Kevin Duffy on how the socialist sees inequality and wealth creation

Inequality is a blessing, not a problem.  Without it, specialization and trade (the division of labor) would not take place.  Trade, as long as it’s peaceful and voluntary, is mutually beneficial, win-win.  In other words, the more the merrier.  When the division of labor expands, good things happen, i.e. wealth increases. 

Of course, the distribution of this wealth will be uneven, depending on how adept individuals are at serving others.  But there’s nothing nefarious going on here.  In fact, entrepreneurs should be celebrated as they are the key drivers of human progress. 

Sadly, this is not how the socialist sees the world.  Instead, he sees a zero sum game, win-lose.  He assumes that those who accumulate great wealth must have stolen it from those who ended up with far less.  How, precisely, this theft takes place (when all transactions are voluntary), he can’t explain. 

Instead of forming a theory that models reality, the socialist bends reality to fit his theory. This is a fatal error, wreaking havoc on mankind, justifying government theft (win-lose) to correct an injustice that never existed.

~ Kevin Duffy, Quora answer, March 24, 2022

Stan Druckenmiller on the Fed and inequality

I don't think there's been any greater engine of inequality than the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States the last 11 years.

~ Stanley Druckenmiller, May, 2021

The New York Times on how to raise living standards

There isn’t a big mystery about how to reduce inequality and lift living standards for most Americans. Raising taxes on the wealthy, which are historically low, and devoting the money to everyone else would make a real difference.

~ The New York Times, May 2, 2021

Alexis de Tocqueville on man's passion for equality

There is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality that incites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.

~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
 

(Cited by Anthony Esolen in The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization, p. 229.)

Tom Woods on racial and ethnic differences

It's not just that we're dealing with toxic and irrational ideas. These are ideas that obviously lend themselves to government intervention. We need government intervention to reverse all these outcomes that we're told are unnatural and would not occur spontaneously. 

But the presumption that we would have equal outcomes for all groups is based in an extremely... juvenile, let's say, an approach to society that is so simplistic as to be juvenile. Because the different racial and ethnic groups in the United States differ in all sorts of ways. All sorts of ways that are completely benign. They differ in average age, for example. They differ in their geographical distribution across the country. They differ in their educational levels and they differ in their culture and their cultural values. And they differ in these ways that are so extraordinary that it would be astonishing if there were equal outcomes among groups, even assuming absolutely pure motives on the part of everybody involved. 

~ Tom Woods, "Political Correctness and Argument from Intimidation," Mises Institute speech, 7:00 mark, October 8, 2015

Bob Rodriguez on Joe Biden's plan to add addressing black inequality to Fed's mandate

There's one other aspect that concerns me. We have a presidential election coming up. People will be on one side or the other. Looking specifically at one item of Biden's economic plan, it would be to effectively add a third mission to the Federal Reserve’s mandate. The Fed would need to address Black/minority equity and unemployment. This would further politicize the Fed. If this were to occur, I believe it would raise anxiety among many of our holders of Treasury securities, which total more than $7 trillion. If they decided to reduce their holdings, like what has been occurring over the course of the past year, this could put additional pressure on the dollar. It would also likely mean the Federal Reserve would have to be the buyer of last resort. This could increase the size of the Fed’s balance sheet even more so beyond the deficits that will occur over the next five years.

~ Bob Rodriguez, "Bob Rodriguez: We are in a Rolling Depression," by Robert Huebscher, Advisor Perspectives, September 7, 2020

Peter Buffett on charity and inequality

Because of who my father is, I’ve been able to occupy some seats I never expected to sit in. Inside any important philanthropy meeting, you witness heads of state meeting with investment managers and corporate leaders. All are searching for answers with their right hand to problems that others in the room have created with their left. There are plenty of statistics that tell us that inequality is continually rising. At the same time, according to the Urban Institute, the nonprofit sector has been steadily growing. Between 2001 and 2011, the number of nonprofits increased 25 percent. Their growth rate now exceeds that of both the business and government sectors. It’s a massive business, with approximately $316 billion given away in 2012 in the United States alone and more than 9.4 million employed. 

Philanthropy has become the “it” vehicle to level the playing field and has generated a growing number of gatherings, workshops and affinity groups. 

As more lives and communities are destroyed by the system that creates vast amounts of wealth for the few, the more heroic it sounds to “give back.” It’s what I would call “conscience laundering” — feeling better about accumulating more than any one person could possibly need to live on by sprinkling a little around as an act of charity. 

But this just keeps the existing structure of inequality in place. The rich sleep better at night, while others get just enough to keep the pot from boiling over. Nearly every time someone feels better by doing good, on the other side of the world (or street), someone else is further locked into a system that will not allow the true flourishing of his or her nature or the opportunity to live a joyful and fulfilled life.

~ Peter Buffett, "The Charitable-Industrial Complex," The New York Times, July 26, 2013

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on human differences, equality and freedom

Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.

~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Lew Rockwell on the value of inequality (human differences)

A libertarian is perfectly at peace with the universal phenomenon of human difference. He does not wish it away, he does not shake his fist at it, he does not pretend not to notice it. It affords him another opportunity to marvel at a miracle of the market: its ability to incorporate just about anyone into the division of labor.

Indeed the division of labor is based on human difference. Each of us finds that niche that suits our natural talents best, and by specializing in that particular thing we can most effectively serve our fellow man. Our fellow man, likewise, specializes in what he is best suited for, and we in turn benefit from the fruits of his specialized knowledge and skill.

~ Lew Rockwell, "The Menace of Egalitarianism," speech given at Dallas-Ft. Worth Mises Circle, October 3, 2015

Jerome Powell on inequality and monetary policy

Inequality is something that’s been with us increasingly for more than four decades and it’s not really related to monetary policy.

~ Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve chairman, June 10, 2020

World Economic Forum weighs in on gender inequality

Gender inequality is one of the biggest problems in modern societies. Holding back the potential of half the world’s population has huge consequences on our societies, economies, and businesses. The World Economic Forum has released its annual Global Gender Gap Report 2020, which ranks 153 countries based on their progress towards gender equality.

~ Vikas Shulka, "Top 10 most gender equal countries: Nordic nations lead," ValueWalk, December 17, 2019

(Economic basket cases Cuba, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh all get slightly higher scores than the U.S., and Singapore.)

Frank Chodorov on inequality and freedom

Freedom is essentially a condition of inequality, not equality.  It recognizes as a fact of nature the structural differences inherent in man - in temperament, character, and capacity - and it respects those differences.  We are not alike and no law can make us so.

~ Frank Chodorov

Pope Francis on inequality

Inequality is the root of social evil.

~ Pope Francis