Reading: "Skills, education, and the rise of earnings inequality among the "other 99 percent," David H. Autor, Science 23 May 2014: 843-851. [DOI:10.1126/science.1251868]

Below are two competing views (Proposition #1 and Proposition #2) on why income inequality has been rising (even among the lower 99%) in the United States since the 1970's.

Proposition #1:

"More people are falling behind today because they're lazy. In the U.S. anyone willing to work can earn a decent living. The income distribution is the same as the effort distribution. People who work hard earn a good living. Lazy people stay poor. The income distribution has been skewing because of a growing culture of dependency. It used to be shameful to accept handouts from the government, but now it's perfectly acceptable. So more people opt out of the labor force and sit around collecting handouts from the rest of us. Of course their incomes are going to be lower than those in the top tiers."

Proposition #2:

"The incomes of the rich and poor have been growing farther apart due to purposeful policy decisions that have favored the rich at the expense of the poor. Starting with Ronald Reagan's financial deregulation, and continuing with successive Republican attacks on New Deal and Great Society social programs to finance tax cuts for their Wall Street cronies, government policy in this country has systematically channeled the rewards of our immensely productive economy towards the rich and away from the poor. America needs to open the gateway to prosperity for all through fair tax policies, decent minimum wages, better public schools, aid to low-income college students, and a universal health care system."

1.A common trick used by dishonest commentators is to take a quote out of context and use it to support a claim that would not have been accepted by the original source. Suppose you wanted to persuade someone that Proposition #1 is true. Find a quote from Autor's article (see reference above) that you could selectively present to support Proposition #1, and explain how that quote supports the proposition. Begin by summarizing the claim made in Proposition #1.

2.For the sake of symmetry, find a quote from Autor's article that could be used to (dishonestly) support Proposition #2, and explain how the quote supports that proposition.

3.Before you read Autor's article, which proposition did you find more credible - #1 or #2? Did Autor's article change your thinking about this topic - or reinforce your previously held beliefs? Explain.