Re: Capitalism, socialism, and the quality of life

Thu, 22 Jan 1998 14:02:31 -0700 (MST)
Richard N Hutchinson (rhutchin@U.Arizona.EDU)

On Thu, 22 Jan 1998, s_sanderson wrote:

> Many thanks to Tom Hall for clarifying my position, which he does very nicely.
> No one familiar with my Macrosociology or my Social Transformations could ever
> call me a "cheerleader for capitalism." But it seems to me a terrible
> distortion to claim that capitalism has been all negative.
>
> Stephen Sanderson
>
>
One important point seems to have been conflated in the recent debate --
the difference between absolute standard of living and inequality.

Your text "Macrosociology" presents cross-national data showing that the
level of inequality, as measured by GINI, was much lower in the old Soviet
bloc.

Of course that greater equality was at a significantly lower standard of
living than the >>average<< level in the U.S. and the rest of the core.

Richard Hutchinson