Thread: Inequality
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Old 02-17-2008, 08:26 AM   #30 (permalink)
loquitur
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Will, I'm with you. Even if you stipulate that economic well-being is a relevant measure, neither income nor consumption by itself will capture that concept adequately.

But if well-being is what we think is the relevant determinant, then income inequality or perhaps even wealth inequality, is not a particularly important factor. Some people are miserable even with all the doodads in the world, others are happy even in a hut. Different people are different - they have different abilities, different needs, different desires. My own feeling on this is that we should care if people have a roof over their heads, clothes on their bodies and basic nutrition, but not whether they have a home that isn't as nice as someone else's, clothes that aren't as fancy or food that isn't as sumptuous.
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