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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

A Closer Look at Income Inequality

Mises Daily: Monday, March 31, 2014 by Andrew Syrios

has called it the “defining challenge of our time” and the number of books being published on the subject could fill a small library. Of particular note is a survey by Michael Norton and Dan Ariely of 5,000 Americans asking what they thought wealth inequality should be compared to what it actually is. Norton and Ariely asked which of two distributions the survey participants preferred, either that of the United States or Sweden (without knowing what those distributions represented). Here’s what they were given:.......

Needless to say, 92 percent chose Sweden. This survey has become all the buzz on the progressive left and a Youtube video about the study has gone viral with over 14 million views. Not surprisingly, however, there are enormous problems with this analysis. First and foremost, Norton and Ariely used Sweden’s income distribution instead of wealth because “... it provided a clearer contrast.” I’m sure the left’s love affair with Sweden and an attempt to stack the deck had nothing to do with it. The top 20 percent in Sweden actually own 73 percent of the wealth (in the United States it’s 85 percent).....To Read More.....

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