Afternoon Must-Read: Daniel Kuehn: Why Inequality Matters

…(1) Inequality doesn’t matter, poverty does; (2) Inequality only matters if it comes through corruption, and in that case it’s just a symptom…. Both have a kernel of truth…. [But] caring about poverty and corruption does not eliminate the case for concern about inequality that does not arise from corruption in a relatively wealthy society… because (1) of our sense of fairness, and (2) the fact that opportunities or capacities are unevenly distributed, independent of any additional corruption that may exacerbate inequality further…. It feels a little silly to even make it. But I’ve seen both of the above objections with such frequency that I feel like I have to…. How do we think about Aristotle’s principle in a recursive system? Is redistributing capital ‘making unequal things equal’ or is failing to redistribute capital ‘making equal things unequal’? This is tricky enough in one generation because you have to distinguish between effort and luck of birth…. It gets very hard indeed when we move beyond one generation, because the choices of parents become the endowments of children…