GDP vs. income gap, Act 2

[ianb@sun670.telecom.tandem.com (Ian Bui)]

Thank you anh AnHai for posting a very interesting 
research paper. I'll have to reread it before being
able to fully grasp all the details. In the meantime,
there are a few clarifications I'd like to make.

1) When I mentioned the issue of income gap, the implied 
but unstated premise was exactly what ba'c VHLam said: 
equal opportunity to all people across all levels of 
society to improve their economic standing. *THAT* is 
the bottom line, and *THAT* is where economic and 
political policies should come into play. Reining in 
income disparities is not so much a matter of fiddling 
around with monetary policies as it is with providing 
all citizens with a fair and level playing field.

2) When I say the income gap increases, I don't see it
as a simple phenomenon of more people getting richer 
(which in itself is NOT an undesirable event.) But even 
if the poor are not getting any poorer in absolute terms, 
the effect of an increase in the money supply (i.e. more 
rich people) can lead to, among other things, inflation 
and a reduction in purchasing power for the have-nots.
(Here we can say that VN's government has been quite
effective in preventing the gap to widen even more)

3) The middle-class should not be viewed as "giau` co'
nu*?a mu`a", as anh AiViet said. Look at any strong and
stable economy and you can see that they all have something
in common: a strong and stable middle class. The middle
class, in effect, is the engine for growth in most, if not
all, successful market driven economies. With the possible
exception of the government sector, the middle class is 
without a doubt *the* consumer and producer of those goods 
and services that keep an economy huffing and puffing.

4) Lastly, the income gap is not a cause but a consequence.
And narrowing this gap is not an end in itself but rather 
the result of good macro economic management and effective
government. The root cause(s) for huge income inequality
can vary from society to society, depending on the socio/
political predisposition of each. The mention of democratic
versus non-demcratic systems in the research paper was very
interesting. (I'll have to think on that one some more before
saying anything that might violate VNSA's rules :))

Thank you all for a very stimulating discussion.

Cheers,
Ian