Episode 68: As Long As People Are Free, There Will Be Inequality

If there's something that progressives agree on, it's that inequality exists and that it's a problem. But what do we mean when we say "inequality"? Is it that some people have more "stuff" (money, goods, access to services) than others? Is it that some people are more skilled, more talented, better looking, or just plain luckier than others? In a relatively free society with fairly consistent equality of opportunity, the result is inevitably going to be inequality of outcome. And this is not necessarily a bad thing. Why is a certain amount of inequality a good thing? Should we care about numerical inequality indicators such as the Gini index? Should we take legislative action to "level the playing field"? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

• Seattle’s tax on jobs
• France bans throwing away unsold clothing
• France bans throwing away unsold food
• Hillary Clinton wants to be Facebook’s CEO
• Federalist 10
• Equality in the consumption of goods and services (1)
• Equality in the consumption of goods and services (2)
• Inequality rising over time
• Taxes and transfers reduce income inequality by 25%
• All the quintiles are getting richer
• Much of the inequality we observe is due to differences in ages (Table H-10)
• Income mobility across generations