What’s Wrong With Inequality?
As Anatole France noted, “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges.”
.. On this view, people should suffer the consequences of choices they’ve freely made, but should be protected against losses that they couldn’t have avoided. We eliminate inequalities that are due to sheer bad luck, but we allow those that result from bad decisions. Many people find this an appealing position, but you reject it. Why is that?
E.A.: There are many examples that go counter to luck egalitarianism. How tall people are is largely determined by genetic luck. But this does not make it unjust for professional basketball teams to offer better opportunities to taller players. When we chose people on merit, we’re very often choosing them because they are lucky enough to have certain talents.
.. High inequality, if anything, has negative effects on economic growth, by making the economy more vulnerable to crises and long recessions, and by corrupting the political process.
.. Societies can’t practice racial oppression for hundreds of years, or gender subordination for thousands of years, without perverse ideas and feelings about race and gender becoming deeply entrenched. It takes a lot more than a few anti-discrimination laws and ameliorative policies to undo entrenched identity-based hierarchies.