Fixing Inequality
Low-income people enjoy much more leisure than do high-income people, no matter how you measure it. Steven Landsburg provides an overview of these data and then says that if we want to fix income inequality, we should also want to fix leisure inequality:
[A] certain class of pundits and politicians are quick to see any increase in income inequality as a problem that needs fixing—usually through some form of redistributive taxation. Applying the same philosophy to leisure, you could conclude that something must be done to reverse the trends of the past 40 years—say, by rounding up all those folks with extra time on their hands and putting them to (unpaid) work in the kitchens of their "less fortunate" neighbors. If you think it's OK to redistribute income but repellent to redistribute leisure, you might want to ask yourself what—if anything—is the fundamental difference.If blogging is work, I have very little leisure time.
Category: Blogging, Economics, Gubmnt Posted on
Sunday, March 11, 2007 at 1:10pm
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Beyond such brilliant insight I may add that one story consistent with inequality of income and inequality of leisure in the opposite direction is the one where people have pretty much the same preferences and where inequality is driven by productivity, more specifically by differences in schooling/human capital.
The Left is just going to love that! :-) No evil corporations, no labor monopsony, no vast Right Wing conspiracy?