In a previous diary I tried, in vain, to persuade Kossacks that historical data indicates inflation is inversely correlated with income inequality. One commenter suggested inflation might also be correlated with UFO activity, proving nothing. So I checked . . .
I had noted that the '70s were a time of high inflation and declining inequality. One comment I got, which was representative of others:
If memory serves, the 1970's were also a time of intense UFO activity. The point being, just because something coincides with something else, that hardly means there is a causative relationship between the two things. . . .
Memory didn't serve. There were many fewer UFO sightings in the '70s than in later decades. In fact, the explosion in UFO sightings started in the 80s, at the same time inequality began to grow, and both have since continued to accelerate. Of course, a high correlation between UFO activity and income inequality doesn't prove that one causes the other. And in my previous diary I didn't say that the historical data proved a causative relationship between inflation and income inequality. The point I was trying, and failing, to make was that if 'inflation hurts the poor the most' then one would expect the historical data to reflect a positive correlation, not a statistically significant negative correlation, between the two variables.
But back to the UFO activity, my hypothesis is that the rich are UFO-travelling aliens who hate inflation and who, like Kossacks, don't care that moderately high inflation is beneficial for the poor and, to a lesser extent, the middle class.
What's your hypothesis?