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There is nothing inherit to free markets that leads to the phenomena that you describe. It is artificial distortions of the market that lead to inequality thro

by ende 11y ago

There is nothing inherit to free markets that leads to the phenomena that you describe. It is artificial distortions of the market that lead to inequality through exclusive political connections to public spending projects, favoritism via regulatory capture, elitism via occupational licensing, and other acts of market interference that inject privilege into the system. Also as a side note, if you're going to carry on with this narrative you may wish to confine it to an intra-national context where wealth inequalities are indeed measurable, as opposed to bringing the 'millions of third world people' (actually billions) into the picture who have experienced unprecedented increases in standards of living due to the expansion of market economies over the past century. Wealth inequality is increasing within countries, it is decreasing between countries.

JulianMorrison 11y ago
I don't agree that there's nothing in a free market that creates inequality. Thought experiment. Random walk dollars among a population of anonymous nodes representing people, starting from an exactly equal allocation. You will get a distribution curve of poor, average, and rich. Now add a "the rich get richer" bias factor where the dollar walk is no longer random, but has a probability proportional to the existing heap. Now you get inequality. More people are poor, but the richest of the rich hold nearly all the dollars. Add redistributive tax and you can pull the inequality down, but the jitter in the system always creates some of it. I don't believe that the entirely of "the rich get richer" can be considered a distortion. It includes lawful things like improved access to investment. I also don't think that the "distortion" can be wished away; money is power over the use of resources, and thereby power over people. This includes the power to rig the law, assert monopolies, and control the machinery of the state, and always has done.

by ende 11y ago

JulianMorrison 11y ago

I don't agree that there's nothing in a free market that creates inequality. Thought experiment. Random walk dollars among a population of anonymous nodes representing people, starting from an exactly equal allocation. You will get a distribution curve of poor, average, and rich. Now add a "the rich get richer" bias factor where the dollar walk is no longer random, but has a probability proportional to the existing heap. Now you get inequality. More people are poor, but the richest of the rich hold nearly all the dollars. Add redistributive tax and you can pull the inequality down, but the jitter in the system always creates some of it. I don't believe that the entirely of "the rich get richer" can be considered a distortion. It includes lawful things like improved access to investment. I also don't think that the "distortion" can be wished away; money is power over the use of resources, and thereby power over people. This includes the power to rig the law, assert monopolies, and control the machinery of the state, and always has done.