In the debate about income inequality, Thomas Piketty, author of the hot new book "Capital in the 21st Century," argues that the wealthy should face higher taxes.

But Alan Blinder, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, says that's the wrong focus.

"If there is to be a national debate on what to do about inequality in the United States, I'd like to see the focus put elsewhere: namely, worrying more about the bottom than the top, and focusing on income inequality rather than on wealth inequality," he writes in The Wall Street Journal.

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If we want to help the bottom 50 percent of the population, we should focus on issues such as providing pre-school education to the poor, strengthening Medicaid, increasing the minimum wage, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and maintaining anti-poverty programs like food stamps, Blinder says.

"I'd like to think that most Americans join me in . . . [wanting to lift the poor rather than lower the rich], but I'm worried. Does Pikettymania prove me wrong?"

Larry Summers, a former top economic adviser to President Obama agrees with Blinder's focus.

"Unless one regards envy as a virtue, the primary reason for concern about inequality is that lower- and middle-income workers have too little, not that the rich have too much," the Harvard professor writes in the Financial Times.

"So in judging policies relating to inequality, the criterion should be what their impact will be on the middle class and the poor."

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