Re: Completely Unwoven: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 4.0
I'll take your word for it, although it was not very apparent in the article you posted. The "equality" meme kept shifting around, so that he wasn't always talking about the same thing even though he was using the same word.
There was absolutely no evidence offered to indicate that income inequality is a problem for those who are not envious of others' success. Income inequality tends to get worse during recessions and tends to ameliorate during periods of economic growth, which is pretty straightforward. To avoid a tl;dr moment, I'll follow up on those thoughts shortly.
While income inequality doesn't seem that problematic an economic issue, wealth inequality certainly is. It genuinely puzzles me why Progressives are so vocal about the former and so silent about the latter, when the severity of the problems are the reverse.
There are some dramatic real-life experiments that show how a redistribution of wealth can lead to an improved rate of growth and better overall living standards, notable Henry VIII's break with the Catholic Church in the 1530s putting England on a new growth trajectory, or land reform in Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s leading to much better living standards for the general population.
A broader distribution of wealth in a society really does seem to foster entrepreneurial activity, economic growth, and improved standards of living far better than having all the wealth concentrated in a few places.
It is
notable that the Koch brothers over the past several years had teamed up with the Obama White House to foster entrepreneurship in minority communities, and to reform prison sentencing guidelines.
President [Obama], during an N.A.A.C.P. convention last summer, spoke appreciatively of the [Koch] brothers’ efforts on prison sentencing. When the audience responded scornfully to the mention of the Kochs, Obama scolded them: “No—you’ve got to give them credit. You’ve got to call it like you see it.”
The Kochs have also launched a nonprofit group, the Libre Initiative, whose aim is to “equip the Hispanic community with the tools they need to be prosperous.” The organization reaches out to Latino voters by offering free services, ranging from Spanish-language driver’s education to English-proficiency classes. This fall, the group handed out Thanksgiving turkeys in Florida. Other organizations controlled by the Kochs are offering “healthy life style” tips to low-income Americans, such as advice on cooking inexpensive nutritious meals. Koch Industries and Charles Koch’s private foundation have donated twenty-five million dollars to the United Negro College Fund; much of the money has been earmarked for educating black students who are interested in studying “how entrepreneurship, economics, and innovation contribute to well-being.”
Whether you agree with them or not, they do recognize that wealth inequality is a societal problem and they are doing something constructive about it. As are many other ultra-wealthy people, all of whom seem to have a Foundation voluntarily to redistribute some of their own wealth to others.
