A quick video introduction to the dangers of wealth inequality: http://t.co/BVS6YD0D4W
— Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 8, 2014
Check out the above video. I like Ezra Klein’s distinction between income inequality and wealth inequality. It is easy to overly simplify such matters. The super wealthy are not merely doctors and lawyers who went to school for a long time, they are people who benefit from generations and generations of wealth accumulation.
This analysis is deeply Rawlsian…well…at least it is a very good representation of the assumptions behind Rawls’ difference principle.
In Rawls’ conception income inequality is allowed (under specific conditions) for the reasons that Klein mentions. It is the result of education, entrepreneurship and other factors (though this does not mean that the fruits of such inequality are deserved). Wealth inequality, as Klein says, is the result of birth for the most part. This inequality undermines democracy and the prospect of a well-ordered just society.
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