Tuesday 7 January 2014

Fighting Inequality

Why stop at income?

As pointed out at Reason.com:

de Blasio “owns a pair of two-family homes on 11th Street in Park Slope that are valued at more than $1.1 million apiece.” Plenty of Americans can’t afford a single million-dollar home, let alone two of them. If de Blasio really wants to “put an end” to economic inequality, he should sell both houses and distribute the proceeds to everyone else. 

But, of course:

The reason that de Blasio, Clinton, and Obama don’t live more modestly to reduce the level of inequality is ...  because despite all their rhetoric, they probably understand on some level, as most of us do, that what’s really troubling isn’t inequality of outcome, it’s inequality of opportunity. And even then, what’s really troubling isn’t inequality of opportunity, but poverty with little to no chance of escape, that is, the absolute (not merely the relative) lack of opportunity. It’s something to remember the next time some politician starts hyperventilating about an inequality crisis.


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