I’d go further—markets are just one mechanism for distributing things. Inequality is going to be part of other mechanisms as well. Inequality is inseparable from freedom to have differing priorities, and from diversity of goal and ability.
The degree and impact of the inequality is something that can and should be addressed within the social/governmental frameworks that enable the efficiency of markets. There are tradeoffs to be made, and it’s easy to argue for different places on the curve.
Yeah I think I should have framed this better. It would be very attractive if all inequality was caused by rent seeking and other market imperfections. But if some of the inequality comes intrinsically with a perfectly functioning market you’ll always face some tradeoff between inequality and using the price mechanism.
I’d go further—markets are just one mechanism for distributing things. Inequality is going to be part of other mechanisms as well. Inequality is inseparable from freedom to have differing priorities, and from diversity of goal and ability.
The degree and impact of the inequality is something that can and should be addressed within the social/governmental frameworks that enable the efficiency of markets. There are tradeoffs to be made, and it’s easy to argue for different places on the curve.
Yeah I think I should have framed this better. It would be very attractive if all inequality was caused by rent seeking and other market imperfections. But if some of the inequality comes intrinsically with a perfectly functioning market you’ll always face some tradeoff between inequality and using the price mechanism.