I don't automatically assume it's a problem, as so many people seem to. I don't assume that all economic inequality is the medieval type, where the rich are the winners of a zero sum game.
The problem I see with growing income inequality is not the "inequality" part, it's the "growing" one.
From a purely mathematical point of view, in any economic climate there's some level of income inequality that's going to be economically optimal for whatever it is that we want to optimize about our economy (some combination of jobs, happiness, wealth, or whatever). This is trivially true, as zero income inequality is a really crappy situation by most realistic measures of economic health, as is ultimate income inequality (i.e. a small handful of people holding all the wealth). In between those extremes there's got to be some optimal distribution of wealth.
But when I see a march towards higher levels of inequality, I'm left to wonder whether there are actually any forces in play that will keep us anywhere near that optimum, or if we're just seeing a runaway "wealth begets wealth" situation, as folks like Mandelbrot have suggested. Sure, it could be the case that the changing technological climate means that the optimal level of inequality is going up, and we're actually keeping pace with that, but that's just a "could be", and I've never seen a particularly compelling argument that our economy should work more efficiently now at higher levels of income inequality than, say, twenty years ago. An argument that increasing income inequality is inevitable, or even that it's fair, is not an argument that it's economically helpful.
I completely agree with your thesis that technology is a perfectly valid reason for the growing gaps, FWIW, it's a pretty unassailable argument. But I don't agree that it's not cause for concern: we're sliding at an increasing pace down the slippery slope, and at the bottom is complete human level AI, where a vanishing percentage of humans have anything at all of value to offer to the economy. Are you really comfortable with the wealth distribution that's going to result from such a thing?
Personally (and this is quite controversial, I admit), I think that we have to start taking that inevitable outcome to heart, and realizing that the next 50 years should be a period where we move a lot closer to a full welfare state, with full acceptance of the fact that more and more of us will be at the unemployed and useless end of the spectrum as time goes on. Then again, an economy where humans are less useful than their machines, even as far as designing and running those machines, is a completely different world than we've ever considered before, so perhaps it's premature to even consider what that means...
Robert Reich had a piece on NPR's Marketplace the other night [1] that seemed to contribute to this idea: the notion that while some were accepting 9% (rather than 6%) as the "new normal" in terms of unemployment rate, this was a calamitous development. If you imagine a correlation between unemployment and economic inequality, then at one end of the spectrum, high unemployment and economic inequality leads to anarchy; as you slide down the scale, you pass through revolution, civil unrest, and malaise.
Let's assume that the optimum is farther down the spectrum (somewhere around "sustainability" but not so giddy as to be in "bubble" or "artificially-crafted giddy delusion"). Then what are the forces at play to drive us there? From a political standpoint, it's electability; yet if we're too far into the inequality part of the spectrum, the fixes take more than an election cycle, and therefore require strong political leadership or near dictatorship (think FDR and no term limits as a model; think Japan and its many prime ministers over the last decade and stagnation as the counterexample). That's not promising since it may mean only the Senate, with its six-year terms and only 1/3 of the membership up for re-election has a long enough time-frame to do what's needed.
But what about from a business perspective--what incentives and forces are there today in business to try to close that income gap? Henry Ford allegedly paid well and understood that he needed to create a market for what he made, yet the auto industry today can't close that gap alone. If Apple's prominence in the economy is comparable to Ford's, what hope is there that the jobs they create in China will create a positive feedback loop of income equality? Perhaps with a global perspective it will.
Therefore, I come to the conclusion that the Ford Motor of the 21st century will be a company that is able to further its own market by empowering its customers (and the common, untrained person) to become value creators from an economic standpoint. You see Google and Apple and even eBay nibbling around the edges, but who is going to emerge that harnesses and transmutes that latent economic power?
>Henry Ford allegedly paid well and understood that he needed to create a market for what he made,
Ford paid well because that was the only way he could attract workers to do the relatively boring assembly line work.
The idea of paying people to buy your products is simply not a viable business plan. Ford created the market by making the cars cheap so ordinary folks could afford them.
You can have growing inequity whilst at the same time having better non-monetary benefits for all.
For example, in medieval times in Europe (and identically in sub-saharan africa), there was very low inequity.
The ruling class did not own anything except the shirts off their backs. Their jewels were "crown jewels" and couldn't be sold. They had control of the land, but usually couldn't sell it between themselves.
The few fungible valuables they had (salt, and other trade goods) barely elevated them above the common masses.
Today, the power of the ruling class is magnified a 1000 fold, but the working bottom 10% lives better than they ever have thanks to innovations in technology. Indeed, the bottom 10% lives even better than medieval kings despite living in a highly unequitable society.
"The ruling class did not own anything except the shirts off their backs."
If they didn't own anything then why do their ancestors still own great chunks of places like the UK - where many members of the upper classes can trace their ancestries, and the lands they own, back to the Norman conquest?
Life as a royal in medieval times was pretty tough, but largely because they were still expected to fight to maintain their position, compared to the lifestyles of most people in the countries they ruled they were well fed, well clothed and had much better accommodation than most.
Both land and other stores of value (eg gold & silver) were frequently traded between medieval landowners.
Even looking at Europe alone, the Kinghts Templers acted as bankers as early as 1000AD, which allowed the rich to transfer money over distance. By the 1300's the Medici's had created an institution that would be recognizable as a modern bank.
The problem I see with growing income inequality is not the "inequality" part, it's the "growing" one.
From a purely mathematical point of view, in any economic climate there's some level of income inequality that's going to be economically optimal for whatever it is that we want to optimize about our economy (some combination of jobs, happiness, wealth, or whatever). This is trivially true, as zero income inequality is a really crappy situation by most realistic measures of economic health, as is ultimate income inequality (i.e. a small handful of people holding all the wealth). In between those extremes there's got to be some optimal distribution of wealth.
But when I see a march towards higher levels of inequality, I'm left to wonder whether there are actually any forces in play that will keep us anywhere near that optimum, or if we're just seeing a runaway "wealth begets wealth" situation, as folks like Mandelbrot have suggested. Sure, it could be the case that the changing technological climate means that the optimal level of inequality is going up, and we're actually keeping pace with that, but that's just a "could be", and I've never seen a particularly compelling argument that our economy should work more efficiently now at higher levels of income inequality than, say, twenty years ago. An argument that increasing income inequality is inevitable, or even that it's fair, is not an argument that it's economically helpful.
I completely agree with your thesis that technology is a perfectly valid reason for the growing gaps, FWIW, it's a pretty unassailable argument. But I don't agree that it's not cause for concern: we're sliding at an increasing pace down the slippery slope, and at the bottom is complete human level AI, where a vanishing percentage of humans have anything at all of value to offer to the economy. Are you really comfortable with the wealth distribution that's going to result from such a thing?
Personally (and this is quite controversial, I admit), I think that we have to start taking that inevitable outcome to heart, and realizing that the next 50 years should be a period where we move a lot closer to a full welfare state, with full acceptance of the fact that more and more of us will be at the unemployed and useless end of the spectrum as time goes on. Then again, an economy where humans are less useful than their machines, even as far as designing and running those machines, is a completely different world than we've ever considered before, so perhaps it's premature to even consider what that means...