Playstation 3 and Inequality

Reason Online pointed out that working class Americans can afford to buy a Playstation 3 and this means that inequality is not as much of a problem in the U.S. as presidential candidate John Edwards claims.

The leftwing academic blog crookedtimber, however, claims that this is a silly argument because... well the blog doesn't give a reason why the argument is silly besides labeling it as "hilariously cackleheaded."

Inequality of wealth or income should be of absolutely no importance per se. What matters is inequality of consumption. The best video game system a billionaire can afford is the Playstation 3. The best video game system a working class American can afford is also the Playstation 3. In this article I list some other examples of such consumption equality. In today's economy, the rich and lower middle class buy many of the exact same goods. This wasn't true 100 years ago. Wealth, therefore, has lost some of its privileges and consequently real inequality has decreased.