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monadINtop

Thomas Piketty's book on the matter should have enough for you.

http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Piketty2015AER.pdf

https://wid.world/news-article/whats-new-about-wealth-inequa...

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10888-010-9155-y

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Piketty is all about wealth inequality. I'm asking for numbers substantiating the contention about "obvious declination in [American] living standards" upthread, which isn't something Piketty speaks to.

I'm all for discussing other issues in their own space and with clarity, but if people come to a discussion about income and start citing things that are not about income, I'll be honest I don't tend to want to engage. It's vibes, like I said.

I think income inequality is at least part of the story in overall standard of living along with other markers of material wealth, purchasing power, productivity, wage-stagnation, etc.

What numbers in particular do you think could be more useful?

> I think income inequality is at least part of the story in overall standard of living along

And I think that's bunk, because what other people are making or can afford says absolutely nothing about my financial situation. If your next door neighbor wins the lottery, does that make you poorer? If they lose their job, are you richer? No.

Income inequality is a different issue. I'm happy to discuss it, but not if I have to start by defending a (wildly incorrect!) assertion that standards of living are going down and not up.

Do you think a decades long trend of upward concentration of wealth is remotely equatable to my next door neighbor winning the lottery? Where do you think that money even comes from?

>because what other people are making or can afford says absolutely nothing about my financial situation

No offence but I don't care about your financial situation. I care about the financial situation of most people, and if they increasingly can't afford necessities like housing or food I also really couldn't care less that the numbers going into their bank account have gone up since last year.

My point is material goods and economic markers can increase on paper whilst people can increasingly be restricted from the housing market, career prospects, and other factors not easily reflected in said markers. If you are interested in defending the fact that those markers are indeed doing fine then you're in a debate with yourself. The relevance of those markers is not obvious, or trivial to justify in relation to the actual world people are living in

> Do you think a decades long trend of upward concentration of wealth is remotely equatable to my next door neighbor winning the lottery?

I think it's not about income or living standards, which is what you started talking about. So I'm not interested in discussing it with you in this thread because I don't trust you to treat the ideas with precision and good faith.

I never started talking about income, that was you, and if you can't see the relation between wealth and living standards than maybe it's for the best you don't discuss it at all.

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