Inequality against freedom By Chris Dillow
- inequality is the enemy of freedom.
- He points out that Denmark –the sort of country Sanders wants the US to be more like – has greater economic freedom than the US.
- My chart plots a measure of income inequality (taken from the World Bank) against the Heritage Foundation ’s index of business freedom...There is a slight negative correlation between them, of 0.16.
- Inequality doesn’t just reduce freedom for workers . It reduces freedom for business owners too.
- Spiegazioni
- 1. countries that want to tax and redistribute must have a healthy economy, which requires business freedom.
- 2. many of the rich have no interest in economic freedom.... This, I suspect, explains why inequality and unfreedom go together in Latin America,
- 3. people have a strong urge for fairness. If they cannot achieve this through market forces, they’ll demand it via the ballot box in the form of state regulation....there is a negative correlation between union density and minimum wages:
- We should, though, ask: what sort of egalitarian institutions and policies might increase freedom?
- For me, the answer is clear: those which increase workers’bargaining power.
- if workers have the power to bargain for better wages and conditions, and the real freedom to reject exploitative demands from bosses, then we’ll not need so much business regulation.
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