Inequality is usually only looked at at the national level. But it should be looked at at the international level.
For the decades following WWII, Americans didn’t have to compete with much of the world. Those economies were closed off and burdened by counterproductive rules and restrictions. American workers had the leverage to extract more income.
But once those countries opened up, Americans had more competitors. Most Americans still sit comfortably in the GLOBAL 1%, but now many more people around the world have the income to do things like buy medicine, have sanitary and safe living conditions, go to school, and even retire. More people are living longer, healthier lives and fewer are having to bury their children.
Economic systems are very very complicated, and trying to explain them in a way that humans will even begin to wrap their minds around requires assumptions and simplifications. But it’s better to have a profession that is iteratively improving our understanding of human behavior and incentives than leaving it to our evidently flawed instincts and intuitions that has led us down the path to human suffering more times than not.
For the decades following WWII, Americans didn’t have to compete with much of the world. Those economies were closed off and burdened by counterproductive rules and restrictions. American workers had the leverage to extract more income.
But once those countries opened up, Americans had more competitors. Most Americans still sit comfortably in the GLOBAL 1%, but now many more people around the world have the income to do things like buy medicine, have sanitary and safe living conditions, go to school, and even retire. More people are living longer, healthier lives and fewer are having to bury their children.
Economic systems are very very complicated, and trying to explain them in a way that humans will even begin to wrap their minds around requires assumptions and simplifications. But it’s better to have a profession that is iteratively improving our understanding of human behavior and incentives than leaving it to our evidently flawed instincts and intuitions that has led us down the path to human suffering more times than not.