Lance Weatherbee

Measuring the health of a society based on the gap between the richest and poorest is fundamentally wrong. It is just a convenient way for looters to create resentment, because a gap tells you nothing about whether anyone's life got better. Run the test. If everyone's real income doubles but the top doubles faster, the gap widens and every person on earth is better off. If the richest lose half their money and nobody else gains a dollar, the gap narrows and not one poor family is helped. A measure that calls the first a failure and the second a success is tracking envy, not wellbeing. Then look at who we are calling poor. A household below the poverty line in America typically has electricity, running hot water, central heat, a refrigerator, a stove, a microwave, air conditioning, a television, a smartphone and a car. That phone carries the accumulated knowledge of the human race and a map of the planet. A hundred years ago no king had any of it. In 1960 most middle-class families had about half. That is what a century of production bought, and none of it came from closing a gap. It came from men building things and selling them cheaper than the year before. The gap gets cited because it never closes and never runs out. A permanent grievance with a permanent remedy attached, which is taking more.