I Already Googled It

In response to this:

Justine Semmens – writing about income inequality — seems to miss a fundament of statistical analysis: That correlation does not imply causation.  That is to say, that just because two things correlate with one another in an analysis of relevant statistics, does not mean that those two things are related or that one causes the other.

Just because income inequality is high in certain (or most/all) third world nations, and not in select first world nations, does not mean that income inequality is the herald of a third world nation.  Justine “cherry picks” two highly socialist first world nations (and economic analysis shows that Scandanavia’s shift towards socialism in the 70s and 80s caused economic stagnation) and a very highly indebted first world nation (Japan’s debt-to-GDP exceeds 200% according to the IMF) for the comparison-in-question.  We can see that the U.S. — for example — has — both historically and presently — had high income inequality, and yet it is definitely not a third world nation.

 Income inequality is an irrelevant measure.  We should not be concerned with how many people have how much money as compared to others, but rather how they got that money.

 The trend increasingly is crony capitalism: Surviving off the taxpayer and political connections.  This is what must end.

 We must not be distracted/misled into replacing the free exchange of goods and wealth with state coercion and redistribution.  That’s been tried before.  It ends in disaster, suffering, and misery.