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The Value of Pop Economics?

A friend recently posted a meme about rising income inequality to Facebook. One of the comments was a link to a piece from Economics Explained with the provocative title "How The Dutch Economy Shows We Can't Reduce Wealth Inequality With Taxes"

I'm starting to see a pattern in these sorts of economics articles:

1. Make a pointed and contrarian claim about the power of economics to address a major issue in contemporary society (taxes won't fix inequality).

2. Compare related economics concepts that have much narrower definitions than the ones that drew in the reader (GINI vs income & wealth inequality vs a few specific aspects of Dutch taxes and culture).

3. Add some artfully selected facts to keep people interested (Heineken family info).

4. Also artfully avoid saying explicitly that the narrow comparison proves or disproves anything specific about the broader societal problem.

5. Make a generally agreeable statement about the world:

Inequality doesn't cause issues so long as there are equitable systems in place to make sure everyone genuinely has the ability to rise up and the comfort, safety, and well-being of average people are not sacrificed in the name of profits for a few.

This format draws people in yet let's them leave thinking the specifics of the piece reinforce whatever preconceptions they brought. It's a good way to keep those web hits coming.

Wouldn't it have been nice for him to describe what some of these equitable systems might be?

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4AMrDcNrfy3X6nsU8-rPg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot4qdCs54ZE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient

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