October, 2009

Economic Inequality and the Mirage of Injustice

by Will Wilkinson
Lead Essay
October 12th, 2009

In his lead essay, Will Wilkinson observes what he believes is a poor chain of reasoning: Income inequality is rising; it is also a measure of injustice. To fix this injustice, we should redistribute incomes. Wilkinson attacks this reasoning on several fronts: Income inequality is less important than consumption inequality, and consumption inequality is probably lessening. But if income inequality is a problem, it is so only as a symptom of a different problem: substandard schools, perhaps, or our high incarceration rate, or CEOs who conspire to overpay one another. Rather than redistributing income, we should identify the underlying problem and fix it directly. This may well lessen income inequality, and it will also fix an undoubtedly serious problem somewhere else in our society.

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Final Thoughts and Thanks

by Scott Sumner
The Conversation
October 1st, 2009

I appreciate Jeffrey’s kind remarks on my monetary ideas and feel very fortunate that James Hamilton, George Selgin and Jeffrey Hummel took the time to give careful consideration to my essay. There’s not much for me to disagree with in Jeffrey’s final post (although I ended up a bit more optimistic about improving the Fed [...]

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Parting Shots

by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
The Conversation
October 1st, 2009

For my last comment in the conversation portion of our exchange I want to mention how much I have enjoyed and learned from the discussion. I expressed my admiration for Scott Sumner in my initial contribution, and I will add to that my amazement at his ability to respond calmly, rapidly, and in detail to [...]

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