In this excellent essay, Professor Arthur Brooks dissects the argument that populists like John Edwards are currently using that it’s necessary for the federal government to do even more of its favorite sport of redistributing wealth because inequality makes people so unhappy.
Here’s a nice taste of what Brooks has to say: “Finally, arguments against inequality legitimize envy. Americans may indeed have strong concerns about their relative incomes and may seek status as reflected in their economic circumstances. But to base our policies on the anxieties of those at the back of the status race is to bow before Invidia. A deadly sin is not, in my view, a smart blueprint for policymaking.”
