Recently released data from the Federal Reserve indicate an increase in income inequality and wealth inequality in the country. People often assume this means that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. In the US, it generally means that both the rich and poor are getting richer, but the rich are getting richer faster. Moreover, “the rich” is not a static group of people. People climb into and fall out of that category all the time. Indeed, as Machiavelli pointed out long ago, inheritors of wealth often end up squandering it. Antony Davies and James Harrigan discuss these issues and more in the latest episode of Words and Numbers.
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Podcast: Inequality Is Rising, but Poverty Is Falling
Antony Davies
Antony Davies is associate professor of economics at Duquesne University and Chief Academic Officer at FreedomTrust.
He is a member of the FEE Faculty Network.
James R. Harrigan
James R. Harrigan is CEO of FreedomTrust.
This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.