Our unfortunate tendency to destroy absolute prosperity through battles over relative status

From Idiosyncratic Whisk a blog maintained by Kevin Erdmann, from We Are the 100%.

A complex argument but ending in three critical paragraphs, consistent with my criticism that we are far too focused on relative inequality and not nearly focused enough on increasing overall and individual productivity.

This is not a commentary on safety net policies. Before we consider social support policies, there is the simple point that progress is progress. There is a shocking amount of commentary in this country right now that amounts to saying we should undermine potential growth because it's the wrong kind of growth. Worse still, there are appeals to stagnation that come from confusion, such as misunderstanding the difference between high wage incomes and capital incomes.

The 1990s was a very prosperous time for households with lower incomes. It also happened to be a time when income variance grew and capital income was high. Given the state of technology and the state of the developing world, that is probably what success looks like today - for everyone.

The longstanding challenge of human civilization has been the struggle to overcome our unfortunate tendency to destroy absolute prosperity through battles over relative status.