Comments on: Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Policy = Wider Rich/Poor Gap in Health https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/08/27/cardiovascular-disease-prevent/ Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:18:12 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/08/27/cardiovascular-disease-prevent/#comment-522371 Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:18:12 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/08/27/cardiovascular-disease-prevent/#comment-522371 I don’t see how you can get a “bigger gap” –

Income disparity will continue to get worse and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

You have begged the question.

Are you opposed to doing more social science and economics research in income disparity? I’m afraid that could lead to forgetting about the problem and not knowing enough about it.

]]> By: MadScientist https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/08/27/cardiovascular-disease-prevent/#comment-522370 Sat, 28 Aug 2010 10:29:28 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/08/27/cardiovascular-disease-prevent/#comment-522370 I thought it was well established that the rich get better health care than the poor. I don’t see how you can get a “bigger gap” – perhaps there is a more inequitable distribution of “can afford” vs “can’t afford” within the population but I can’t imagine any bigger gap than what we’ve already got – “can’t afford a goddamned thing”, with a few “struggle but can afford the basics” all the way to “I can buy the hospital if I wanted to”.

Income disparity will continue to get worse and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Start with any income disparity at some point in time, then whack in the idealized X percent increase per year for everyone – that’s a geometric series so over time the filthy rich get richer and the poor can go screw themselves.

I have my doubts that the idealized geometric progression is a decent model though; we can see even through this current financial crisis that while some people are out of a job and the economy is in the shit, some people still get huge undeserved salaries and bonuses paid out.

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