Economic Inequality—Populism’s Rallying Cry
27th April 2020
Populists on both the Left and Right have a narrative to push. According to this narrative, when economic inequality rises, the middle class suffers and the American dream dissipates. When the government combats inequality, conversely, the middle class rises and the American dream prospers. Let us call this the inequality fable. It is a tale the Left has been telling for over a century, though patriotic Americans on both sides of the aisle have been rallying around it with passionate intensity since the Great Recession of 2007, facts be damned.
All modern discussions of ‘economic inequality’ proceed from the axiom that ‘economic inequality’ is a Bad Thing and that the more of it you have the worse off things are. Nobody every takes the time to explain why this might be so; it’s simply assumed (hence my use of the term ‘axiom’).