I wanted to share a conversation that's occurring in the comments on another post (Income Inequality in America). The original comment was this:

"This was a very thoughtful and well-written article. It is true that income inequality is relative, and irrelevant unless we are comparing it to something. Wouldn't it make the most sense to compare our income inequality to other countries? If we do so using the Gini coefficient we find the United States ranked below Venezuela, China, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Yemen, Russia, etc. We are nestled among Bulgaria, Cameroon, Jamaica and Iran...Is that really where we want to be? (source: https://www.cia.gov/library/pu...)"

First, this assumes that there is a problem illustrated here with no data (at least none provided) showing why that level of inequality is bad. This is such an important point because what everyone that argues about income inequality seems to think is there's some magical corollary between overall quality of life and equality in incomes with nothing to back it up (and all reasonable evidence to the contrary). I refer back to the master on this one:

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I noticed a few articles floating around the Internet yesterday claiming that Boeing, among others paid no federal income taxes over the last three years. However, if you take a look at page 21 of their 10k filing you will notice the following statement; 

"Our effective income tax rate was 26.5%, 22.9% and 33.6% for the years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively. Our effective tax rate was higher in 2010, compared with 2009, primarily because pre-tax book income in 2010 was higher than in 2009 and because of an income tax charge of $150 million recorded during the first quarter of 2010 as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as modified by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. This was partially offset by a tax benefit of $371 million recorded during the fourth quarter of 2010 as a result of settling the 1998-2003 federal audit. Our effective tax rate was lower in 2009, compared with 2008, primarily because tax credits, such as research and development credits, represented a higher proportion of earnings before taxes due to the year-over-year reduction in earnings. For additional discussion related to Income Taxes, see Note 5 to our Consolidated Financial Statements."

They reported income tax expenses of $1,196M, $396M, and $1,341M in 2010, 2009, and 2008 respectively. Doesn't sound like no taxes to us.   

One term I've heard constantly over the past month or two is "income inequality." We've even posted about the statistics regarding the inequality of incomes between the upper and lower classes (see Misdirected Outrage?). We've justified the figures based on growth in all areas and mobility between the classes. And I don't believe we've made an issue of it (I'm sure we will soon, sounds like a good enough topic) but people also seem to forget that we are part of a larger world and it may be a good idea to compare our poverty level with the rest of the world's before we start spouting off about what we "deserve." But back to the matter at hand...

As far as "income inequality" is concerned, that term literally makes me sick. As long as one person makes one penny more than another you have "income inequality." So what, then, is the solution? The only obvious solution to that issue is pure Marxism (you jump way past socialism when you start talking about equality between incomes). Everyone is equal and deserves exactly the same as everyone else.

The only problem is, everyone isn't equal and doesn't deserve the same as everyone else. You will never be able to sell me on the fact that I deserve to make the same amount of money as every single other person in this world simply based on the fact that we're all alive. Not only do you eliminate any incentive for anyone to work at all (let alone for them to work hard and innovate to improve EVERYONE's standard of living) by doing so, but please tell me what's fair about taking from someone who works their ass off and giving to someone who does nothing?

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A friend of mine and I have been going back-and-forth on a lot of the issues we cover here at GoCapitalism and those that are in the news these days. He raised an interesting point the other day that seems to be brought up from time-to-time by someone that's out to prove some massive conspiracy by our banks to control our country. His comments were as follows:

"This whole OWS thing has got me learning more about stuff. More I read, more I think WTF!! The FED is privately owned and they charge the government for printing money..really? Banks can 'borrow' money from the FED and loan out 9 times the amount they have in the bank? FED has all closed door sessions even the government can't get into? Serious lack of transparency that causes all sorts of suspicions (based on what is happening)."

First, the issue of whether or not the Fed is "privately owned". This issue is explained well by G. Edward Griffin in "Creature from Jekyll Island":

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