Economic Inequality
2 days ago
- Economic inequality has multiple causes, both bad (tax loopholes, drug addiction) and good (like Larry Page and Sergey Brin's startup).
- Treating inequality as a single phenomenon is a mistake; the pie fallacy wrongly assumes wealth is taken from the poor.
- Wealth can be created (e.g., a woodworker) rather than taken (e.g., high-frequency trader), differentiating good from bad inequality.
- Startups are a major source of wealth creation; eliminating great variations in wealth would mean eliminating startups, which is unwise.
- Variation in productivity is the irreducible core of inequality, accelerating with technology and not easily eradicated.
- Policy should focus on specific problems like poverty and abusive practices, not on inequality as a broad target.
- Aiming at economic inequality may miss the real issues; we should instead attack poverty and wrongful wealth acquisition.