Income redistribution is a valid goal of taxation -- not because the government needs to tax the rich to fund the poor (the government can fund whatever it wants since it issues the currency) but because tax policy can reduce the types of extreme inequality that cause instability.
When people become wildly rich, they often misattribute that success to their own hard work, ignoring the social conditions that made their success possible, and the role that "good fortune" plays in all such success stories. This talk by Michael Lewis is an excellent summary of why this "meritocratic mindset" is dangerous:
So yes, we should definitely address income inequality directly through tax policy.
We should also address the root causes of poverty, which are primarily lack of government will to pursue full employment since the Friedman/monetarist view of macro economics won out over the Keynsian economic theories during the supply side inflation caused by the oil shocks in the 1970s.
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Economic inequality is bad per se. Here's a good paper on the effects on economic stability of income inequality:
https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/upload...
Income redistribution is a valid goal of taxation -- not because the government needs to tax the rich to fund the poor (the government can fund whatever it wants since it issues the currency) but because tax policy can reduce the types of extreme inequality that cause instability.
When people become wildly rich, they often misattribute that success to their own hard work, ignoring the social conditions that made their success possible, and the role that "good fortune" plays in all such success stories. This talk by Michael Lewis is an excellent summary of why this "meritocratic mindset" is dangerous:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiQ_T5C3hIM
So yes, we should definitely address income inequality directly through tax policy.
We should also address the root causes of poverty, which are primarily lack of government will to pursue full employment since the Friedman/monetarist view of macro economics won out over the Keynsian economic theories during the supply side inflation caused by the oil shocks in the 1970s.