Income Inequality Is a Bullshit Political Issue

Libertarianism for Normal People

Throughout the past few years, and especially the last election, the term “income inequality” has been tossed around with great regularity. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren say it so much it’s like a form of Tourette’s Syndrome.

The basic idea is that some people earn less than others (some a lot less). There are all these millionaires and billionaires, and the fact that they hold a large portion of the world’s wealth, and that is supposed to mean that there is theft on a grand scale afoot. Now, we’re certainly not going to deny that there are corporations and individuals receiving tax dollars in the form of crony capitalism, but that says more about the political system than any sort of free market system.

Regardless, the income inequality issue is seen in the sense of a zero-sum game – some are poor because others are rich. What’s the problem with this way of thinking, and why is this issue actually not something on which to burn a lot of calories?

We talk about it in this episode