{"id":4349,"date":"2010-09-17T20:34:15","date_gmt":"2010-09-18T00:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=4349"},"modified":"2010-09-17T21:05:06","modified_gmt":"2010-09-18T01:05:06","slug":"more-great-divergence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2010\/09\/17\/more-great-divergence\/","title":{"rendered":"more “Great Divergence”…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I think Timothy Noah’s series [the “Great Divergence”…<\/a><\/strong>] is terrific, so these comments are just some things that I think – not intended to detract from his helpful research. I’ve already said that I think he looked at the technology revolution the wrong way [wealth inequity revisited…<\/font><\/strong><\/a><\/font><\/strong>]. He looked at the direct effect. I think he should’ve considered how the tool that the technological revolution allowed an army of MBA’s and Investors to increasingly refine their skills and move profits "upward." And I’ve agreed with SovereignMind’s point that the data presented comp[aring Democrats and Republicans was flawed [more about wealth inequity<\/em>…<\/strong><\/a>]. But before looking at Noah’s comments about the Conservative arguments, I’d like to point an area where I think Noah might have been off track. He gives the radical tax structure changes and financial deregulation much less impact that I think it deserves:<\/p>\n

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What’s called the "Great Compression<\/strong>"  started with FDR’s heavy taxation of the rich\/super-rich to pay for the war and reversed with Reagan’s "untaxation." Whether that was a direct effect or some complex piece of a larger puzzle, the concordance is too striking to pass off as 5% in my book. Likewise, the financial restrictions and regulation during the New Deal and the gradual "deregulation" beginning with Reagan are equally suspect as important parentheses. <\/p>\n

The other factor that Noah doesn’t address as directly as it deserves is just plain old human greed<\/font><\/strong>. The super-rich have been ruthless without being held in check. They’re greedy people<\/font><\/strong> – by definition…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think Timothy Noah’s series [the “Great Divergence”…] is terrific, so these comments are just some things that I think – not intended to detract from his helpful research. I’ve already said that I think he looked at the technology revolution the wrong way [wealth inequity revisited…]. He looked at the direct effect. I think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}