[sickoflibs]

RE :”You also often warn that large differences in incomes make society dangerously unstable. Can you point to historical evidence in support of this claim? But remember: To be valid, the evidence must be from market economies in which the great majority of people — rich and not rich — earn their incomes through voluntary market activities and where the size of the economic pie isn't fixed. “

OK, how about France and ‘let them eat cake’ and the French Revolution?

That certainly was a mess.

[zeestephen]

The author stipulates that it must have been a market economy.

In 1789, no question that America was a market economy, unless you were a slave.

In 1789 France, I don’t know what kind of economy they had.

I do know that France had severe poverty in 1789.

I also know that America had the highest standard of living in the world in 1789, which is why people willingly risked their lives to get here.