Related Topics
On the same topic
- 1 min
On the GAFA tax and the hostile reaction of the Americans
The reaction of other European countries in this new context of US reaction will be interesting. The new global and multi-polar equilibrium, that is emerging, forces Europeans to be more…
- 1 min
Inequality
Issues on inequality are more and more discussed. These questions were not mentioned when I was a student in the 80’s. They à re now part of the economic discussion…
- 1 min
Business investment profile is still worrisome
The pace of capital goods orders in Germany in March suggests a further slowdown in investment in OECD countries over the coming months. Orders are down 5.9% year-on-year and this…
PRINCETON – Inequality has been named as a culprit in the populist incursions of 2016 and 2017. But what is inequality, and what role does it play in inhibiting or encouraging growth, or in undermining democracy? Does inequality kill, say, by driving people to suicide or to “deaths of despair”? Or is inequality a necessary evil that we must tolerate at certain levels?
These are questions I am often asked. But, truth be told, none of them is particularly helpful, answerable, or even well posed. Inequality is not so much a cause of economic, political, and social processes as a consequence. Some of these processes are good, some are bad, and some are very bad indeed. Only by sorting the good from the bad (and the very bad) can we understand inequality and what to do about it.
Moreover, inequality is not the same thing as unfairness
Read the post here on Project Syndicate