In response to Richard Hutchinson's point, he himself seems to realize that
inequality in and of itself is not a very good measure of the standard of
living. The Soviet Union and other Eastern European societies did have lower
levels of income inequality, but at the cost of a much lower average standard
of living, as he himself points out. What good does a more egalitarian income
distribution do you when the average person stands in line half the day for a
small piece of fatty meat, or waits 15 years for a cramped apartment or 10 yeas
for a car?
Stephen Sanderson