Rachel Zellie, Chapter 6, Question #7

I hear adults, soecifically my dad, discuss the wealth gap present in America very often, and it seems within the last ten years or so the gap has grown significantly. In chapter six, Wheelan mentioned how Brazil has the wealthiest and poorest people in the world hinting that the wealth gap present in Brazil is very large. Although a large wealth gap my be daunting to those either in the middle or in the poor spectrum, I learned in this chapter that the main concern regarding a large wealth gap is rooted in relative wealth. Wheelan used what, Nobel Prize winner, Robert Fogel said to explain that the wealth gap may not be that negative of a thing present in America. Fogel pointed out that America's poorest citizens have many things unknown to royalty a hundred years ago, meaning although they are poor they could be worse off. The only reason that the wealth gap seems so negative is the relative income aspect which entirely has to do with a human's nature to be envious of others and what they have in comparison to yourself. Another thing I found really interesting was the philosophical question Wheelan proposed when he finished discussing the pros and cons of America's wealth gap. Wheelan asked, "If the pie is growing, how much should we care about the size of the pieces." That is a tricky question which would be very difficult to come up with a short answer but I bleieve that he is trying to say that America needs to pay attention to the overall big picture of a growing economy rather than the individual negatives of a large wealth gap.