New York Times Editorial - The Joneses can't keep up

New York Times Editorial - The Joneses can't keep up
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: December 1, 2006


An article in The New York Times and the IHT about American obstetricians who prefer working in Botox boutiques is a reminder that the growing gap between the rich and superrich has an impact on those who are neither.

In the United States, the very richest earners are increasing their earnings at twice the rate of their onetime peers, and the average-rich are taking resentful note. It's hard for people flying in coach to have much patience with those in first class bemoaning their lack of a personal jet. Neither policy makers nor society at large need sympathize with the longing of millionaires to become billionaires. But we do need to worry about the effects on society as a whole when members of the educated elite think they are grossly underpaid.

America has long had a problem attracting enough well-trained people to important but not particularly well-compensated positions, like public defender, social worker or teacher. But an era in which a cancer researcher moves over into health-care management consulting because the pay is better is something else entirely.

Part of the explanation is undoubtedly a tax code that has sent the incomes of America's wealthiest sliver into hyperdrive. Another might be the spike in education costs, which send many new doctors, lawyers and scientists out into the world armed with a diploma and a six-figure debt. But the bottom line seems to be that in 21st-century America, more people can't feel successful unless they're making a killing.