Tyler Cowan on Wealth and Inequality

Why do Democrats worry so much about income inequality in this country? Some thoughts from Tyler Cowan:

We don't take steps to redress inequalities of looks, friends, or sex life. We don't grab a kidney from you to save someone's life, even though that health difference was unfair brute luck. Redistribution of wealth has some role in maintaining a stable democracy and preventing starvation. But the power of wealth redistribution to produce net value is quite limited. The power of wealth creation to produce net value is extraordinary. Most of America's poor are already among the best-off of all humans in world history. We should be putting our resources, including our advocacy and our intellectual resources, into wealth creation as much as we can.

Can you imagine giving someone else good looks by taking away from some one else--how does that work? Do we give everyone who is lacking in a sex life a voucher to go to the Moonlight Bunny Ranch?