Recently, the press, bloggers and some economists have put too much emphasis on income equality. They focused on measures that indicate how much richer the rich are than the average person or the poor, instead of the quality of life of the average or poor person in the US.
Most people, on a day to day basis, do not care if someone in another part of the country can own a yacht or airplane. Most people just care about their own and their family's daily lives. It is satisfying the needs of their families and themselves that is their major concern.
With that frame of mind, Mark Perry's post on Carpe Diem is very relevant, "
The "Good Old Days" Are Now and It Gets Better All the Time, Thanks to Free-Market Capitalism."
The basic thrust is that living standards for the average person are much better today than they were in 1901. A much smaller share of personal income is spent on food and other essentials and a much larger share is available for discretionary spending today than in the past.
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