WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

Where the rich are working, producing and inheriting is a magnet for the world’s poorest. Though it’s popular to suggest that wealth inequality harms the poor, there is no purer market signal than the migration of people.

Looked at through the lens of the United States, it’s long been the world’s most unequal country at the same time that it’s been the country that the vast majority of the world’s poorest have yearned to migrate to. Stating what’s obvious to the passably sapient among us: Where the rich are is where opportunity is most abundant for the poorest among us to fix their poverty. …

Of course all of this speaks to why those with the least are, and will be, harmed the most by the response of government and business to the coronavirus scare. Figure that California on its own would be the fifth largest economy in the world if a country, and then one can only imagine where California, New York and Illinois would rate in combination.

The economies in these rich-dense states have in many ways been shut down. The well-to-do will surely be hurt by what’s tragic, but all too many have savings, or they have parents who have savings, vacation houses and other safety nets.

The poor don’t realistically have those backstops. … Worse is that with politicians intent on shutting the economy down, it’s unlikely that those most capable of creating new work opportunities through investment (yes, the rich) will do just that. Why invest in what’s not operating?

John Tamny, RealClearMarkets