Source:Economist’s View– economics blogger Mark Thoma.

“(PDF), Vasia Panousi and Ivan Vidangos of the Federal Reserve Board, Shanti Ramnath of the U.S. Treasury Department, Jason DeBacker of Middle Tennessee State and Bradley Heim of Indiana University use new data to closely examine inequality, finding an increase in “permanent inequality” — the advantaged becoming permanently better-off, while the disadvantaged becoming permanently worse-off. …

From the Economist’s View

This idea that men making more money then women on average or European and Asian-Americans making more money then African-Americans on average that that is somehow unfair: well, unless employers are paying European and Asian-Americans more than African-Americans and men more than women for the same work and same productivity because of race and gender, if that’s the case, then that would be a violation of the civil rights laws if its done based on race and gender.

If African-Americans and women are being paid less than their counterparts based on their race and gender and if that’s the case, then we should be looking at governments role in enforcing the civil rights laws. If all of these people are being discriminated against based on their race and gender, rather then just assuming that employers are racist and sexist.

It’s not income inequality that we have in America that’s the major problem. If there are people who are making less money then their counterparts based on race and gender (and I’m sure there are) then they should be suing over that because that would be a violation of our civil rights laws.

But the major problem we have in America with very few people as a percentage being very wealthy and making so much money, with a lot of people being poor and a lot of other people being close to living in poverty, that has to do with what I call an education gap in America. We are simply not producing enough well-qualified workers in this country and have a lot of low-skilled and low-income workers in this country. But the people who do make a lot of money in America tend to be very well-educated and have marketable talents that they can use to get a good job and do very well there.

You want to have more people doing very well in America and less people living in poverty or close to living in poverty, then we simply need to do as better job of educating our students and training our low- skilled workers and providing job training and educational opportunities to our unemployed workers in this country. Otherwise we’ll continue to have few haves and a lot of have-nots.