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And my point is that there's no reason "wealth inequality" is something you'd want to prevent unless your goal was to make the rich poorer. I completely apprec
by bhupy 5y ago
And my point is that there's no reason "wealth inequality" is something you'd want to prevent unless your goal was to make the rich poorer.
I completely appreciate that you may think it's a worthwhile cause (or not, who am I to ascribe your views), but I'm just pointing out that it's worth separating "making the poor richer" from "making the rich poorer"; as you rightly pointed out, they are different goals. Some people even want both!
Among those that adopt zero-sum thinking, there has unfortunately been a conflation of the two aims by suggesting that the only way to make the poor richer is to make the rich poorer. What I am pointing out is that not everyone adopts this zero-sum thinking, and the best way to identify whether one does is by asking the question: "is the goal to make the poor richer, or the rich poorer?".
Based on your argumentation, I concede that a more complete question is "is the goal to make the poor richer, the rich poorer, or both?". Many folks are in column A, many in B, and many in C. Until we acknowledge that, we're just shouting talking points past each other based on assumed moral premises.
- HWR_14 5y agoOkay, I think we're on the same page. I misinterpreted your original post as denying C existed, and therefore trying to set up a dilemma for people in column C (both) where they had to pick either poor richer or rich poorer. I find that most people want the poor to become richer, but whether to make the rich poorer or not is a pretty debated point.