Tuesday, July 06, 2010

On Inequality

If a reincarnated Renoir and a member of your family each painted a painting that was of a given size and took each 40 hours to complete, which one would be worth more? Why? Would it be just to charge different amounts for the different paintings?

Why does a Lotus Exige cost more than a Ford Focus? In a social justice sense, shouldn't they cost the same?

Is it unjust that this costs more than a Ford Focus?

In an article in The Nation today, inequality in America is bemoaned with great vigor.
"After 30-Year Run, Rise of the Super-Rich Hits a Sobering Wall." So declared a headline in the New York Times in August 2009, documenting the declining number of Americans with a net worth of $30 million and predicting that the Great Recession would reduce the staggering level of inequality in the United States... It is not multimillionaires who have been hit hardest in the recent economic downturn. (I)t's African-Americans, low-skilled workers and a generation of young people at risk of being permanently scarred.
Taking each in turn, if you've obliterated your families through libertine behavior, there's not a lot that's going to make your life improve. If we continue to increase the minimum wage, then there's not many jobs low-skilled workers can do that create more value than they cost. Finally, if you've borrowed mounds of cash to pay for the social programs The Nation adores, your kids are going to end up screwed because they have to pay your bills.

The folks at The Nation have a lot of inequality to answer for.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Ford Focus should cost twice as much since it seats four people, not just two. But it's available with twice as many doors too, so maybe it should be four times as expensive.

Perhaps the best way to destroy the rich is to create social programs to help them. It worked for the unskilled/blacks/youth, right?

Dean said...

Is it just me or did that article in the same breath say a) the recession is good because it will reduce inequality across the border and b) the recession is bad because it hits minorities hardest.

Well, which is it? For the twisted statist mindset, this is not as contradictory as one may think.