John Quiggin — Would a significant increase in the top (US) marginal income tax rate substantially alter income inequality?

Yes. At the tails.

It’s obvious, as the authors note, that the 90-50 measure won’t change, since neither group is affected (there’s no simulation of behavioral responses which might have indirect effects). But, since the 99-th percentile income is very close to $400k, there’s very little impact on this group either. But the tax, as modelled, raises a lot of money from the ultra-rich incomes. As a result, distributing the proceeds at the bottom of the distribution raises incomes substantially, which explains the big changes in the 90-10 and 99-10 ratios.

The real lesson to be learned here, one I came to pretty slowly myself is that old-style measures looking at quintiles or even percentiles of the income distribution are no longer very relevant. The real question, in the economy of Capital in the 21st Century is how much should go to the ultra-rich.

John Quiggin
Would a significant increase in the top (US) marginal income tax rate substantially alter income inequality?

David Goodner — In Front of 10,000 in Madison, Bernie Sanders Calls for Wealth Redistribution

“There is one struggle where we have not gained ground, but lost it, and that is the fundamental struggle for economic justice,” Sanders said. “A hundred years have come and gone and we have lost ground. … What I would like to ask of you is, please, think big, not small. Our job is to bring people together around the progressive agenda. Our job is to redistribute wealth back into the hands of working families.”

In These Times
In Front of 10,000 in Madison, Bernie Sanders Calls for Wealth Redistribution
David Goodner

Pope pushes wealth redistribution

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Noting a "rising sense of frustration" at the worldwide economic recession, Pope Benedict XVI said that a more just and peaceful world requires "adequate mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth."

The pope's words appeared in his message for the World Day of Peace 2012, released on Friday (Dec. 16) at the Vatican.The message laments that "some currents of modern culture, built upon rationalist and individualist economic principles, have cut off the concept of justice from its transcendent roots, detaching it from charity and solidarity."

Authentic education, Benedict writes, teaches the proper use of freedom with "respect for oneself and others, including those whose way of being and living differs greatly from one's own."Peace-making requires education not only in the values of compassion and solidarity, but in the importance of wealth redistribution, the "promotion of growth, cooperation for development and conflict resolution," Benedict writes.

The pope also calls on political leaders to "ensure that no one is ever denied access to education."

The message was presented on Friday by officials of the Vatican's Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace. The same body published a controversial document in October blaming the world's economic and financial crisis on an "economic liberalism that spurns rules and controls," and calling for global regulation of the financial industry and the international money supply.

Read it at The Huffington Post
Pope Benedict Peace Message Calls For Wealth Redistribution

By Francis X. Rocca - Religion News Service

I wonder what Joe the Plumber will have to say about this. No mystery what the Randites will think of it.