Wealth Disparities

TW: I wrote a piece recently about wealth disparity, a reader responded:

From a Reader:
"...Back in the day before the internet and globalization a well paying corporate job / profession had a certain scope / footprint. In this instant global world companies have been delayering for years - so you have an ever smaller number of positions that now have huge global scope and responsibilities - further - exotic domain expertise concentrates salaries as all the information / technology is increasing exponentially. So when we look at this US data it is indeed skewing but should not the fact that most big jobs are now global in scope be considered?

So I wonder is it that the top is making too much or that the middle has all been outsourced to Bangalore, etc? IE If we are suggesting that we need to level the field in the US will the talent / Money just go to some other part of the Globe where they can operate in an unrestricted fashion? Wonder what the same data / trend looks like in China, India..."

TW: I agree with the premise that technology and globalization have concentrated wealth at the top to a certain degree. But I would make the following points:
1) Using the NBA as an example, clearly the NBA revenues have increased partially as a result of the internationalization of basketball. Lebron James will likely make far more money over his career than Micheal Jordon who in turn made more than Oscar Robertson. But is Lebron better than Micheal? Or Oscar? I would say no, so is his increased compensation truly earned?

What about the CEOs? Is a Jeff Bezos in today's global and technological environment so much better than his media/tech counterpart in the 1960's?

Yes the stakes are larger but is the individual performance any better? The spans of control may be different but are the executives working that much harder or smarter? My opinion is no, yet the rewards have skyrocketed.

2) Given the seeming pooling of rewards at the top, graduated tax rates become even more relevant. Yet, tax rates for the wealthy declined under Bush. To me this an obvious change that should be made. If one wants "free" markets to pre-dominate but "free" markets are pooling wealth, graduated tax rates are a means to address the dynamic without intervening in the "free" markets.