Economic inequality is often equated with “the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.” But inequality doesn’t refer to poverty — it refers to the gap between what different people earn. Why should we care about the gap? Inequality critics like Bernie Sanders have an answer. But is it a good one?
The critics of income inequality say that CEO pay is too high, and that the government should fight inequality by limiting executive compensation. Don Watkins, co-author with Yaron Brook of the book Equal Is Unfair: America’s Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality, argues that successful CEOs deserve their pay — and that the attempts to limit their pay are unjust.
Equal Is Unfair: America’s Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality, by bestselling authors Don Watkins and Yaron Brook, is the first book to make the comprehensive case against inequality critics like Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Paul Krugman.
Today’s leading critics of economic inequality tell us that, unless we’re “privileged,” success is impossible, that the “have-nots” cannot rise through their own productive efforts, and that the desire for extraordinary success is greedy and immoral. In this talk, Don Watkins argues that these ideas are false and pernicious.
I’m not a huge golf fan — truth be told, I know next to nothing about the sport. But I nevertheless was fascinated by Tiger Woods’s recent interview with Time magazine, where he talked about the prospect of having to retire from golf at the age of 40 due to injury.
ARI Fellow Don Watkins reviews Thomas Piketty’s “new” book, The Economics of Inequality, in The Claremont Review of Books. In this book, Piketty tries to explain why he believes that economic inequality is a problem and what we should do about it.
What is the difference between economic inequality and poverty? What is political inequality? Is “equality of opportunity” more desirable than “equality of outcome”? Is inequality a threat to the American dream? These are only some of the issues covered in The Heartland Institute’s interview with ARI fellow Don Watkins.
