How Much Inequality is Too Much?

The topic of inequality was already a big part of the discussion when Thomas Piketty's new book came out, which is full of statistics showing how serious the problem is and how much harm it does.  Many conservatives are trying to tell us that it's not a problem at all, but their arguments have so far fallen flat in the face of the evidence.   Most of them boil down to namecalling of Piketty and other who would like to see more equality.  The most common is to call him a Marxist.   Piketty himself invited this by the choice of the name for his book: Capital in the 21st Century, an obvious reference to Marx's 19th century tome Capital.  The namecallers are both right and wrong to make the comparison.  First of all, it's unlikely they've read Capital.  It's a very large book and covers a great many topics.   Revolutionary Communism is not one of them, although class differentiation and struggle is. The field of Sociology was largely inspired by it.  Piketty points out that the problems Marx was highlighting are still present, in some ways worse, although they are manifested in some different ways.

Inequality is unavoidable, and to some degree a good thing.  There have been very few truly egalitarian societies, and virtually all of them have existed inside a larger society.  Examples include the Kibbutzim of Israel and the hippie communes of the late 1960s and 70s.  If you weren't happy, it was fairly easy to leave, and in most cases, a large fraction of the economy came from outside.  The Pilgrims who came to Plymouth in 1620 wrote a compact which committed them to a high degree of equality and sharing, but as most often happens in such situations, they too had a small number of very dominant leaders.  There have been very many religious communes--the Moonies, the Rajneesh, the Hare Krishna, the Mormons, many more, who attempted to follow this prototype.   As far as I know, all of them are exploitative and completely dominated by a strong leader, frequently controlling through brainwashing.   Massachusetts became a much better place to live once enough settlers had come to make it possible to leave and start your own community when you didn't like the way things were going in the old one.

The societies which have attempted high degrees of equality--from each according to ability, to each according to need--have almost always become highly oppressive.  It is easier for a less-than-talented leader to drive down those who achieve a little more than to take advantage of the opportunity to raise everybody else up.   But the opposite extreme is just as bad.  If a small number are allowed to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else, everyone else will eventually starve to death.   There's an optimal level.  Nobody should starve, suffer from curable disease, be prevented from trying to better their lot.  All of these things are commonplace in many societies today, including the United States of America.  Another thing that is happening is that a few of the very, very rich are attempting to buy control of the US government. 

We need to ratchet up our national safety net to the point that this stops happening.  campaign finance regulation is one place to start.  The Roberts court has taken a committed, consistent pro-corruption position, which much be reversed and severely repudiated.  Another is FDR's Four Freedoms and approach to implementing them, which he called the "Second Bill of Rights".   The freedoms are: Freedom of Speech and Worship, Freedom From Want and Fear.  The rights he enumerated:

• a remunerative, useful job.
• To earn enough for food, clothing and recreation.
• For every farmer to be able to earn a decent living.
• For all businesses, large and small, to be free of unfair competition such as monopoly or fraud.
• A decent home.
• Medical care.
• Security from the perils of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment.
• A good education. 

Mechanisms were put in place for several of these, notably social security, the GI bill, monopoly regulation and more, but they were unfinished, and the advocates of inequality have worked very hard to undermine what we have and prevent more from being done.

In my opinion, we need a society that supports all of these and more...I'd add convenient transportation, and clean air, water and food to the list.  I'd say that as long as we provide mechanisms that do all of this, and prevent corruption of government, then any remaining inequality is fine by me.