1a. Should income in the U.S. be distributed equally?

1b. If not, should there be at least a greater degree of equality than we presently have?

1c. What are theadvantages and disadvantagesof greater equality?

2.When the capital gains tax rate was reduced from 28 to 20 percent in 1997, and especially when it was cut again to 15 percent in 2003, many people thought these reductions would be temporary.

2a. How did this belief affect the incentive to sell assets, when the tax rates were cut compared to a situation in which the tax rates were cut permanently?

2b. How would the belief that the cuts were temporary alter the choice between selling assets that had experienced large capital gains versus those that had experienced only small capital gains?

3.In 1984, balances in individual retirement plans were $865 billion. Twenty-five years later, they rose to almost $13 trillion.In general, balances in private retirement accountsare not includedin the statistics that the government use to show rising income or wealth inequality.How might such an oversight affect our conclusions about inequality?