Nick Gillespie has written an article on income inequality and upward mobility, originally for Reuters and here appearing in Reason.com. He argues that while income inequality is large, much of it may be caused by payroll taxes.
Payroll taxes disproportionally hit young workers to transfer income to old retirees who are, on average, many times more affluent. I believe Gillespie makes a thinly disguised argument in favor of means testing Social Security and Medicare, not necessarily a bad way to salvage these endangered programs for the aged poor.
