Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'Income distribution'

March 05, 2014

Why Attitudes About Competition Matter

In an excerpt from the splendid PovertyCure series, Michael Fairbanks offers a helpful bit on why our attitudes about competition matter for economic development: I can predict the future of a developing nation better than any IMF team of economists by asking one question: “Do you believe in competition?” Continue Reading...
February 19, 2014

The 1%: Who Are They Really?

The much-maligned 1%. Websites are devoted to getting them to spread their wealth. They are called self-pitying, greedy…just all-around bad folk. Really? In today’s Wall Street Journal, James Piereson says the 1% are actually hard-working people like the rest of us. Continue Reading...
January 29, 2014

What Every Christian Should Know About Income Inequality

In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama has signaled that income inequality will be his domestic focus during the remainder of his term in office. The fact that the president considers income inequality, rather than employment or economic growth, to be the most important economic issue is peculiar, though not really surprising. Continue Reading...
July 25, 2013

6 Bad Arguments About Income Inequality

Earlier this week I claimed you rarely hear progressives argue that income inequality is a problem since for them it just is an injustice. But there’s another reason you rarely hear them make arguments about why income inequality is morally wrong: their actual arguments are terrible. Continue Reading...
February 15, 2013

Would Hayek Have Supported Obamacare?

“You can be for markets without being against redistribution,” says Erik Angner, a philosophy professor at George Mason University. Angner argues that the Nobel-winning economist Friedrich Hayek offers an alternative to contemporary liberals and leftists on the one hand and conservatives and libertarians on the other. Continue Reading...
October 15, 2012

Redistribution and the Sacred Right of Property

“Scandinavian economies are some of the most market-oriented on the planet” says economist Scott Sumner, who adds “Denmark is the most market-oriented country on earth.” This peculiar claim is even more curious considering that it is based on the Heritage Foundation’s 2012 Index of Economic Freedom. Continue Reading...
August 28, 2012

What Causes Wealth (and Dishonesty and Greed)?

A recent national Pew Research Center survey has found conflicting opinions regarding many Americans’ view of the rich: As Republicans gather for their national convention in Tampa to nominate a presidential candidate known, in part, as a wealthy businessman, a new nationwide Pew Research Center survey finds that many Americans believe the rich are different than other people. Continue Reading...
August 27, 2012

Who Counts as Middle Class?

As the Presidential debates draw near, there is one question that tops my wish list of questions that should (but won’t be) asked of the candidates: What income range constitutes “middle class”? Continue Reading...