The Income-Inequality Myth | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

The Income-Inequality Myth | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: 'Poverty, of course, is a bad thing. But is inequality? After all, if we doubled everyone's income tomorrow, we would eliminate an enormous amount of economic hardship. Yet, inequality would actually increase. As Margaret Thatcher said about those who obsess over inequality, "So long as the [income] gap is smaller, they would rather have the poor poorer."

In what way does someone else's success harm me?'

'But as Nobel Prize–winning economist Gary Becker pointed out, "It would be hard to motivate most people if everyone had the same earnings, status, prestige, and other rewards."

Another Nobel Prize winner, F. A. Hayek, concluded, "The rapid economic advance that we have come to expect seems to be in large measure a result of this inequality and to be impossible without it. Progress at such a fast rate cannot take place on a uniform front but must take place in an echelon fashion, with some far in front of the rest."'