the premise of currency.

If the top 1% have an unequally high percent of income (money), do they actually have that percent of "wealth," or just that much more ability to buy "wealth"? And if they actually did buy that amount of "wealth," what would, or could, they do with it? They could not possibly consume or use it. Unless they could rent it, or sell it, it would go to waste and do them no good. If they were to rent or sell it, they would have to demand enough return, or they would lose monetary value. In order to get a "fair" or profitable return, the buyers would have to have adequate income to pay. In a market "economy" that would resolve itself to the advantage of both parties.

That assumes a growing economy and it also ignores the fact that "adequate income" isn't distributed evenly.

In an "economy" that is more controlled than free, those who manipulate the levers of control can reap advantage over the disadvantage of others. For that to happen, there has to be a crony partnership between government and those in bed with it.

Which certainly exists. Decentralization of power may be attractive here...or inefficiencies created by a lower economy of scale may just make up the difference.

When government usurps power by diminishing either partner in a market trade to the advantage of the other, whether toward oligarchic or egalitarian goals, it distorts the market and can do so to the point that it is destroyed.

Let's dissolve the lobbying industry and enact term limits.

Manipulating (regulating) markets by favoring winners over losers, legislating pay scales creating "equality" or "inequality" will create failures which eventually must be "fixed."

Well, it also can provide beneficial normalization. A healthy economy trickles up and down. Given that it "takes money to make money" a lack of regulatory forces would result in faster consolidation at the top that we're even seeing today...I don't think over-regulation is the problem, we need the right regulations and apply them consistently.

-spence