American Inequality and Its Consequences

Before going off line I thought I'd share the following. Looks to be some good hurricane reading for me. American Inequality and Its Consequences, by Burtless and Jencks. An excerpt:

Overall, we conclude that the effects of inequality on economic growth, health, and equality of opportunity are modest and uncertain in rich countries. We worry most about the possibility that changes in the distribution of income have led to changes in the distribution of political power both because such a change undermines the legitimacy of the political system and because it can make the increase in economic inequality irreversible. But although we worry about these risks, we have no way of knowing how great they are. We conclude that citizens of the United States and other rich countries should decide how much economic inequality they are willing to tolerate largely on the basis of what they think is just, not on the basis of its alleged beneficial or adverse effects.