InCome Inequality

While I found Oliver’s essay on Income Inequality to be interesting, but ultimately misguided. Throughout the entire piece I fail to how the issue of wealth redistribution matters. Oliver cited excellent research on poverty and the changing nature of the American economy and how that can cause human collateral damage but does not get to the core of the issue.

As Oliver alluded to in his piece, income inequality steams from the idea that the top earners in the United States own a disproportionate amount of wealth. When it comes to economic mobility for the average citizen this notion falls flat. It does not matter if the rich are getting richer in the United States, but rather if the individuals who earn less are better off. The progressive taxes that Oliver is pushing would also do little to help lower income earners given that the top “1%” as it were, also contribute disproportionally to the economy in the form of consumer spending and most importantly, investment. Economist such as Milton Freedman and Thomas Sowell have done excellent research in to the true drivers in the American economy. Though we are a consumption driven market, the economic multiplier from investment is far greater than consumption.

Overall, while I enjoyed passages from Oliver’s essay, it did not make much sense to me given his narrative thrust. However, if Oliver were to position the essay in a direction of how to best understand and mitigate poverty, it would be a much stronger rhetorical piece.