In the controversy now raging over whether income inequality in America is growing a lot or a little, some pro-market people say it doesn’t much matter. This attitude is unjustified, not to mention harmful to the cause of individual freedom because it misses the bigger picture.

Cross-posted at Free Association.

Kevin Carson - 2/12/2007

Excellent piece, Sheldon. I'd be the first to admit in principle there's nothing so bad about inequality that doesn't come at someone's expense, but that's a discussion so hypothetical as to be absurd. In actual practice, we live in a society where the banking-real estate complex have driven housing costs to an all-time high of around 40% of income, where the corporate-state elites decided back in the '70s to break the bargaining power of labor and shift income from human welfare to corporate welfare, and where the deliberate policy of the Fed since Volcker has been to counteract the bargaining power of labor. As a result, wages are at a post-1929 low as a percentage of national income, and corporate profits are at a post-1929 high.

Sheldon Richman - 2/5/2007

Thanks, Mark, and welcome back. Tyler seems to disagree: http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/02/governmentdrive.html.

Mark Brady - 2/4/2007

You've given fine expression to my own thoughts on the subject. Thank you.