I Dream of Gini

The most reliable indicator of economic inequality is the Gini Coefficient, named for an Italian economist and statistician.

It works like this: if a society consisted of two families, one of which had everything and the other of which had nothing, the Gini coefficient of that society would be 1.0.

If a society consisted of 10 families, one of which owned half that society's wealth, the coefficient would be .5.

According to my source, "most developed European nations tend to have Gini coefficients between 0.24 and 0.36, the United States Gini coefficient is above 0.4, indicating that the United States has greater inequality."

During the time Krugman talked about in his speech, the Eisenhower days, the U.S. Gini coefficient was about .375. By 1970 it reached its low point: .353. In 2000, just before Geo. W. Bush took office, the last year for which the figure is available, it had climbed to .43.

With Bush's tax cuts and other corporate welfare programs, it is rapidly moving toward .5, if it hasn't got there already.

This is an intolerable level of economic inequality. It spells widespread poverty. The cause of it is greed, or to put it another way, the "free" market.

Free for whom, I'd like to know.