Gold and Economic Inequality

Mark Thornton
Mises Institute
Jun. 16, 2015

Inequality is a top news items for 2015 driven largely by the Baltimore riots, the minimum wage debate, Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and now the entry of socialist Bernie Sanders into the race for US president.

The Left wants more welfare, better schools, free college, enhanced job training, and more. The Right, in contrast, wants welfare reform, charter schools, tax reform — not to be confused with tax cuts — and use of the negative income tax.

Both sides get it wrong. Neither side understands economic inequality, nor what causes it to change. Recently I argued that the problem of urban blight is caused by too much government and the solution is to radically reduce government in key areas in order to create jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities. The same thing applies to economic inequality: tinkering with government policies in one direction or the other does not solve the problem.

Read More