Inequality By Any Other Name

Will Wilkerson posts on a paper by University of Chicago economists explaining how consumption is a better gauge for economic well-being than income and when taking consumption into account, the gap between rich and poor that's been supposedly widening over the past thirty years vanishes.

This shouldn't come across as that far fetched to those of us with brains. Even with the economic troubles of late, food prices are still relatively low, gas prices are only now exceeding the prices of the late 70's in inflation adjusted dollars, and a wide variety of technical and time saving devices are available at a fraction of their earlier costs. As Wilkerson points out, the realistic concern over rising food and fuel prices (particularly in regards to the poor), are a real world example of why consumption is such a better tool.