Lawrence Summers, Presidential Advisor, Harvard professor and President, remarks that it is not the the middle and lower classes resent what the wealthy have, but that they want more themselves.  How can this be achieved as we address the issue of inequaility.

Summers suggests that two important aspects of income inequality will not be effected by income redistribution: health care and education.

“Barry Bosworth and his colleagues at the Brookings Institution have examined changes in life expectancy starting at age 55 for the cohort of people born in 1920 and the cohort born in 1940. They found that the richest men gained roughly six years in life expectancy, middle-income earners gained roughly four years, and those in the lowest part of the distribution gained two years. To put this in perspective, the elimination or doubling of cancer mortality would mean less than a four-year change in life expectancy.”

Children of the affluent go to college more than others in part because they have 6000 hours of extra curricular activities that enhance their education.

In addressing the issues of inequality, Summers suggest that focus should be placed on the health and education of the lower 99% as well as the taxation of the 1%.