Libertarianism Doesn’t Work

[UCLAri]

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A great deal of attention is paid to income inequality, though often by those who have little economic understanding. It’s not necessarily on its own an indicator of anything bad–for example, imagine a society where the income gap is huge, but also one in which not a single person lives in poverty.

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<p>Yes, it’s important to consider relative differences of course. However, the question I think that most economists are asking today is why the Lorenz curve is getting more bowed in countries that typically had fairly straight curves (Japan, US), and why it’s bowing worldwide.</p>

<p>Of course you can have a society were there are huge gaps and no poverty. That doesn’t mean that that society is any more successful, either.</p>