Some Thoughts on Income and Wealth Inequality

a) The biggest determinants of inequality are age (the largest demographic among the highest earners is 45 to 54), number of workers per family (the top quintile has four times as many workers per family - 2:.5 on average - than does the bottom quintile), and education/skills/human capital (people in the bottom quintile generally possessing little more than a high-school diploma and/or GED).............b) Government regulation disproportionately harms small businesses (according to the BBB, the cost of compliance per worker is 40% greater) and in many instances even bars entry into the market (certificates of necessity, they call it). Talk about a war on the middle class.............c) Sin taxes disproportionately harm people in the bottom quintile in that more people in that category smoke and the tax itself is regressive (thank you, Mrs Cuomo, Bloomberg, de Blasio, etc.).............d) One of the major reasons why the median income has flattened out is the high cost of healthcare. Businesses would like to raise wages but can't because the benefit packages have gotten so expensive.............e) If you look at the actual human beings that comprise these income groups, you would notice that the majority of those in the bottom quintile are out of it in less than a decade (the actual human beings in the bottom quintile in 1996 saw their incomes rise by 91% in nine years - and this is adjusted for inflation), and that the majority of those in the top 1% are out of that group in less than a decade (the actual human beings in the top 1% in 1996 saw their incomes DECREASE by 26% during that same time frame).............f) These income inequality numbers are almost always figured on a pre-taxed basis and they almost always never include the myriad of transfer payments which the poor have long been eligible for. Adjust the stats for this and the disparity shrinks considerably.