What Really Matters

I don't want to take it too seriously, but I think this Gallup data on who is and isn't expressing satisfaction with their lives helps us understand which dimensions of economic inequality in America do and don't matter:

[image error]

What you're seeing here is that being unemployed or being seriously poor is terrible. We ought to be working like crazy to reduce the number of people in that position. Beyond that, the gap between people making over $90k and the middle class is substantial, but it's nothing compared to the routine decline in life satisfaction associated with getting old. Having a marriage break up appears to be disastrous for your well-being, but it's not clear to me that there's a real policy lever here.