(Opinion) As Barry Ritholtz Says, It’s Awesome Being Poor Today
‘The problem with the first sentence is that it’s a statement of belief, little more, and one which entirely cuts off the possibility of discussing the point that we actually need to discuss. For example, let’s toddle back to Louis XIV. Take off the top 0.1 % of society and there was much greater equality than there is today. Also vastly more poverty up to and including out and out starvation. I don’t think it’s immediately obvious that that’s the correct way to think of economic well being, that the greater equality makes up for the generally lower standard. Don’t forget, the average income back then was some $2, maybe $3, a day at current American prices. The medieval peasant really did live as we would if we had $3 a day in a Walmart with which to feed, clothe, heat and house ourselves. Thus only a relative measure to others in our time and place just isn’t doing the subject justice, is it?”