Monday, April 11, 2011

Ethics: Is Income or Wealth Inequality Bad?

We regularly hear some people (usually on the left) complain about the “rich-poor gap” or about the terribly unfair “distribution of wealth” or even about “income-“ or “wealth-inequality” as the proof of an unjust society. Conservatives (and libertarians) tend to respond with contempt to any and all of these worries, but is there anything to it? In what ways is equality a good goal to aim for, and in what ways not? Is inequality a default indicator of injustice or poverty? Can a society be highly prosperous and also highly unequal?

Resources:

List of countries by income equality (Wikipedia)

Measuring inequality (World Bank)

US taxes it high earners the most (Tax Foundation)

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