Critique of "The Myth of American Inequality" by Phil Gramm

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1

Hi,
I have recently read this book in order to discuss it with some people in my life who agree with the author far more than I do. They have a tendency to dominate the conversation and be very pushy when we talk about economic issues. I can tell that there are things misleading, if not completely incorrect, about this book but I was hoping to get some help solidifying my arguments. Has anyone else read this? If so would you be willing to help me?

Things that stand out to me:

  1. a focus on just income inequality and not wealth

    1. A focus on an improvement in poverty situations but a disregard for the decline of the middle class and focusing on that being the reason and not the growing wealth of the top 10%
2

I have not read it but this video talks about the difference between income and wealth inequality so it could have some helpful arguments.How Wealth Inequality Spiraled Out of Control | Robert Reich - YouTube

3

I have not read this but I am well versed in economics. Basically the measure of wealth is generally used in a concept of resistance to upward mobility. How easy is it for a lower member of one economic class to reach into the economic class above themselves. The key to dissolving your problem likely has to do with your misunderstanding of how vile maxim is employed against the poor.

Adam Smith — ‘All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.’