Robert J. Samuelson: Myth-making about economic inequality
Unless you are exceptionally coldblooded, it's hard not to be
disturbed by today's huge economic inequality.   Enlarge photo»
WASHINGTON — Unless you are exceptionally coldblooded, it's hard
not to be disturbed by today's huge economic inequality. The gap
between the rich and the poor is enormous, wider than most
Americans would (almost certainly) wish. But this incontestable
reality has made economic inequality a misleading intellectual
fad, blamed for many of our problems. Actually, the reverse is
true: Economic inequality is usually a consequence of our
problems and not a cause.  For starters, the poor are not poor
because the rich are rich. The two conditions are generally
unrelated. Mostly, the rich got rich by running profitable small
businesses (car dealerships, builders), creating big enterprises
(Google, Microsoft), being at the top of lucrative occupations
(lawyers, doctors, actors, athletes), managing major companies
or inheriting fortun